First Things RSS Feed - Samuel Goldman https://www.firstthings.com/author/samuel-goldman en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:52:53 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/samuel-goldman 60 The Spymaster https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/03/the-spymaster https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/03/the-spymaster Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0500 A Legacy of Spies
 by john le carré
viking, 272 pages, $28

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]]> Lamb to the Slaughter https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/lamb-to-the-slaughter https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/lamb-to-the-slaughter Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400 George Frazier had a story about the first time he met John O’Hara. The journalist and clotheshorse Frazier was introduced to the novelist O’Hara while hanging out at a Greenwich Village jazz club. The famously cranky O’Hara looked Frazier up and down before inviting him to have a drink. “You’re welcome at my table,” he announced. “You’re wearing a Brooks Brothers shirt.”

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]]> The Losers' Elegist https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/the-losers-elegist https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/the-losers-elegist Sun, 01 May 2016 00:00:00 -0400 Russell Kirk: American Conservative
by bradley j. birzer
kentucky, 608 pages, $34.95

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]]> Harvard and the Humanities https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/01/harvard-and-the-humanities https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/01/harvard-and-the-humanities Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0500 Harvard professors do a bad job of holding on to freshmen. In the last eleven incoming classes, the percentage of aspiring humanists has dropped from 27 to 18 percent, and more than half of that 18 percent who began with the humanities ended up in a different division, mostly social science. Why do they head for the exits? Although it acknowledges the prestige of the natural sciences and the pressure students feel to find jobs, a report by the university’s Arts and Humanities Division identifies the real problem: They don’t like the classes.

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]]> Divided We Stand https://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/10/divided-we-stand https://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/10/divided-we-stand Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0400 The history of the French Revolution would prove that many of the ­revolutionaries were more loyal to their local traditions and authorities than to the ­government in Paris, and in the decades following the Revolution, theorists on the left ­increasingly replaced the Enlightenment’s ­universalist claims with arguments­ ­taking ­difference and conflict as their point of departure. The ­Communist ­Manifesto is the classic document of this new approach, in which the unity of mankind serves as a goal but the present reality is one of ?class struggle.

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]]> Rawls: A Partial Defense https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/rawls-a-partial-defense https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/05/rawls-a-partial-defense Sun, 09 May 2010 12:08:17 -0400

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]]> Of Parties and Populists https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/04/of-parties-and-populists https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/04/of-parties-and-populists Sat, 17 Apr 2010 10:39:43 -0400

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]]> Dutch Courage https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/04/dutch-courage https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/04/dutch-courage Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:34:10 -0400

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]]> Alphabet City https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/03/alphabet-city https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/03/alphabet-city Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:44:17 -0400

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]]> A Sprawling Debate https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/03/a-sprawling-debate https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/03/a-sprawling-debate Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:56:39 -0400

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