A World Without Rules?

by George Weigel

Want to know what a world without order, a world in which even tacit rules are flouted with seeming impunity, looks like? Continue Reading »

26 Oct 2022

Benevolent Autocrat

by Helen Andrews

The sinister character ­Salazar Slytherin, of Harry Potter fame, was named after Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, prime minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, whom J. K. Rowling had learned to revile during her two years living in Porto in the early nineties. By contrast, the American . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2021

The Caudillo

by Peter Hitchens

Franco:  Anatomy of a Dictator by enrique moradiellos i.b.tauris, 264 pages, $30 Not long after the successful Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944, Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain, removed a photograph of Adolf ­Hitler from his desk in the Pardo Palace in Madrid. He promptly replaced . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2019

Into the Swamp

by Eve Tushnet

Alberto Rodríguez's film “Marshland” is a haunting combination of detective tale and truth-and-reconciliation case study.  Continue Reading »

21 Aug 2017

American Caesar

by The Editors

The First Things Podcast, Episode 11. Also featuring: the true fantasy of T. H. White and the bad style advice of E. B. White (no relation). Continue Reading »

23 Sep 2016