Reviews

December 23, 2020

‘Hillbilly Elegy’: the choice to change vs. the choice to leave

J.D. Vance goes from washing and reusing plastic forks at home to posh dinners with seven utensils per setting. The new Netflix film adaptation of his memoir catches the details of knives and forks but misses the “meat” of Vance’s story. Continue Reading...

December 15, 2020

Should the U.S. abolish the Electoral College?

The Electoral College met on Monday to cast the decisive votes in the 2020 presidential election. This year’s vote was not without controversy, a reality that has engulfed the constitutionally mandated election system since its founding. Continue Reading...

February 05, 2020

Acton Institute ranks among world’s best in 2019 think tank report

A report on the global impact of think tanks has ranked the Acton Institute among the world’s most influential thought leaders. The University of Pennsylvania released its “2019 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report” last Friday. Continue Reading...

January 20, 2020

2019 Best sellers: Surprises in the Acton Book Shop

Book sales data is hard to come by. Publishers keep their sales numbers close to their chest. The information is valuable. It shapes which authors, designers and editors publishers cultivate as well as which topics, genres and formats they invest in. Continue Reading...

July 08, 2019

James Wilson Institute interviews Samuel Gregg about new book

The James Wilson Institute’s Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker and intern Jake Rinear recently conducted an interview with Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, about his new book “Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization.” Continue Reading...

June 10, 2019

Eric Hobsbawm revisited

The life of the late British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is subject of Richard J. Evans’ newest book Eric Hobsbawm – A Life in History (2019). Evans is a scholar of Nazi Germany and like Hobsbawm, a former professor at Cambridge University. Continue Reading...

June 04, 2019

HBO’s ‘Chernobyl‘: A scathing rebuke of Soviet secrecy

In case you missed it, the final episode of the highly acclaimed five-part HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” aired last night. When the credits rolled, I let out a pent-up breath that I didn’t know that I was holding in and slumped back in my seat, finally able to relax. Continue Reading...

April 22, 2019

Malaysian High Court upholds ban on Mustafa Akyol’s ‘Islam without Extremes’

The Malaysian High Court has upheld the previous Malaysian government’s ban on three books including Mustafa Akyol’s ‘Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty’. Akyol is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, where he focuses on public policy, Islam, and modernity. Continue Reading...

September 06, 2018

Alejandro Chafuen on Real Nazis in Argentina

Acton’s Alejandro Chafuen weighed-in at Forbes on the new Hollywood movie about the arrest and eventual trial of Nazi Adolph Eichman, Operation Finale. The movie is more than a historical reenactment for Chafuen, who recounts in his essay that a notorious Nazi once inhabited the Argentine neighborhood where Chafuen lived for 30 years. Continue Reading...

August 24, 2018

Why Adam Smith is the self-help guru you didn’t know you needed

The Book: How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts The Gist: Roberts, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, explains the ideas behind Adam’s Smith’s forgotten classic, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Continue Reading...

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