the New York Times Books & Reviews

America Under the Caesars

Anti-interventionists allege our leaders traded a strong, austere republic for a weak and sprawling empire predicated on a military might that could not match our own ambitions. This narrative negates real threats and real victories.

Passions of Pope Victor

As Europe secularized and the global South becomes the new market for potential converts, Christianity is undergoing a painful evolution.

The Willing Misinterpreter

Despite Goldhagen's extraordinary claims, he himself concedes in his unwittingly revealing afterword that he is not presenting much in the way of original research.

A God For All Seasons

Scholars of international relations have only recently begun to appreciate the power of religion. Their next step is to get religion right. No longer mysterious and magical, modernity has demystified the Higher Power.

Exodus

Morris turns to the origins of the one-state and two-state conceptions. It helps explain how the Israelis and Palestinians got themselves into this intractable conflict in the first place.

Machiavelli Revisited

With great power comes great responsibility. But Washington is adrift and our country in search of a strategy. Foreign-policy heavyweight Les Gelb wittily channels a master to update the classic realpolitik definition of power.

The Laws of War

Stopping torture and changing the policies of the Bush administration may not be enough. With a whole new type of terrorist bred from extraordinary rendition and torture, the last eight years may well prove inescapable.

Reflections from the Right

The conservative movement is cracking up—just look at three memoirs of former administration officials. These new books may engage in justification and self-aggrandizement, but they do prescribe salves for fixing the conservative experiment.

Bridge On The River Euphrates

The much-vaunted surge has made Iraq safer. But more boots in the desert is not the only reason security has improved. As U.S. forces get ready to leave, we have to face some inconvenient political realities.

A Ticking Bomber

There is no simple answer to the causes of terrorism. But three books offer insight into the complexities of man and his motivation to kill. These explanations come not from academic tomes, nor expositions by the burgeoning cottage industry of ter

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June 20, 2013