What’s New

“Exploits of the Ex-Presidents,” Washington Free Beacon, 10 March 2024. (Jared Cohen, Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search For Purpose Beyond the White House).

“President Jake,” The Spectator, March 2024, pp. 43-45. (Alexander Ward, The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump).

“His Father’s Son,” Pittsburgh Quarterly, Winter 2024, pp. 82-87. (Patti Hartigan, August Wilson: A Life).

“What MLK Understood About ‘Anti-Zionism,'” Wall Street Journal, 30-31 December 2023, p. A12.

“Spectator World Books of the Year 2023,” The Spectator, December 2023, pp. 44-45.

“The Hidden History of Civil Rights,” Wall Street Journal, 28-29 October 2023, pp. C7-C8. (Dylan C. Penningroth, Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights).

“Decline and Fall,” The Spectator, October 2023, pp. 46-47. (Christopher Rufo, America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything).

“Anxiety of Influence,” The Spectator, August 2023, pp. 50-51. (Seth A. Mirski, We May Dominate the World: Ambition, Anxiety and the Rise of the American Colossus).

“The Originalist and the Masses,” Wall Street Journal, 20 July 2023, p. A15. (Amul Thapar, The People’s Justice).

“Dr. King in Full,” The Spectator, May 2023, pp. 44-45. (Jonathan Eig, King: A Life).

“Hoover Damned,” The Spectator, February 2023, pp. 44-45. (Beverly Gage, G-Man, & Paul Letersky, The Director).

“Willfully Blind Justice,” Wall Street Journal, 7-8 January 2023, pp. C7-C8. (Margaret A. Burnham, By Hands Now Known).

“On Abortion, John Roberts Stands Alone,” Wall Street Journal, 27 June 2022, p. A17.

“Queer Streets,” The Spectator, July 2022, pp. 44-45. (James Kirchick, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington)

“Justice Alito’s Originalist Triumph,” Wall Street Journal, 5 May 2022, p. A17.

“How Black Was the Obama Presidency?,” Spectator World, 16 December 2021. (Claude A. Clegg III, The Black President).

Review of Thomas Aiello, The Life and Times of Louis Lomax, for the Georgia Historical Quarterly 105 (Fall 2021): 243-46.

“Abortion Providers, This Is Your Chance to Make History Again,” Houston Chronicle, 5 September 2021.

“Has Roe v. Wade Met Its Match?,” Wall Street Journal, 30 July 2021, p. A15.

“Best Books on the Black American Freedom Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s,” Shepherd.com, 15 June 2021.

“The Right to Abortion and the Bush-Trump Federal Courts,” Balkinization, 1 February 2021.

Review of Nancy K. Bristow, Steeped in the Blood of Racism, for the Journal of Mississippi History 82 (Fall/Winter 2020): 233-34.

“‘No. No. No.’ Obama Said, But He Went On Anyway,” The American Prospect, 14 December 2020. (Barack Obama, A Promised Land).

“The Spectator’s Books of the Year 2020,” The Spectator, 4 December 2020.

“The Unlikely Miracle of Trump’s Presidency,” The Critic, 2 October 2020. (Bob Woodward, Rage).

“Kamala Obama?,” Spectator USA, 15 August 2020.

“Obama’s Disappearing Legacy,” The Spectator, August 2020, p. 17.

“The Man Who Exposed the Watchers,” The Critic, July-August 2020, pp. 70-72. (Barton Gellman, Dark Mirror, and Edward Snowden, Permanent Record).

“Obama’s Airbrushed Dreams,” The Critic, March 2020, pp. 54-57.

“A Journalist’s Long Quest to Bring Civil Rights Era Murderers to Justice,”  Washington Post, 16 February 2020, p. B7. (Jerry Mitchell, Race Against Time).

‘Multiple Levels of Hearsay Upon Hearsay,’Wall Street Journal, 16 December 2019, p. A19.

“When Your Father’s Tied to Hoffa and the Mob,” Washington Post Book World, 17 November 2019, p. B6. (Jack Goldsmith, In Hoffa’s Shadow).

“Enhancing the Historical Record Is Scholars’ Foremost Task, No Matter Where It May Lead,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9 June 2019, p. A18.

“The Troubling Legacy of Martin Luther King,” Standpoint, June 2019, pp. 30-37.

“Barack Obama,” in Brian Lamb & Susan Swain, The Presidents (New York: Public Affairs, 2019), pp. 150-61.

“Looking Back at Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Telos 182 (Spring 2018): 195-213. (With Kenneth D. Johnson)

“Foreword” to Patrick Parr, The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age (Chicago Review Press, 2018), pp. ix-x.

“When King Met Graham,” The Economist, 17 March 2018, p. 18.

“Democrats and FBI Abuses,” Wall Street Journal, 6 February 2018, p. A19.

“The Meaning of Montgomery,” Case Western Reserve Law Review 67 (Summer 2017): 1045-53.

“We Shall Overcome and the Southern Black Freedom Struggle,” We Shall Overcome Foundation v. The Richmond Organization, #16CV2725, USDC SDNY, 14 April 2017.

“When Martin Luther King Came Out Against Vietnam,” New York Times, 4 April 2017.

The Intel Chiefs Did to Trump What Hoover Did to MLK,” Washington Post, 18 January 2017.

“Ruling Out Senility On the Bench,” Los Angeles Times, 2 February 2016, p. A11. (And Chicago Tribune, 4 February 2016).

The Tragedy of Stokely Carmichael,” Reviews in American History 43 (September 2015): 564-70.

When Domestic Terrorism Raged,” Washington Post, 5 April 2015, p. B6. (Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence).

The Mastermind Behind Obama’s Political Ascent,” Washington Post, 9 February 2015, p. B7. (David Axelrod, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics).

When the Court Ruled on Equal Representation,” Washington Post, 6 July 2014, p. B7. (J. Douglas Smith, On Democracy’s Doorstep).

How Roe v. Wade Was Written”, Washington and Lee Law Review 71 (Spring 2014): 893 – 924.

“The Obscure Heroes Behind Congress’s Great Moment,” The American Prospect 25 (May/June 2014): 85-87. (Todd Purdum, An Idea Whose Time Has Come, and Clay Risen, The Bill of the Century).

“Marching For Hope and Finding Ugliness,” Washington Post, 9 February 2014, p. B6. (Aram Goudsouzian, Down to the Crossroads & David L. Chappell, Waking From the Dream).

“Meet the Burglars Who Outsmarted Hoover’s FBI,” Washington Post, 26 January 2014, p. B1. (Betty Medsger, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI).

“Toward A Definitive History of Griggs v. Duke Power Co.,” Vanderbilt Law Review 67 (January 2014): 197-237.