Titles We Didn't Choose — March 2016

Today we released the March 2016 edition of First Things on our website. For the amusement of readers (and the delight of anyone who likes to get a glimpse behind the curtain), I have compiled some of the also-ran titles: headings for pieces that were suggested at our titles meeting but nixed for . . . . Continue Reading »

Our Mighty Rearguard

In his dissent to the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Windsor, Justice Antonin Scalia took a moment to describe how the majority ruling, which struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, characterizes those who would dispute it: In the majority’s judgment, any resistance to its . . . . Continue Reading »

Bring Courtship Back

Staring down the barrel of Valentine’s Day, many young men and women have few and scanty models of what a romantic relationship looks like—especially (though not exclusively!) young people of faith interested in chastity and marriage. The Love and Fidelity Network has set out to #BringDatingBack . . . . Continue Reading »

Forgetting Social Justice

Last week at First Things we were very happy to host Michael Novak and Paul Adams as they discussed their new book on social justice. One of the themes Novak and Adams touched on in their presentations was how poorly Americans today seem to understand the concept of social justice. On both left and . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 2.12.16

Interceding Discreetly
Br. Barnabas McHenry, O. P. , Dominicana

Take a Look at the Mental Junk Food Colleges Assign Students
Peter W. Wood, Federalist

Persisting in Prayer with the Caritas Podcast
Leah Libresco, Patheos

On the Right to the Most Ideal Life Possible
Melinda Selmys, Aleteia

My Secret Life as a Forbidden Second Child in China
Karoline Kan, Foreign Policy

The Little Sisters of the Poor on Why They Can't “Just Sign the Form”
Sister Constance Veit, L. S. P., Catholic Review

We Are Hopelessly Hooked
Jacob Weisberg, New York Review of Books

Nicholas Sparks and the Evils of Banality
Heather Havrilesky, Book Forum

What We've Been Reading—2.12.16

Francesca Murphy On the night after the actor Alan Rickman died, I watched the version of Sense and Sensibility in which he plays Colonel Brandon. What a beautiful movie, and what a wonderful performance he gives. Since then I have been reading Sense and Senibility on my kindle. Jane Austen was . . . . Continue Reading »

The Disconnected Establishment

Rod Dreher recently posted excerpts of a letter from one of his readers. It was an extended, largely negative assessment of my analysis of our political moment, “An Abandoned White Middle Class.” There I argued that the changing nature of our leadership class explains the populist rebellion, at . . . . Continue Reading »

Shakespeare Through Anecdotes

Did you hear the one where . . . ?

Paul Menzer has heard it. He’s heard the one with the drunk Richard III, the one with the fat Ghost of Hamlet’s Father stuck in the trapdoor, the one with the father–daughter pair playing Romeo and ­Juliet, the one where Othello’s makeup rubs off on Desdemona’s face to give her a beard. In fact, he’s probably heard several variations on any given Shakespearean anecdote, a handful verifiable, but most patently recycled, exaggerated, or apocryphal—yet in a different sense, in Menzer’s paradoxical view, no less true. Continue Reading »