Rich Lowry

It is one of our most honored clichés that America is an idea and not a nation. This is false. America is indisputably a nation, and one that desperately needs to protect its interests, its borders, and its identity. The Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump swept nationalism to the forefront of the political debate. This is a good thing. Nationalism is usually assumed to be a dirty word, but it is a foundation of democratic self-government and of international peace.National Review editor Rich Lowry refutes critics on left and the right, reclaiming the term “nationalism” from those who equate it with racism, militarism and fascism. He explains how nationalism is an American tradition, a thread that runs through such diverse leaders as Alexander Hamilton, Teddy Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ronald Reagan.In The Case for Nationalism, Lowry explains how nationalism was central to the American Project. It fueled the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution. It preserved the country during the Civil War. It led to the expansion of the American nation’s territory and power, and eventually to our invaluable contribution to creating an international system of self-governing nations.It’s time to recover a healthy American nationalism, and especially a cultural nationalism that insists on the assimilation of immigrants and that protects our history, civic rituals and traditions, which are under constant threat. At a time in which our nation is plagued by self-doubt and self-criticism, The Case for Nationalism offers a path for America to regain its national self-confidence and achieve continued greatness.

In this thoughtful mix of history and politics, the New York Times bestselling author and editor of National Review—the conservative bible founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.—traces Abraham Lincoln's ambitious climb from provincial upstart to political powerhouse and calls for a renewal of the Lincoln ethic of relentless striving.Revered today across the political spectrum, Abraham Lincoln believed in a small but active government in a nation defined by aspiration. Fired by an indomitable ambition from a young age, the man who would be immortalized as the "railsplitter" never wanted to earn his living with an ax. He educated himself in a frontier environment characterized by mind-numbing labor and then turned his back on that world. All his life, he preached a gospel of work and discipline toward the all-important ends of self-improvement and individual advancement. As a Whig and then a Republican, he worked to smash the rural backwardness in which he was raised and the Southern plantation economy that depended on human bondage.Both were unacceptably stultifying of human potential. In short, Lincoln lived the American Dream and succeeded in opening a way to it for others. He saw in the nation's founding documents the unchanging foundation of an endlessly dynamic society. He embraced the market and the amazing transportation and communications revolutions beginning to take hold. He helped give birth to the modern industrial economy that arose before the Civil War and that took off after it.His vision of an upwardly mobile society that rewards and supports individual striving was wondrously realized. Now it is under threat. Economic stagnation and social breakdown are undermining mobility and the American way. To meet these challenges, Rich Lowry draws us back to the lessons of Lincoln. It is imperative, he argues, to preserve a fluid economy and the bourgeois virtues that make it possible for individuals to thrive within it.

After learning that an Iranian scientist is in the process of developing nuclear weapons on Iranian soil, all-but-forgotten Spymaster Stewart Banquo initiates a rogue special operation. With the assistance of his most trusted agent, Robert Wallets, Banquo recruits Peter Johnson, a dissolute, morally bankrupt liberal news journalist, to travel to Iran. Johnson poses as a sympathetic reporter writing a piece on the country’s nuclear facilities. His mission: to kill the scientist. Like many elaborate plans, Johnson’s assassination attempt fails. The journalist falls into Iranian hands and is tortured to confess—a staggering security crisis for the United States. Aided by Wallets and the battle-hardened Marjorie Morningstar—the CIA operatives who trained him—Johnson escapes from Iran.Now back in the United States, Johnson helps Banquo and his CIA cohorts lead a team of federal agents and New York City officials in tracking down a group of suspected Iranian terrorists in New York who are planning to commit nuclear terrorism by dispersing a highly radioactive material throughout the city streets and subways. When Johnson’s only daughter is kidnapped by the Iranians, he and Banquo must race against time to save her...and the City of New York.

The author assesses the Clinton legacy, arguing that it was his appeasement of America's enemies overseas that will be the longest lasting effect of the Clinton years, not his domestic accomplishments. Original.

An illuminating examination of the emergence of deuteronomic theology in pre-exilic Judah. Judaean deuteronomism grew as a response to the social unrest of the Assyrian period, channelling popular discontent away from the Davidic monarchy and towards foreign imperialism. The author brings together different strands of current scholarship, studying the economy of monarchical Judah and Israel, and examining the commanding social role of the Davidic monarchy. Lowery also discusses Ahaz and the economic and religious impact of Assyrian imperialism, and concludes with a discussion of the Manasseh narrative in Kings as a systematic rejection of the pre-deuteronomic First Temple status quo.

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