First Things RSS Feed - Theodore Dalrymple https://www.firstthings.com/author/theodore-dalrymple en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:55:18 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/theodore-dalrymple 60 Kafka’s Trials https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/06/kafkas-trials https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/06/kafkas-trials Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0400

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]]> What Happened in the French Election https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/04/what-happened-in-the-french-election https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/04/what-happened-in-the-french-election Wed, 27 Apr 2022 06:00:00 -0400 When a man who is widely disliked or even hated wins a political election by a crushing majority, there are two possibilities: Either the electorate is sufficiently mature to understand that an election is not a beauty contest, or the other candidate is even more widely disliked and hated. The latter was certainly the case in the second round of the French election, held on Sunday, in which Emmanuel Macron was re-elected president of France. At best, this brought relief rather than joy. Macron’s somewhat subdued victory speech suggested that he was aware of this himself.

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]]> Houellebecq's Omelette https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/05/houellebecqs-omelette https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/05/houellebecqs-omelette Sun, 01 May 2022 00:00:00 -0400 Anéantir
by michel houellebecq
 flammarion, 736 pages, $29

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]]> The Fall of Dr. Raoult https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/12/the-fall-of-dr-raoult https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/12/the-fall-of-dr-raoult Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0500 Nothing stimulates the emergence of a guru like a crisis, especially one to which the correct response is far from clear. People want simple, reassuring answers. They eagerly suspend their critical faculties; their wishes are father to their beliefs. A good guru can transform the proudest skeptic into a believer.

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]]> Catastrophism and Control https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/catastrophism-and-control https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/catastrophism-and-control Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:00:00 -0400 Épidémies:
vrais dangers et fausses alertes
 by didier raoult
michel lafon, 160 pages, €8.99

The Rules of Contagion:
Why Things Spread—and Why They Stop
 by adam kucharski
basic, 352 pages, $30

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]]> Identity as Ideology https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/02/identity-as-ideology https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/02/identity-as-ideology Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500 Like many persons possessing limited insight into the future, I had supposed that, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, utopianism would die out in the Western world. I was mistaken. Identity politics in the West is veering in the direction of totalitarianism. A book I read ­recently, Jusqu’à Raqqa: Avec les Kurdes contre Daech (“Until Raqqa: With the Kurds against Daesh”), by André Hébert, helps explain why. The author—who for obvious reasons uses a pseudonym—is a young Parisian from a bourgeois Catholic family who became a convinced Marxist at the age of fourteen, and has remained one for sixteen years until the present day.

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]]> France Fractured https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/12/france-fractured https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/12/france-fractured Sun, 01 Dec 2019 06:00:00 -0500 L’archipel français:
naissance d’une nation multiple et divisée
 by jérôme fourquet
le seuil, 384 pages, 22€

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]]> Crimes in Concrete https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/06/crimes-in-concrete https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/06/crimes-in-concrete Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400 Making Dystopia:
The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism
 by james stevens curl
 oxford, 592 pages, $60

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]]> Letter to an Aspiring Doctor https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/12/letter-to-an-aspiring-doctor https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/12/letter-to-an-aspiring-doctor Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0500 You tell me you are thinking, my dear Stephen, of medicine as a career, but you wonder whether you have the ability or the temperament for it. You say that you have wanted to be a doctor ever since your family practitioner visited you at home as a child when you had severe tonsillitis. He seemed a hero to you then, and you would like to emulate him.

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]]> Rare and Common Sense https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/11/rare-and-common-sense https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/11/rare-and-common-sense Wed, 01 Nov 2017 00:00:00 -0400 Simon Leys:
Navigator Between Worlds
 by philippe paquet
translated by julie rose
 la trobe, 720 pages, $59.99

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