FROM THE MAGAZINE

October 2023

Spectator Editorial

Welcome to the new counterculture

The most talked-about song of the summer of 2023 was a stripped back political ballad by an unknown country musician

By Spectator Editorial

From the Magazine

Diary

The quest for an authentic bite of Americana

Authenticity is a subtle thing. American authenticity, subtler still

By Winston Marshall

From the Magazine

Politics

Why Democrats and Republicans are so worried about third parties

Americans have been telling pollsters for months that a 2020 rematch is the last thing they want

By Billy McMorris

From the Magazine

Politics

Why we’re all populists now

If events continue to take their current course, the world in 2070 will be as different from today as that of 1970 was from 1920

By Henry Olsen

From the Magazine

Politics

Battle cry of the politically listless

We are stuck in this weird purgatory between what America used to be and what it is becoming

By Bridget Phetasy

From the Magazine

Politics

The Youngkin blueprint

Can Virginia be a model for Republicans nationwide?

By Amber Duke

From the Magazine

Science & Tech

We’re fighting the Covid censors

When there is scientific disagreement or uncertainty, the government must never pretend there is consensus and certainty

By Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff

From the Magazine

Politics

Why the new right is like the old left

For coming round on war, NAFTA and raw food, conservatives get zero credit

By Matthew Walther

From the Magazine

Business

The problem facing US cemeteries

Cemeteries like ours ‘saw their best days prior to 1900,’ says Paul

By Teresa Mull

From the Magazine

Internet

Doombragging: the rise of sustainable boasting

The old-fashioned humble-brag looks passé next to the doombrag

By Neal Pollack

From the Magazine

Politics

Dobbs needn’t be a Pyrrhic victory for Republicans

Pro-life politicians haven’t gotten their legs under them yet

By Ben Domenech

From the Magazine

Policy

What happened to the great West Coast cities?

Never before have all the burgeoning metropolises of the future started to shrink

By Joel Kotkin

From the Magazine

International

World events are not going America’s way

We need not doubling down but fundamental change

By Elbridge Colby

From the Magazine

International

NATO’s post-Cold War strategy has been a disaster

The alliance is fighting for its life — and dying

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

Health

The lessons of ancient Rome’s dangerous doctors

‘I died of a surfeit of doctors,’ read one Roman funerary inscription. But where did this surfeit come from?

By Peter Jones

From the Magazine

Internet

The rise of the lazy-girl job

Gen Zers are quite right to call time on a lifestyle that glamorizes overtime, burnout and the ceaseless rat race

By Josie Cox

From the Magazine

Business

How does Michael Klein do it?

He is the Rasputin of Wall Street. Just when you think he’s down and out, he pops back up and puts himself right back in the middle of things

By William D. Cohan

From the Magazine

Books + Arts

Film

The lamentable rise of VFX in horror films

CGI is no substitute for glue, tape and ketchup

By Ross Anderson

From the Magazine

Book Review

Christopher Rufo’s new book is impressively erudite

America’s Cultural Revolution marks Rufo as an important, deeply knowledgeable thinker

By David J. Garrow

From the Magazine

Book Review

Taylor Lorenz is optimistic about the internet

Extremely Online is mostly a story about money

By David Weigel

From the Magazine

Book Review

Emily Carroll’s new graphic novel plays on our deepest fears

A Guest in the House is a beautifully plotted study of the madness of isolation, steeped in the tropes of fairy tale and horror

By Philip Womack

From the Magazine

Book Review

An admirable but flawed new biography of George Eliot

The Marriage Question shows us a woman fragmented

By Oliver Soden

From the Magazine

Book Review

Bernie Taupin is more than just ‘Elton John’s lyricist’

The songwriter’s book is free of sentimental clutter, but it would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the takeaway message

By Christopher Sandford

From the Magazine

Book Review

A diverting but unsurprising new history of the Astor clan

There is a fine, perceptive book to be written about the Astors and their influence, but Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune is not it

By Anne Sebba

From the Magazine

Theater

Once Upon a One More Time is pat, prepackaged feminism

Authorized by Spears herself, the show revamps the tale of Cinderella, weaving in Britney’s own repertoire of songs

By Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

From the Magazine

Art

The value — and worthlessness — of contemporary art

Should you spot a binder full of explanatory word salad at the entrance to an art exhibition, take it as a red flag

By William Newton

From the Magazine

Film

Is a Kevin Spacey comeback possible?

The actor is not going to disappear into the shadows quietly

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Life

High Life

Pre-traumatic Uncle Sam-induced stress disorder and Chino-melancholia below deck

With family on board, I decided to act responsibly and in a dignified manner

By Taki

From the Magazine

London Life

The cult of cleverness

Cleverness is overrated

By Cosmo Landesman

From the Magazine

American Life

Roque is alive and well in Angelica, New York

On the first weekend of every August, Angelica hosts a tournament in its village park during ‘Heritage Days’

By Bill Kauffman

From the Magazine

Prejudices

The establishment and the mob

The readiness of establishment liberalism to tolerate the many occurrences of mob violence has been one of the most disturbing developments of the past three and a half years

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Sports

Basketball is more popular, and soccer-like, than ever

The NBA relies more and more on international players who grew up playing soccer

By Kevin Cook

From the Magazine

Place

Place

A month in the Baltics

Lithuania offers plenty to a family of four

By Dave Seminara

From the Magazine

Place

A beginner’s guide to noodling

For generations, Okies have been jamming their hands in crevices, trying to find the gaping maws of unsuspecting catfish to rip out of their hideaways

By Matthew Foldi

From the Magazine

Food and Drink

Food

Turning pizza Japanese

Japan has made a Western import its own

By Oliver Jia

From the Magazine

Drink

The Office Lounge is everything a Texas bar should be

Plastic ashtrays line the tables and bar as a living symbol of Texan freedom

By Margaret Mitchell

From the Magazine

Food

The joy of baking your own bread

These days, we are long into the age of commercial breadbaking and far-removed from the sight of a field of waving wheat

By Timothy Jacobson

From the Magazine

Drink

Champagne and America is a love story without end

It is the overflowing drink of the American Dream

By Kathleen Willcox

From the Magazine

Food

The best cooking podcasts

Cooking involves all senses, and a purely auditory recipe feels more like ASMR than education

By Mary Kate Skehan

From the Magazine

Drink

Why dry Sauternes are the next big thing

There is an ambrosial quality to the wine that promises popularity

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

And Finally

And Finally

Luis Rubiales and the weirdness of a kiss

We do it as a matter of course; it’s part of our idea of amorous behavior. But it turns out it’s not

By Melanie McDonagh

From the Magazine

And Finally

What does it mean to be ‘2S’?

Justin Trudeau attracted a certain amount of mockery by referring in a tweet to people who are 2SLGBTQQIA+

By Dot Wordsworth

From the Magazine