Laura Vanderkam in 168 Hours

"We have certain impressions of our time that turn our to be not entirely accurate...Most of us have absolutely no idea how we are spending the hours we have...The question is, 'Where do those hours actually go?'," says Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think.

Brad Thor on Foreign Influence

"The C.I.A is either unwilling or incapable of collecting timely...intelligence in Afghanistan because their operators won't get out into the field. There are some...folks who've gotten together to form their own private group and they've been gathering great intel...it's been very embarrassing for the Agency... I saw [private intelligence collection] as being the next exciting thing in our war against radical Islam," says Brad Thor, author of Foreign Influence.

Charles Hill on Grand Strategies

"Literature is, you might say, pre-disiplinary. Great literature takes place above and beyond and before all of the university disiplines got carved into departments. So it is really able to range across all of the various...situations that confront a leader," says Charles Hill, author of Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order.

Benjamin Balint on Running Commentary

"That notion of fostering healthy self-respect pervades the magazine...Part of defending one's own as interpreted by the Commentary crowd is setting one's face against American self-abasement," says Benjamin Balint, author of Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right.

Tony Woodlief on Somewhere More Holy

"[E]ating...should be intimate and something that draws families together, and I think one of the great tragedies of the American family is that we have utterly thrown that away, along a lot of other sacred things. we've just thrown it by the wayside," says Tony Woodlief, author of Somewhere More Holy: Stories from a Bewildered Father, Stumbling Husband, Reluctant Handyman, and Prodigal Son.

Gabriel Schoenfeld on Necessary Secrets

"In the years since September 11th we really have seen some kind of very reckless behavior from some newspapers, and I think in particular the New York Times...that really has hindered our ability to fight al-Qaeda and defend ourselves," says Gabriel Schoenfeld, author of Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law.

Andrew J. McCarthy on The Grand Jihad

"The Center for Constitutional Rights...[defends Al-Qaeda in the courts], while its night job is basically running around Europe, trying to get some foreign tribunal to indict Bush Adminstration officials for war crimes, the war crimes being the defense of the [U.S.] and the war on terror," says Andrew J. McCarthy, author of The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.

Ben Wildavsky on The Great Brain Race

"When everbody is competing, when other countries are trying hard not just to send students abroad but to build great universities themselves...basically that means that the pie of knowledge is getting bigger, and that's good for us," says Ben Wildavsky, author of The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World.

Robert Alter on Pen of Iron

"The fact of the matter is that the King James version, whatever its faults or limitations, is one of the great stylistic acheivements of the English language and American writers recognized this, and I think some of them still do, even in 2010," says Robert Alter, author of Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible. 

Victor Davis Hanson on The Father of Us All

"We predicate things now in the schools on race, class, and gender, and we do it as remedies for present angst, and anxieties, and controversies. So history's become melodrama rather than tragedy. That's too bad because we're not fair to the past at all," says Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.

Alan Brinkley on The Publisher

"[Henry Luce] was not a true conservative, I would say. He was, in fact, something of a moderate within the Republican Party and he supported Wendell Willkie...in 1940 because he thought the other candidates were too conservative," says Alan Brinkley, author of The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century.

Lee Edwards on William F. Buckley Jr.

"There's this sense of duty which strikes you over and over and over again...[WFB] could have been the playboy of the Western world, but instead he chose to be — chose to be — the Saint Paul of the conservative movement," says Lee Edwards, author of William F. Buckley Jr.: The Maker of a Movement.

Paul Davies on The Eerie Silence

"'[Y]es', [the discovery of extraterrestrial life would pose a particular  threat to Christianity],...because Christians alone have a religion in which they claim that God became a human being...in order to save humankind....What happens to...extraterrestrials?...We might be dealing with literally saintly beings.   Are they not to be saved too?," asks Paul Davies, author of The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence.

John David Lewis on Nothing Less Than Victory

"We've become accustomed today to the idea that...our culture is not better than any others, that it may be worse, so who are we to impose our values on others?  Therefore we have not looked to gain absolute victory in any war since 1945 and, consequently, we have not acheived one," says John David Lewis, author of Nothing Less than Victory: Decisive Wars and the Lessons of History.

Michael F. Suarez on The Oxford Companion to the Book

"The physical book will always be important, partly because its bibliographical and social codes — the paper, the size, the binding — all of that signals something about the book and it's important to the reader. And much of that is largely lost...on a Kindle," says Michael F. Suarez, co-editor of The Oxford Companion to the Book.

Michael O'Hanlon on Toughing it Out in Afghanistan

"[The Afghans] will...see who they think has the momentum and potentially join forces with the Taliban, if they feel that there's no point in resisting them. [I] think we are at a crucial last opportunity, because if this...continues much longer, a lot of these Afghan fence-sitters I think will go over to the insurgency," says Michael O'Hanlon, co-author of Toughing it Out in Afghanistan.

Mark Yost on Varsity Green

"It is clear that when the decision comes down to academics versus athletics, some schools have chosen athletics to the detriment of their overall student body," says Mark Yost, author of Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College Athletics.

Sarah Ruden on Paul Among the People

"Paul established this idea that the individual...was infinitely precious to God...[T]his made a revolutionary difference in the way society had to treat an individual. Polytheistic society...treated the individual very brutally...Christianity changed all this but it changed it under the authority of Paul," says Sarah Ruden, author of Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time.

Diane Ravitch on The Death and Life of the Great American School System

"[C]hoice schools will live or die based on their numbers and they too engage in this phony test prep, which the numbers don't reflect anything that represents what I...would consider real education," says Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

Joseph Frank on Dostoevsky

"[Christian values] were under attack by the radicals of his day, who thought that society could be changed on the basis only of rational ideas. He objected to that. [T]he basis of morality...was fundamentally irrational in the sense that it had to come from...a belief in transcendental values which for him, as a Christian, were extremely important," says Joseph Frank, author of Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time.

Patrick M. Garry on Conservatism Redefined

"It's difficult for me to understand what 'compassionate conservatism' is, other than...federal government programs for the poor. And if that's the case, how does it really differ from liberalism?," says Patrick M. Garry, author of Conservatism Redefined: A Creed for the Poor and Disadvantaged.

Alex Berenson on The Midnight House

"I don't actually think that what we've been doing over the last eight years is torture...I think when you have lawyers arguing  over whether you can keep a detainee at 46 degrees...for two hours, that's not torture. It may be unpleasant, it may be coercive...but let's say what torture actual is, and that's not it," says Alex Berenson, author of The Midnight House. 

Andrew Klavan on The Long Way Home

"[W]e've allowed our kids...to forget that...there's a reason we believe in liberty. There's a reason we believe in small government. There's a reason we believe in checks and  balances, and a reason too that we believe in faith...And these things can be taught again...but we're gonna have to do it. It's not gonna just happen," says Andrew Klavan, author of The Long Way Home.  

Lars Anderson on The First Star: Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL

"[Red] Grange really sort of introduced the professional game [of football] to fans across the country, and it was because of his popularity that the N.F.L...[has] become what it is today, which is the most popular sports league in the country," says Lars Anderson, author of The First Star: Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL.

Wesley J. Smith on A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy

"The very people who deny human exceptionalism in the animal rights movement are asking us to engage in hyper-duties towards animals which would be an act of exceptionalism," says Wesley J. Smith, author of A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement.

Robert Crais on The First Rule

"They say every great hero needs a great villain...My contacts in law enforcement have said [members of Eastern European organized crime enterprises] are among the most merciless, hardened criminals they've ever seen. And I thought they'd be an ideal set of bad guys to pit Joe Pike against," says Robert Crais, author of The First Rule.

Nick Schulz on From Poverty to Prosperity

"Markets do fail. But just becasue they do fail doesn't mean that goverment needs to jump in and try to correct that. If anything, it's probably going to make things worse," says Nick Schulz author of From Poverty to Prosperity: Intangible Assets, Hidden Liabilities and The Lasting Triumph over Scarcity.

Rodney Stark on God's Battalions

"[The Crusades] gave a real spur to Christian Europe recognizing it's ability to confront Islam...It was really quite a feat, if you think about it, trying to sustain a military presence 2,500 miles away with volunteers," says Rodney Stark, author of God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades.

Matthew Spalding on We Still Hold These Truths

"Liberty...is the purpose of the whole American founding. [Liberty is] a certain type of freedom, a freedom appropriate to man, as opposed to, say, an animal. Liberty meant a freedom in the sense of being able to govern ourselves," says Matthew Spalding, author of We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future.

Thomas Fleming on The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers

"Once we start looking [at the purported Jefferson-Hemmings liason], what seemed like a definitive thing in 1998, has become more and more improbable. And now the best you can do, I think,  is to say  'Yes, it's a possibilty, but the probability has dwindled to almost the vanishing point'," says Thomas Fleming, author of The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers.

Jonathan Leaf on The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties

"The image that people have of the 1960s is completely at odds with the 1960s that most people lived. And that, to a large extent, is the story the book tells," says Jonathan Leaf, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties.

Theodore Roosevelt Malloch on Thrift

"[Thrift] leads us to lead self-reliant, gracious lives but it also in the public dimension has vast implications for the way we spend money as a government...It has to do with fiscal conservatism, something that is almost completely lost in our...public vocabulary," says Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, author of Thrift: Rebirth of a Forgotten Virtue.  

Terry Teachout on Pops

"I don't think you have to know anything about [Louis] Armstrong as a personality to be drawn to his music...but when you learn about what he went through as a person, you can't help but be stirred and inspired by it," says Terry Teachout, author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.

James Bradley on The Imperial Cruise

"[Theodore Roosevelt] made a secret treaty with the [Japanese] prime minister that ceded them Korea. And in a treaty not reported to the State Department...[he] granted...the Japanese military his okay to expand," says James Bradley, author of The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War.

John J. Miller on The First Assassin

"What's really fascinating about this period...is that there's so much uncertainty. There were fears that Virginians would [cross] the...Potomac River and invade...[T]here were rumors of assassination plots, of conspiracies...So it was a very harrowing moment in the city's existence and in the Lincoln administration...There were legitmate concerns about the President's security," says John J. Miller, author of The First Assassin.

George H. Nash on Reappraising the Right

"I think that conservatism is very much alive but it is facing some challenges, particularly in the long term...[I] certainly do not agree with the facile notion, the dismissive notion, really, that because conservatives lost an election, that they were somehow permanently marginalized," says George H. Nash, author of Reappraising the Right: The Past & Future of American Conservatism.

Thomas Mallon on Yours Ever

"The larger matter is whether or not email is killing writing, period, let alone killing letter writing. We write with such haste now, such stylelessness, such overstatement. One of the things that most distresses me about writing on the web...is the premium on overstatement and shrillness," says Thomas Mallon, author of Yours Ever: People and Their Letters.

Jack Lynch on The Lexicographer's Dilemma

"Most of these [rules of English] probably describe the speech habits of of some class of people, once upon a time. It will tend to be the upper class of people a generation or two ago. And that's what many people decided proper English is," says Jack Lynch author of The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, from Shakespeare to South Park.

Otto Penzler on The Vampire Archives

"Look, most teenage boys now hang out at the mall, they're a bunch of losers...with their baseball caps on backward. [The vampire hero of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series] is cool. The girls are gonna love him. Why wouldn't they? He just has this one little quirky thing which is that he happens to be a vampire," says Otto Penzler, author of The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published.

Mark Moyar on A Question of Command

"Opportunisitc elites are not going to take your side if they think you are losing militarily...the idea that you can win [Afghans] over without the military aspect I think is a delusion we've got to avoid," says Mark Moyar, author of A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq.

Brian M. Carney on Freedom, Inc.

"We run our companies...like Stalinist organizations. We control the flow of information, we control the lines of authority, we constrain what our employees can do and the result is that we are missing out on the dispersed knowledge of all of the people that work for us," says Brian M. Carney, author of Freedom, Inc.: Free Your Employees and Let Them Lead Your Business to Higher Productivity, Profits, and Growth.

Vince Flynn on Pursuit of Honor

"One thing I would have never believed is that [eight years after 9/11, we] name Dianne Feinstein as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the most liberal, anti-intelligence senators in the history of the United States Senate. And now we are right back to where we were before 9/11," says Vince Flynn, author of Pursuit of Honor.

Gordon Wood on Empire of Liberty

"I think that the Americans who went from the Revolution to the early 19th century went through a transformation in their culture and their way of life that was more significant and more extraordinary than the one we've gone through [in the last 50 years]," says Gordon Wood, author of Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815.

Harvey Silverglate on Three Felonies a Day

"We're gonna have an orgy of prosecutions...[T]he government, which...is going to take no responsibility whatsoever for facilitating any of the disasters that attended the economy...they're going to be blaming individual businessmen, for one type of quote fraud, or another," says Harvey Silverglate, author of Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.

Nicholas Thompson on The Hawk and the Dove

"[Nitze] was a hawk. He was always saying, 'We should build more wepaons'...but his biggest enemies were often on the right. His biggest enemy in the eighties was probably Richard Perle...Kennan is even less of a liberal than Nitze was a conservative...but socially Kennan was a serious conservative," says Nicholas Thompson, author of The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War.

E. D. Hirsch, Jr. on The Making of Americans

"I think the education schools...since the early part of  the 20th century have uniformly worked against a solid curriculum in the early grades," says E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools.

Norman Podhoretz on Why Are Jews Liberals?

"Conservative Christians have done everything humanly possible to persuade Jews that they are friends. They are probably...more pro-Israel even than the Jewish community and yet it's proved difficult or almost impossible to convince many American Jews that these Christians...have now become their biggest friends," says the author of Why Are Jews Liberals?, Norman Podhoretz.

Martin L. Gross on National Suicide

"I would say that in the history of America, the man least equipped to be President of this great nation is Barack Obama...he's very much like a 21 year old college student," says Martin L. Gross, author of National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z.

Steven Hayward on The Age of Reagan

"Reagan  really was an American conservative, which is distinct in important ways from a European or Burkean conservatism. He really embraced the dynamism of the country, which, from certain conservative points of view, has always been problematic," says Steven F. Hayward, author of  The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989.

Brian Domitrovic on Econoclasts

"It's clear that we're looking at the dramatic expansion of Federal Reserve power and of the tax code, and so that we'll probably have to endure another supply-side revolution," says Brian Domitrovic, author of Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity.

Robert Ferrigno on Heart of the Assassin

"The detriment for a nation like ours is in a long war — and this is going to be a long war— in a generations long war, it's not the power of the weapons, it's the power of the faithful that matters, and who loses will first," says Robert Ferrigno, author of Heart of the Assassin.

Jay Richards on Money, Greed, and God

"Wealth is created in a market economy, it's not just a static amount that gets divided up and transferred.  Once I understood that, frankly from reading people like Thomas Sowell, I realized that socialism rests on a series of really basic economic fallacies," says Jay Richards, author of Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem.

Christopher Caldwell on Reflections on the Revolution In Europe

"There is a sort of sad sack, hang dog attitude towards European culture, a kind of loss of confidence. You can say it's understandable, but it's there...I would say the Europeans are totally to blame for what problems they have," says Christopher Caldwell, author of Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West.

Greg Garrett on We Get to Carry Each Other

"[Evangelicals] have embraced Bono not because he necessarily speaks their language about redemption and salvation, but because he has been able to come in and challenge the American church to be the church, to do the work that it's called to," says Greg Garrett, author of We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2.

Justine Hardy on In the Valley of Mist

"I've known this family now for...15 years...they've become very orthodox in their following of Islam over that...period...[When] you're surrounded by very violent death all the time...people get...much more intense in their belief systems...which can lead to...very extreme levels of orthodoxy," says Justine Hardy, author of In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir: One Family In A Changing World.

Piers Paul Read on Death of a Pope

"Jesus was not a social revolutionary. He was not a Spartacus...I believe the liberation theology is mistaken and has led to much suffering and is a misapprehension of what the Gospel is about," says Piers Paul Read, author of Death of a Pope.

Lee H. Walker on Rediscovering Black Conservatism

"As far as how can conservatives pick up the vote of blacks, we had an example of that in April when the same-sex marriage issue lost in California. And that was basically because blacks voted against it. With the majority of the black community voting against it, along with men in the white community, it failed," says Lee H. Walker, author of Rediscovering Black Conservatism.

Tyler Cowen on Create Your Own Economy

"This a very rich and stimulating world. It's never been easier to educate yourself. This is another way in which the power of the individual is being enhanced," says Tyler Cowen, author of Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World.

Kenneth P. Werrell on Death from the Heavens

"We've entered into a new phase [of warfare] which leads some people to believe that strategic bombing as we've known it is obsolete. And until we have two states fighting each other, I don't think we're going to see strategic bombing being talked about," says Kenneth P. Werrell, author of Death from the Heavens: A History of Strategic Bombing.

Brad Thor on The Apostle

"I'm a thriller writer, so my job is to give you... the best white-knuckle thrill ride I'm capable of....If I've done that, then I've succeeded as an author," says Brad Thor, author of The Apostle. "If you walk away from my books learning something more about the global war on terror [and] the perils facing our country...then I believe I've done my job as  an American." 

Harry Stein on I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican

"Conservatives, by and large, are much more open-minded. Conservatives are truly open to diversity of viewpoints in a way that liberals are not," says Harry Stein, author of I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous. "[Liberals] are simply never exposed to any other ideas."

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on Best of The American Spectator's Continuing Crisis

"Those stories about political correctness in the university...in the seventies and eighties were ironic because they were kind of out of the ordinary. I mean now they go on all the time," says R. Emmett Tyrrell, author of The Best of The American Spectator's Continuing Crisis: As Chronicled for Four Decades by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Nick Reding on Methland

"A minimum dose of crack [cocaine] will keep you high for about twenty minutes. A minimum dose of [methamphetamine] you're talking about at least twelve hours," says Nick Reding, author of Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town.

Abigail Thernstrom on Voting Rights — and Wrongs

"These majority minority districts, these safe black and Hispanic districts, carefully gerrymandered to make sure that...no whites ever run in them, they put a ceiling on black political aspirations," says Abigail Thernstrom, author of Voting Rights — and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections.

Bruce Bawer on Surrender

"Soldiers are being sent [to Muslim lands] to give their lives to fight the same things that we are...appeasing at home without even a struggle and it's staggering, it's ironic, it's tragic," says Bruce Bawer, author of Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom.

Vin Cannato on American Passage

"Many of the same legal issues that have to do with the detention of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay have direct relation to what happened at Ellis Island," says Vincent J. Cannato, author of  American Passage: The History of Ellis Island.

Rick Brookhiser on Right Time, Right Place

"Both Bill [Buckley] and I had been operating under a misapprehension: I was looking for an idol, he was looking for an heir, meaning a kind of replica of himself. And of course when you look for such things you're not going to find them," says Richard Brookhiser, author of Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement.

Matthew B. Crawford on Shop Class as Soulcraft

"We've got this dichotomy of knowledge work versus manual work and I want to say that that's a bogus distinction, because in fact a lot of thinking goes on in the trades. So that despite the lower prestige that it gets, it could be a life worth choosing," says Matthew B Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.

P.J. O'Rourke on Driving Like Crazy

"The car was a way for ordinary people to gain freedom and mobility...the like of which had really never been seen in the history of mankind," says P.J. O'Rourke, author of Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-bending, Celebrating America the Way It's Supposed To Be — With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn.

Patrick Allitt on The Conservatives

"After the Russian Revolution, when the threat of  Communism displacing capitalism came along, anybody who favored holding onto capitalism became a conservative because they were trying to protect a time-honored system...against a dangerous innovation," says Patrick Allitt, author of The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History.

David Pryce-Jones on The Closed Circle

"I personally think that President George W. Bush did a wonderful thing by overthrowing Saddam Hussein...because it has introduced democracy to a very important Arab country," says David Pryce-Jones, author of The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs.

David Ignatius on The Increment

Speaking of the Central Intelligence Agency, David Ignatius, author of The Increment, says, "I want a service that is small, elite, and smart enough [to obtain vital intelligence]. I don't think we have [that] now. We have an over-broad mission and we have too many people, too many of whom are not of the highest caliber."

Tom Rob Smith on The Secret Speech

"[L]ots of people [who] say 'clearly Stalin was a monster, but maybe Lenin wasn't so bad' ignore the fact that the secret police evolved under Lenin. He was the person that created it. When you read his early writings, it's full of very violent language about how people who oppose their way of thinking...must be killed," observes Tom Rob Smith, author of The Secret Speech.

Peter Leeson on The Invisible Hook

"Precisely because the Somali pirates are greedy, they have a strong incentive to treat the captives [that they take]...well, which is why we have more than 800...hostages taken. A dead or injured hostage fetches no ransom," says Peter Leeson, author of The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates.

Adrian Goldsworthy on How Rome Fell

"[Y]ou've got two and a half centuries...where the Romans are busy killing each other every few years [in civil wars]. It can only have done huge damage, and yet for some reason it never really gets a mention when anyone looks at the fall of the Roman empire," says Adrian Goldsworthy, author of How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower.

Ezra Levant on Shakedown

"There is another way that America can be attacked by radical Islam. There's the hard jihad of bombs. But there's soft jihad of lawfare, using our own Western laws to pervert our liberties. You can see it coming...most of it's coming through the United Nations," says Ezra Levant, author of Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights.

Doug Stanton on Horse Soldiers

[T]his story is a bit like the Jetsons meet the Flintstones. These are the guys you don't see on the news...If you remember pictures of American servicemen on horseback riding in suglasses and scarves across their faces across the Afghan plain. They're US Special Forces...," says Doug Stanton, author of Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan.

Mark Helprin on Digital Barbarism

"There's a class of people...funded by mainly by corporations like Google and other Silicon Valley interests [who] want to abolish intellectual property. They say they don't, but they say...copyright is a tax, a monopoly, and a bar to creativity...[I]t's none of those things," says Mark Helprin, author of  Digital Barbarism: A Writer's Manifesto.

Andrew Klavan on The Last Thing I Remember

"Most of the people in this country believe in God...[M]ost of the people in this country appreciate this country and love it...I feel that the arts have become very hostile to the common man and  to common ideals that most of us have," says Andrew Klavan author of The Last Thing I Remember.

Maria Tatar on Enchanted Hunters

"Children are the great contrarians....[they] aren't going to just take messages and morals and internalize them...Often, when a tale does have a moral, they'll actually turn it around and embrace the vice that is being castigated in the story," says Maria Tatar, author of Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood.

David Bentley Hart on Atheist Delusions

"We used to produce better atheists, atheists who had a better arsenal of arguments to make," says David Bentley Hart, author of  Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies. "But perhaps...it's sort of the slap-dash way in which they approach the topic that has made them so marketable."

Paul Rahe on Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift

"The crucial fact is for 96 years...we have had a gradual consolidation of power in the hands of the federal government. [T]he most important thing we need to do...is to restore federalism.," says Paul Rahe, author of Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect.

Jamie Glazov on United in Hate

"The left is attracted to totalitarianism because the left...wants to build a perfect planet...they want to build a utopia," says Jamie Glazov, author of United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.

Winston Groom on Vicksburg 1863

"Vicksburg, strategically,  was far more important [than Gettysburg] because it was the key to  the entire Mississippi River valley. Everything west of the Mississppi was lost [to the Confederacy]...and the Union got the use of the river," says Winston Groom, author of Vicksburg 1863. 

Angelo Codevilla on Advice to War Presidents

"The foreign policy of the United States has been carried out on the basis of a language that does not reflect reality...collective security...the community of nations: these things don't exist," says Angelo Codevilla, author of  Advice to War Presidents: A Remedial Course in Statecraft.

Dambisa Moyo on Dead Aid

"[Foreign aid] is harmful in the fundamental way that it does not allow governments to be held accountable, in a sense disenfranchising Africans," says Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.

Rich Lowry on Banquo's Ghosts

"There's obviously a very serious and substantive backdrop to this potboiler thriller, which is the real threat we face from Islamofacism...And the book grapples with very serious issues about how we respond to that threat. And it's a book that doesn't confuse the good guys with the bad guys," says Rich Lowry, co-author of Banquo's Ghosts.

Gene Wolfe on The Best of Gene Wolfe

"I am a conservative. I certainly read William F. Buckley, Jr. with delight…I think he mellowed a little too much at the end…He wasn't as sharp-edged as he really should have been. Perhaps the same thing will happen to me. But that doesn't mean that it's good," says Gene Wolfe, author of The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction.

William Julius Wilson on More Than Just Race

"A lot of people feel that when you talk about culture [in analyzing the behavior of inner-city blacks] you're placing the blame on individuals, rather than looking at other forces that determine social outcomes such as joblessness and poverty," says William Julius Wilson, author of More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City.

William R. Forstchen on One Second After

"Electromagnetic pulse [is] the number one threat to the United States," say William R. Forstchen author of One Second After. "[EMP] is what happens when a nuclear weapon is detonated above the Earth's atmosphere...Our vast and elaborate infrastructure could be gone in one second."

Philip Freeman on St. Patrick of Ireland

Philip Freeman, author of St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography, says, "[St. Patrick's Day] really is an American phenomenon. To a lesser extent Canada and Australia too, but it's really America that invented the modern St. Patrick's day and then exported it back to Ireland."

Roger Collins on Keepers of the Keys of Heaven

"Peter is seen traditionally as the first of the line of popes...but as an institution the bishopric doesn't actually come into being until about the year 150," says Roger Collins Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy.

James Mann on The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan

James Mann, author of The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War,  says, "I think it's a mistake to always judge Reagan simply by his rhetoric."

Tom Zoellner on Uranium

'Terrorists getting a hold of raw uranium, about the only they could do would be to sell it somehow to a nation-state…The question that is I think more pertinent is 'Can they get a hold of what's called highly enriched uranium?'…It's difficult, but not impossible," says Tom Zoellner, author of Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World.

Michael Burleigh on Blood and Rage

"[Islamic terrorism] is clearly a product of frustration, anger, and rage," says Michael Burleigh, author of Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism. "My abiding memory of this when I'm an old man will be of some kid…wagging his finger in my face from his suicide video saying, 'Don't mess with the Muslims.' '

Brad Gooch on Flannery

Speaking of the subject of his book, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor, author Brad Gooch notes, "She was a Catholic in the South, which is a minority within a minority, and she tended not to have Catholic characters: she loved writing about these Southern Protestant, kind of Baptist preachers and healers, so there's almost an element of satire to [her writing]."

Ralph Benko on The Websters' Dictionary

"The web doesn't lean left.," says Ralph Benko, author of The Websters' Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World. "[A] handful of people on the left...discovered this before we did, got proficient at it...and very astutely used this great capacity to enroll...millions of people. We can do this too. In fact we can do this twice as well."

Roger Kimball on Tenured Radicals

"For at least ten years...students have been much more receptive to the message of [the book], namely that it's a bad thing when the curriculum gets politicized and when higher education is...turned over to ideologues rather than to scholars...[B]ut I haven't noticed any softening on the part of the faculty," says Roger Kimball, author of Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education.

Patrick J. Michaels on Climate of Extremes

"The most internally consist picture of global warming is one that it is a modest issue that is being exaggerated," say Patrick J. Michaels, author of Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know.

Michael J. Kline on The Baltimore Plot

Michael J. Kline, author of The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln, observes that, “Allan Pinkerton and others would later claim that [the Baltimore plot] was a much better planned assassination attempt than the one that actually succeeded in killing Lincoln in April 1865.”

Tony Blankley on American Grit

Tony Blankley, author of American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century, says, "I found in the last seven years that when I think about public policy issues, my first thought is always "Will it strengthen America or not?",  as opposed to thinking will it fit my pre-existing ideological theories about this or that or my own personal interests."

Roger L. Simon on Blacklisting Myself

Roger L. Simon, author of Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror, on politics and work in Hollywood: "During the Bush era, Bush-bashing was like discussing the weather. And the assumption was that you hated Bush. And if it was otherwise, you wouldn't necessarily lose the job, but your chances went down 80%."

Neil deGrasse Tyson on The Pluto Files

Speaking of public outcry against the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet, Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, says, "I'm pretty convinced we can blame it all on the dog." 

Jeff Benedict on Little Pink House

 "[T]he [city of New London's] argument [for eminent domain] was...if we build all these new things [we] will get more tax revenue and generate jobs," says Jeff Benedict, author of Little Pink House, "[T]hat's not a public use...[T]hat argument is a dangerous one and it's the one that went all the way to the Supreme Court."

George Friedman on The Next 100 Years

“[W]hen you take a look at the objective fundamental power of the United States it is simply staggering,” says George Friedman, author of The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, “[T]ake a look at the manner in which the United States shrugs off things like loss in Vietnam, the collapse of the American position in Iran, then you start to have a sense...of just how powerful the United States is.”

Bernard Cornwell on Agincourt

“The more I researched the battle, the more I...discovered that probably most of the French casualties weren't killed by arrows at all,” says Bernard Cornwell, author of the novel Agincourt. “They were killed in some ghastly hand-to-hand fighting, using butchers’ weapons like pole-axes...it was a massacre, it was a slaughter.”

Robert J. Norrell on Up From History

“[Booker T. Washington] was conservative in his embrace of traditional family values…[and] he expected little from government…he assumes that the way for African Americans to rise in American life was through business,” says Robert J. Norrell, author of Up From History: The Life of Booker T. Washington.

T. Jefferson Parker on In the Shadow of the Master

"[Edgar Allan Poe] stands alone in a real odd and idiosyncratic way. He doesn't seem part of a tradition so much as the beginner of one, which critics claim that he is, and I guess I would agree with that," says T. Jefferson Parker, contributor of an essay to In the Shadow of the Master: Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe.

Philip K. Howard on Life Without Lawyers

Philip K. Howard, author of Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law says, “We do need lawsuits and we do need litigation. But what's missing is any application of social norms about what's a reasonable lawsuit and what isn't.”

Robert H. Bork on A Time to Speak

Robert H. Bork, author of A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments, says originalism isn't the same thing as strict contructionism: "I don't know what strict constructionism is...I want reasonable contruction, which means a reasonable interpretation of the words and the history of the Constitution."

Kim Phillips-Fein on Invisible Hands

Speaking of the early leaders of the American right, Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan says, “It's about a network of business leaders...who were really devoted to undoing the New Deal...[they were] closely focused on free market ideas and criticizing economic liberalism, the idea of the welfare state and especially labor unions.”

Burt Solomon on FDR v. The Constitution

Discussing the possibility of a new effort to pack the Supreme Court, Burt Solomon, author of FDR v. The Constitution: The Court-Packing Fight and the Triumph of Democracy observes, “If Obama and a Democratic Congress passed laws that...a conservative Supreme Court would strike down...you would have exactly the same situation that Roosevelt faced in 1937.”

Thomas Sowell on Applied Economics

Thomas Sowell, author of Applied Economics, 2nd Edition: Thinking Beyond Stage One doesn't think much of the $700 billion economic bailout: “It looked at first as a necessary evil, but as time goes on it looks more and more evil and less and less necessary…once that money has been created it becomes just another pot of the money that politcians can hand out hither and yon as they see fit.”

Ronald Hamowy on Encyclopedia of Libertarianism

Ronald Hamowy, Editor-In-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, says of Russell Kirk, "[W]hat's he's trying to do is to reduce libertarianism to the most excessive views of the French Revolution which he does almost explicitly several times in his book on the conservative mind and that's not accurate." 

Kevin O'Brien on The Innocence of Father Brown: A Dramatic Reading

Kevin O'Brien, dramatic interpreter of The Innocence of Father Brown says, “I think in many ways Chesterston wrote Father Brown to be the anti-Holmes, because Sherlock Holmes was always on top of everything...whereas Father Brown is a lot more like Colombo.”

Mir Bahmanyar on SEALs: The US Navy's Elite Fighting Force

In the writing of SEALs: The US Navy's Elite Fighting Force, Mir Bahmanyar says, “There was great difficulty getting this book made…The key thing that we always had to look out for was not to reveal any tactics, training, or any sort of operational procedures that may be helpful to the enemy.”

Greg Forster on The Contested Public Square

“There’s…no longer a consensus about whether liberal democracy, the system we now have in the West, properly reflects, or should reflect, natural law concepts. In the 20th century there’s been this breathtaking disintegration of consensus among Christians about how to approach politics,” says Greg Forster, author of The Contested Public Square: The Crisis of Christianity and Politics.

Jack Sweetman on Leathernecks

Jack Sweetman, co-author of Leathernecks: An Illustrated History of the United States Marine Corps, says, "[T]he French Paras, the paratroopers, have a saying: If it's possible, it will be done. If it's impossible it will take longer. I think most Marines would endorse that oulook."

Mark Henrie on Arguing Conservatism: Four Decades of the Intercollegiate Review

"[C]onservatives often seek is to find a way to alleviate the losses [of tradition in the modern world] or to make good on the losses by searching for ways to reconnect to everything that was good in tradition," says Mark Henrie, editor of Arguing Conservatism.

Gregory L. Schneider on The Conservative Century

Speaking of whether American conservatism recieves enough credit for its role in winning the Cold War, Gregory L. Schneider, author of The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution, says, "I think it deserves more credit than many historians are willing to give it...I think too many historians are willing to say it was all Gorbachev."

Jonathan Brent on Inside the Stalin Archives

"We're learning exactly the degree of Stalin's own personal involvement in the masterminding and the execution of the terror itself...in fact [the terror] had been initiated and managed by Stalin for his own particular ends," says Jonathan Brent, author of Inside the Stalin Archives.

E.O. Wilson on Superorganism

According to E.O. Wilson, author of The Superorganism, “[Ants] proved that Marx was right. He just had the had the wrong species.”

Sal Paolantonio on How Football Explains America

“Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Rider himself, understood the importance of football on college campuses, because he saw that…American males…did not have the great outdoors and the pioneering spirit as much as they did in the late 1800s,” says Sal Paolantonio, author of How Football Explains America.

Ira Stoll on Samuel Adams: A Life

"It's pretty likely that if Samuel Adams hadn't existed at the time he did, America would have ended up more like Canada, sort of existing in the extended orbit of the British Empire for a much longer perood of time and only gradually drifing away," says Ira Stoll, author of Samuel Adams: A Life.

Peter Kreeft on Between Heaven and Hell

Speaking of C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley, the three men who carry on a dialogue in his re-issued classic, Peter Kreeft says, "These three guys seem to have represented the three most influential worldviews in the history of the world…Christianity…modern secular human[ism] with a thin Christian veneer and…ancient Hindu/Buddhist mysti[cism]."

H.W. Crocker III on The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War

The author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War, H.W. Crocker III,  speaking of secession, says, "When Texas seceded from Mexico, Lincoln made a speech in which he said that secession was a…great thing. He must have changed his tune when he was in the driver's seat."

Orson Scott Card on Ender in Exile

Speaking of America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, Orson Scott Card, author of Ender in Exile, says “I think that we have fought a good war. Are fighting a good war. In the same way that World War Two was a good war. That it needed to be done.”

George C. Herring on From Colony to Superpower: U. S. Foreign Relations Since 1776

George C. Herring, author of From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776, tells John J. Miller, "If you look at big picture, I don't believe I exaggerate by calling [U.S. performance in foreign relations] a spectacular record of success."

Burton W. Folsom, Jr. on New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Burton W. Folsom, Jr., author of New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America, tells John J. Miller, “Hardly anybody who writes on the New Deal mentions that Roosevelt rasied taxes to the top marginal rate in 1935 to 79%.”

John Fund on Stealing Elections

Commenting on the lack of zeal in prosecuting cases of voter fraud, John Fund, author of Stealing Elections, says, “There's an inevitable cry that any time you're preventing voter fraud, you're actually dealing in voter suppression, dealing in trying to reduce the minority vote, and that kind of attack often deters [DAs] from pursuing these cases.”

Joseph Pearce on Frankenstein

Joseph Pearce, editor of a new critical edition of Shelly's Frankenstein, notes, “Much of the criticism of Frankenstein over the last 40 or 50 years…has been looking at it from a…militant feminist perspective or in some sort of postmodern sense of it having nothing but a nihilistic, negative meaning. And that's clearly not what's going on in the novel.“

Anne Rice on Called Out of Darkness

Speaking of her Catholic faith, Anne Rice, author of Called Out of Darkness, says, “I broke with my faith in a tragic way, really, for me. It was a tragic and sad thing. And I was never happy until I went back thirty-eight years later.”

Yuval Levin on Imagining the Future

“What we find in Obama's language…is an attempt to use science to avoid the moral and the political questions,” says Yuval Levin, author of Imagining the Future. “To just say, ‘It's science so we can't touch it,’ and so to advance his preferred answer to the ethical question, not by winning the argument but by avoiding argument.”

Adam Kirsch on Benjamin Disraeli

"It's hard to draw a straight line from Disraeli conservatism to anything we would call conservative in American politics today...but in the broadest sense a conservatism that tries to unite the whole country behind a vison of traditional values, that's the Disraeli vision of conservatism," says Adam Kirsch, author of Benjamin Disraeli.

Vince Flynn on Extreme Measures

While optimistic about the outcome in Iraq, Vince Flynn, author of Extreme Measures, is less so regarding the prospects for the War on Terror's other front: “This is a country that has never enjoyed peace...Because we are so up on affording toloerance to these people, we're never going to see that one all the way through. It's gonna be tough to secure Afghanistan.”

Claire Berlinski on There Is No Alternative

Claire Berlinski, author of There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, says, “[H]er lower-middle class background inspired a degree of snobbery among her critics…that is absolutely shocking…who found her…‘middle-class gentility odious’, who said she literally made them sick.”

Walter E. Williams on Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism

“Socialism is a form of tyranny…we have to recognize…the only way the government can get one American citizen one dollar is to first through intimidation, threats and coercion confiscate that dollar from some other American,” says Walter E. Williams, author of Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays.

James M. McPherson on Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief

“[Abraham Lincoln] stayed the course. He may have lost hope on more than one occasion, but he never lost his determination to prevail in the end,” says James McPherson, author of Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief.

Ron Robinson on Funding Fathers

“There’s a tendency oftentimes in the press to highlight the prominent gifts by liberals – George Soros is a good example – at the same time often key gifts to the conservative movement – those, for example, of Richard Scaife – are vilified,” says Ron Robinson, author of Funding Fathers:  The Unsung Heroes of the Conservative Movement.

Chuck Norris on Black Belt Patriotism

“Do you know how many pages there are in the IRS tax code? 66,498 pages. Can you believe that? Who knows what’s inside of those 66,000 pages? Charlie Rangel doesn’t know, and he writes the tax code, for crying out loud,” says Chuck Norris, martial arts legend and author of Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America.

Stephen Moore on The End of Prosperity

"[T]he bigger problem with the Obama plan is that it raises taxes on the most productive people in the economy.…You can't raise taxes on small businesses and then expect to have small businesses create more jobs," says Stephen Moore, co-author of The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy—If We Let It Happen.

Brian Anderson on A Manifesto for Media Freedom

Speaking of the fairness doctrine, Brian Anderson, co-author of A Manifesto for Media Freedom, says  it's the idea that government can regulate speech for fairness and quality which is truly pernicious and which will result in a completely regulated press.

Benjamin Lockerd on Russell Kirk's Eliot and His Age

Discussing why scholars have yet to grasp Russell Kirk's understanding of T.S. Eliot, Benjamin Lockerd, editor of the new edition of Kirk's Eliot and His Age, tells John J. Miller that, "Eliot scandalized the intellectual word by becoming a Christian and this seemed at the time to be crazy to many of his friends. And it still seems crazy to some anti-religious scholars today."

Lynne Cheney on We The People

“When you put the flesh on the people who were there and you talk about the conflicts in which they were engaged,” says Lynne Cheney, author of We The People, “it’s then, I think, that kids begin to grasp how fascinating history can be.”

Stephen Schwartz on The Other Islam

“It’s extremely important for Muslims and for non-Muslims to find a way to approach an Islam that can function as a normal religion and serve the interests of the Muslim believers in being good believers and being participants in…God’s world,” Stephen Schwartz, author of The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony, tells John J. Miller.

Larry Schweikart on 48 Liberal Lies About American History

Larry Schweikart says the nastiest lie being spread by the left today (that 9/11 was an inside job) won’t be believed years from now. That Gorbachev, and not Reagan, ended the Cold War is another story, the author of 48 Liberal Lies About American History, tells John J. Miller.

Gary J. Bass on Freedom's Battle

Humanitarian intervention is "definitely not the first thing on a government's foreign policy agenda. The first thing a government's going to be worried about obviously is protecting it's own people. I think that that's a given," says Gary J. Bass, author of Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention.

Christopher Buckley on Supreme Courtship

Discussing the topic of his new novel, Supreme Courtship, in which a TV judge gets named to the Supreme Court, Christopher Buckley says, “I don’t think cameras should be inside any courtroom. I don’t think they should have been in the O.J. Simpson courtroom.”

Ward Connerly on Lessons from My Uncle James

Ward Connerly, author of Lessons from My Uncle James: Beyond Skin Color to the Content of Our Character, worries that, "There is a correlation between individual character and the character of a nation, and I believe that our national character has eroded tremendously over the years largely because we have no sense of direction. There is no compass about character."

Daniel J. Flynn on A Conservative History of the American Left

In distinguishing between the “Cowboy Left” and the “Puritan Left”, Daniel J. Flynn, author of A Conservative History of the American Left, tells John J. Miller that,“‘Do what I say’ and ‘Do your own thing’, they’re both American ideas that we’ve seen over hundreds of years. And they’re both part of this American Left even if they offer something very different.”