Books

The argument of Over the Edge is spelled out clearly in the subtitle the media film television computer games driven by advertisers fixated on the importance of an audience of youthful consumers has changed and corrupted American culture In pushing the limits to attract the younger generatio

Today as never before in their history Americans are enthralled with military power So begins the introduction to Andrew J Bacevich rsquo s thorough and prophetic examination of our increasing dependence on guns and bombs to insure our domestic security and spread our ideals of democracy abroad Ba

The newest book by the papal biographer and social commentator George Weigel owes much of its theory to the late Pope John Paul II and its main questions read like a sermon by the new pope Benedict XVI The Cube and the Cathedral is an excellent read It is clear to the point and engaging and en

At the closing of the interreligious World Day of Peace in Assisi in 1986 Pope John Paul II articulated the essence and value of the day rsquo s fasting and prayer ldquo Let us see in it an anticipation of what God would like the developing history of humanity to be a fraternal journey in which

The first question that comes to my mind while reading de Bellaigue rsquo s blunt reportage from the Islamic Republic is What about Kahra Kazemi the photo-journalist who was brutally beaten and possibly raped by the Iranian secret police before dying of her injuries on July 10 2003 She held a

What paradise and what ashes are meant by the title Paradise in Ashes A Guatemalan Journey of Courage Terror and Hope The paradise refers to the small village of Santa Mar a Tzej In the late 1960 rsquo s it was virtually carved out of the rain forest in northern Guatemala by a group of poor

Cardinal Walter Kasper prefect of the Vatican rsquo s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was well established as a theologian long before being made a bishop For many years he was on the faculty of the University of T bingen where his colleagues included Hans K ng His present bo

The newest book from Stephen Koch the celebrated author of Double Lives Spies and Writers in the Secret Soviet War Against the West and The Modern Library Writer rsquo s Workshop is a riveting mix of biography and history As biographer Koch writes of Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos their

This capacious impressive often enjoyable book takes as its point of departure the late 19th-century orchestral cultures of New York and Boston assembling a story for which the author rsquo s Understanding Toscanini and Wagner Nights well prepared him This focus is understandable since Joseph H