Saturday Good Reads

Michael Anton, a lecturer at Hillsdale College and a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, reviews a book on America’s founding by Thomas West. It is a long-form review, an essay as much as it is a review, and it’s about how we all get it wrong about America’s founding and America’s founders.

Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition writes about the problems of polls, and especially polls involving what evangelicals think or don’t think (he takes issue with one published by USA Today). I’m reminded once again how all the political polls got the 2016 election exactly wrong.

Adam Ford was the founding editor of the The Babylon Bee, the satirical evangelical counterpart to The Onion. He tells a story about when the Facebook content police came looking for him the second time after Snopes claimed The Babylon Beehad published fake news. Snopes didn’t realize it was satire; the story went viral and Facebook was forced to apologize.

And before there was ISIS destroying cultural monuments, there was – the German army in World War I. James Clark at History Todayhas a sobering story about the destruction of medieval churches. 

And a lot more.

Writing and Literature

The Spiritual Art of Speechwriting– Rabbi Sais Taub at the European Speechwriters Conference (Hat Tip: David Murray).

In a World of Author Branding, What If You Want to Rebrand?– Ann Kroeker.

The Education of the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings– Andrew Seeley at The Imaginative Conservative.

Faith

Evangelicals and the Problems with Polls– Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition.

Does Following Jesus Lead to the Public Square?– Greg Ayers at The Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

Lessons from a Prayer Warrior– Mike Phay at Gospel-Centered Discipleship. 

Poetry

Peace on the Peninsula– Tim Good at The Naked Alien.

At John Keats’ House– Spitalfields Life.

Striped– Prasanta Verma at Altarwork.

History

War Among the Ruins– James Clark at History Today.

British Stuff

6^thCentury Britain – Questions without Answers– Gareth Griffith at English Historical Fiction Authors. 

Hot-beds of fake news and misogyny? The rise of the Coffee Shop in 17th century London– Kate Braithwaite at English Historical Fiction Authors.

American Stuff

Founding Philosophy– Michael Anton at New Criterion, reviewing The Political Theory of the American Foundingby Thomas West.

Roanoke: Secret Maps and the Search for a Lost Colony - How Art Historians Uncovered a Clue in a Centuries Old Mystery– Andrew Lawler at CrimeReads.

Life and Culture

When the Content Police Came for the Babylon Bee– Adam Ford at The American Conservative.

Who’s on the Right Side of History?– Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

Is Jordan Peterson on a Suicide Mission?– Grayson Quay at The American Conservative.

Watching Our Words in an Age of Outrage– Scott Slayton at One Degree to Another.

On Cultivating Friendship– E.D. at Image Journal.

Art and Photography

Peony Passion– Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.

In Fleet Street– Spitalfields Life.

Jerusalem – the Cadet Glee Club of West Point

Painting: Another World (Man Reading a Book in Public Library Amsterdam) by Gerard Boersma (2011).