Saturday Good Reads – June 6, 2026

A Chinese state photographer took the pictures. The film rolls were locked in a metal box. Somehow, the rolls made their way to the United States and placed in the hands of The Epoch Times. And now the photos on the films are being published – never-before-seen photographs of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. 

As we get closer to July 4, the stream of articles and posts about the 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution is becoming a flood. Keli Holt at Just Enough History writes about the fall of Philadelphia and that winter at Valley Forge. Yuval Levin at The Coolidge Review explains why 1776 was both radical and conservative. John Barnes at The Imaginative Conservative draws a line from Runneymede in 1215 to Philadelphia in 1776. If you’re in the mood, you can visit an exhibition that lets you tear down (virtually) a statue of George III. And you can find more links below.

 

Today is the 82^nd anniversary of D-Day. Two relatively little-known things helped make it possible. One was the Higgins boat, designed by a man who lived in my hometown of New Orleans. The other was a man named Juan Pujol Garcia, who went by the code name of “Garbo.”

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

In the Ranks of the Revolution: James Johnston’s War – Lori Amos Doss & Harred Marlowe at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Thomas Jefferson’s Last Wish – Jane Kamensky at The Free Press.

 

Five Great Books on the American Revolution – Thomas Kidd.

 

Virginia Leads the Way, All the Way – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

The Undoing of Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Language of Drought and Duty – Colin Gillette at Front Porch Republic.

 

American Stuff

 

Can We Restore the Republic? – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Long History of Gerrymandering in American Politics – Jerald Stubbs at Real Clear History.

 

Poetry

 

A Review of The Future of Love by John Poch – Benjamin Myers at New Verse Review.

 

Poetic Justices: The Poetry of United States Supreme Court Justices – Adam Sedia at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“Pied Beauty,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Welcome and Farewell – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Noble North – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Police policies must be reformed – David Spencer at The Critic Magazine.

 

Britain’s Reverse George Floyd Moment – Dominic Green at The Wall Street Journal (unlocked).

 

Faith

 

Strong to the End – Tim Challies.

 

Winston Churchill: Mentor for Our Times – Stephen Mansfield at Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

Sunday is Coming – Phil Wickham

 Painting: Oil Woman Reading a Book, oil on canvas by Pieter van den Bosch (1613-1673), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. 

Some Thursday Readings

The new edition of An Unexpected Journal is now online, and its 15 essays focus on modernity. Writers include Annie Nardone, Seth Myers, Jasmin Biggs, and many others. 

Murders for June – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Poet Laura: The Tapestry of Poetry – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“Bed in Summer,” poem by Robert Louis Stevenson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Pentecost and AI: Being Human in a World of Disabling Algorithms – Charles Cotherman at Front Porch Republic.

 

Not Taken – poem by David Whyte.

 

D-Day & the Battle for Normandy: A History & a Reflection – Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“To a Cicada” and “Fiona” – poems by Matin Rizley at Society of Classical Poets. 

 

Photograph: The first edition of A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

Saturday Good Reads

Oxford is less than an hour by train from London’s Paddington Station. We’ve visited Oxford five times, and if we return to London, we will also return to Oxford. The best bookstore on the planet (Blackwell’s) is located on Broad Street, and you could spend days in that place alone.

Oxford is also the setting for the Inspector Morse mysteries, which gave birth to the Inspector Lewis mysteries, which gave birth to the Endeavour mysteries. Morse and Lewis each had 33 episodes over several seasons; Endeavour is newer and has fewer but will likely exceed 33. But the city is also a setting for more than the Morse-Lewis-Endeavour mysteries. For example, did you know that Simon Tolkien, grandson of J.R.R., has published three historical mysteries set in Oxford? Paul French at CrimesReads has the story.

J.D. Vance, author of the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy, gave a speech at The American Conservative’s annual gala in Washington recently, and created something of a stir. He suggested the Republican Party redefine itself as a pro-worker, pro-family party. This raises all kinds of conservative issues – and not only those involving Donald Trump. You can read the full text of his speech at The American Conservative. I think he’s on to something.

More Good Reads

Faith

The 75th Anniversary of D-Day & the Extraordinary Providence of God – Eric Davis at The Cripplegate.

Poetry

The One Story of Robert Graves – David Mason at The Hudson Review.

The God who Speaks in Lyric Silences: Poet Temple Cone – Tom Darin Liskey at Literary Life.

Life List – Janet McCann via Kingdom Poets.

The Pen & the Spade: 'The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels' by Adam Nicolson – Nicholas Roe at Literary Review.

Reliquary (4 poems) – Kerry O’Connor at Skylover.

British Stuff

The London I loved: nostalgia for a dirty old town – Anne Margaret Daniel at Spectator USA.

Life and Culture

Abortion: Realpolitik, Kulturkampf, and Evangelization – John Médaille at Front Porch Republic.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest – Hannah Hubin at The Rabbit Room.

Virtue Signaling and Historical Presentism – Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition.

A Politics of Presence – Elizabeth Stice at Front Porch Republic.

Writing and Literature

Over Explaining – Janet Reid, Literary Agent.

"Word Hoard" and the Difficulties of Making Dialogue Authentic – Annie Whitehead at Casting Light upon the Shadow.

Reckoning: An Interview with Silas House – Rebecca Gayle Howell at Image Journal.

Next-Level Writer – Have You Emerged at the Next Level? – Ann Kroeker.

Is He Worthy? – Andrew Peterson

Painting: Girl Reading, oil on canvas (1850-1855) by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875).