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book reviews

In defense of academic book reviews

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

Here is historian Carolyn Eastman, the book review editor at the William and Mary Quarterly, at The Chronicle of Higher Education: Reviews can contain perfunctory writing, boring chapter-by-chapter summaries, and criticism so mild it’s almost imperceptible. But having just stepped...

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Chris Rufo: “Intellectual historian” or “intellectual bully”?

John Fea   |  August 8, 2023

Chris Rufo is a conservative activist whose claim to fame is an appearance on the old Tucker Carlson show on Fox News. That appearance caught the attention of then president Donald Trump. Since then, Rufo has become Ron DeSantis’s point...

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Cormac McCarthy inspires a consequential question: What is the worth of holy awe?

John Fea   |  June 16, 2023

One of America’s great novelists passed away this week. Here is National Public Radio: Cormac McCarthy, one of the great novelists of American literature, died Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 89. His...

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Paul Matzko completes his critical review of Stephen Wolfe’s book on Christian nationalism

John Fea   |  May 17, 2023

We wrote about Matzko’s review of Wolfe yesterday. Get up to speed here. But there’s more! Matzko turned to Twitter to finish the review: Nice work, Paul!...

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Check out Current‘s new “Reviews” section

John Fea   |  March 31, 2023

We publish a lot of book reviews in Current features section. For those of you who love books and ideas that come from books, we have gathered all of our reviews and placed them under the “Reviews” tag above. Enjoy!...

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Two divergent explanations of Southern inequality

John Fea   |  February 22, 2023

Over at Dissent, political scientist Jared Loggins reviews Adolph Reed’s The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives and Imani Perry’s South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation. (See my review of...

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Historian Michael Kazin reviews conservative pundit Mark Levin’s book on Marxism

John Fea   |  January 5, 2022

Michael Kazin is a history professor at Georgetown and former editor of Dissent. Some of you may recall his Current review of Anthea Butler’s White Evangelical Racism. Over at The Nation, Kazin reviews radio and Fox News personality Mark Levin’s...

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On book reviewing

John Fea   |  August 12, 2021

I’ve had a lot of great reviews of my books. (My favorite remains Lauren Winner’s review of The Way of Improvement Leads Home in Books & Culture). I’ve also had some bad reviews written by people who wished I had...

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Eric Miller reviews Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn’s Ars Vitae

John Fea   |  June 26, 2021

Eric Miller is editor of Current. Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn is a Current contributor. And some of you recall my podcast conversation with Lasch-Quinn in Episode 77 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. Here is a taste of Miller’s review...

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A critique of “Jesus and John Wayne”

John Fea   |  January 27, 2021

If social media is any indication, everyone loves Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne. The praise is merited. It’s a strong book that says things about the recent history of American evangelicalism that should have been said...

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*Reviews in American History* Is Now Free

John Fea   |  April 18, 2020

If you are an American historian or a reader of American history, Reviews in American History is a great way to stay current with the field. Project Muse is offering free access to this important journal until May. Learn more...

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Book Coverage is on the Rise

John Fea   |  December 11, 2018

As an author, I am happy to learn that media outlets are starting to devote a little more attention to books.  Sam Eichner tries to make sense of this rise in book coverage in an interesting piece at Columbia Journalism Review. ...

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Gordon Wood Strikes Again!

John Fea   |  November 29, 2018

I love reading Gordon Wood book reviews.  I don’t always agree with him, but sometimes I do.  Whether I agree with him or not, I must admit that I sometimes take guilty pleasure in watching him whip academic historians into...

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A Pietist Response to a Negative Book Review on Pietism

John Fea   |  January 11, 2018

I was intrigued today by Bethel University historian Chris Gehrz‘s response to Union University’s Nathan Finn’s review of his book The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity (co-authored with Mark Pattie).  The review appeared at The Gospel Coalition website....

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Review of Gideon Mailer’s *John Witherspoon’s American Revolution*

John Fea   |  July 18, 2017

My review of this important book is in the Summer 2017 issue of New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Here is a taste: Prior to John Witherspoon’s American Revolution, the received wisdom from historians of Witherspoon’s thought was that the Presbyterian...

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“The Coalition That Made American Independence Possible”

John Fea   |  June 14, 2017

Education and Culture: A Critical Review is running my review of Larrie Ferreiro’s Brothers in Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. Education and Culture is John Wilson’s new venture.  For over two decades Wilson edited Books and...

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“Education and Culture” Is Here!

John Fea   |  May 4, 2017

John Wilson‘s new venture, “Education & Culture: A Critical Review,” is now up and running at bestschools.org. Bookmark it and visit often. Many of you know John Wilson as the founder and only editor of the now defunct Books & Culture (1995-2016). With...

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Why Has This Blog Been Silent on Francis Fitzgerald's *The Evangelicals*?

John Fea   |  April 26, 2017

Several of you have now asked. It seems like everyone is writing about this book.  I have a copy and I am reading it, but I will not be commenting on this blog because I will be reviewing it at an...

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What Happens to Evangelical Intellectual Life After "Books & Culture?"

John Fea   |  January 11, 2017

I started graduate school in 1994.  That was the same year that Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind was published. One year later, Christianity Today Inc. began publishing Books & Culture: A Christian Review with John Wilson as editor.  I subscribed...

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The Bible Cause in The Wall Street Journal

John Fea   |  August 19, 2016

Check out Darryl G. Hart’s review of The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society in today’s Wall Street Journal! Here is a taste: For the past 50 years or so, the Bible—the collection of sacred Jewish and Christian texts—has taken...

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