FROM THE MAGAZINE

February 2023

Spectator Editorial

The United States of paranoia

The country is stuck in a vicious cycle in which one side’s paranoia feeds the other’s

By Spectator Editorial

From the Magazine

Children aren’t the enemy of the writer

Having kids has never interfered with my literary aspirations

By Billy McMorris

From the Magazine

Culture

Thirty years from Waco: what the fatal siege wrought

An unhinged David Koresh and a bungling government collided

By Kevin Cook

From the Magazine

Culture

In defense of paranoia

Social media is the jet fuel that melts the steel beams of skepticism

By Bridget Phetasy

From the Magazine

Science & Tech

Morris Chang: the microchip mogul caught between Biden and Xi

He might be the most important businessman you’ve never heard of

By Chris Miller

From the Magazine

Culture

Going native: is ancestral eating the answer to our dietary woes?

No processed foods, no seed oils, no refined sugars, no problem?

By Birdie Hall

From the Magazine

Politics

Tocqueville’s warning about the Democrats

The emotional glue of the Democratic coalition is resentment of the Republican coalition

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

Internet

Has time finally run out for TikTok?

The Chinese social media app is ‘digital fentanyl’

By Kara Kennedy

From the Magazine

Politics

Stepping out into freedom

The FBI and other left-leaning entities have left us in our own Truman Show

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

China

Mike Gallagher’s China challenge

The chair of a new House committee on the PRC faces a daunting in-tray

By Ben Domenech

From the Magazine

Education

Plato and the problem with Netflix’s Atlantis

The idea that the story of Atlantis records a historical event takes fantasy to new levels

By Peter Jones

From the Magazine

Culture

When the moon brought America together

For me, it all mattered. I saw something unfold, and I felt like a part of it

By Peter Van Buren

From the Magazine

Economics

Jim Cramer versus the world

How the Mad Money host went from stock-picking star to the ‘anti-Midas’

By William D. Cohan

From the Magazine

Culture

Save American tipping culture

The problem is that if everything merits a tip, then nothing merits a tip

By Matt Purple

From the Magazine

Culture

Why after Covid does everyone drive like maniacs?

If you feel as if the driving public is increasingly unsafe, you’re not alone

By Teresa Mull

From the Magazine

Culture

The queen of chess makes her next move

Judit Polgár is so much more fascinating than her male counterparts

By Zoe Strimpel

From the Magazine

Books + Arts

Book Review

Hoover damned

G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage reviewed

By David J. Garrow

From the Magazine

Books

The art of the royal memoir

Britain’s royal family sells books like nobody’s business

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Book Review

From Russia with love

Iron Curtain: A Love Story by Vesna Goldsworthy reviewed

By Amanda Craig

From the Magazine

Book Review

Behind closed doors

The Cloisters by Katy Hays reviewed

By Philip Womack

From the Magazine

Book Review

Bret Easton Ellis’s comeback is a bloody masterpiece

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis reviewed

By York Underwood

From the Magazine

Book Review

Quentin Tarantino’s iconoclastic obsessions

How can an established artist, especially one this famous, pivot to criticism?

By Jack Sinclair

From the Magazine

Book Review

The struggle of the female musician

Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World by Leah Broad reviewed

By Anne Sebba

From the Magazine

Theater

The Some Like It Hot revival is cream-puff theater

It reduces a charged premise to something more mundane

By Robert S. Erickson

From the Magazine

Film

The death of the movie star

Hollywood used to run on talent. Today, intellectual property is king

By Sam Wasson

From the Magazine

Music

Playing God with Paramore

What happens when someone who was cool because they were hated is suddenly accepted?

By Mitchell Jackson

From the Magazine

Exhibitions

In Claude Monet’s postmodern garden

I began to find the uncanny experience transporting

By James Panero

From the Magazine

Art

The shock and awe-inspiring art of Iraq

After decades of disorder, the country has a budding art scene

By Adrian Brune

From the Magazine

Life

High Life

Why going to church beats going to a nightclub

Take it from Taki: life can be beautiful if one only has beautiful thoughts

By Taki

From the Magazine

Low Life

The joy of Spectator readers’ letters

They are intelligent, witty, generous and kind-hearted

By Jeremy Clarke

From the Magazine

London Life

Stuck in a love triangle with a shrink

During their sessions together The Other Man does that old Freudian trick of staying silent

By Cosmo Landesman

From the Magazine

Prejudices

Democracy by numbers

It seems plausible that a small democracy is more intelligent and more wisely ruled than a modern mass one like America

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Place

Place

How to see Switzerland by train

The Swiss love their clocks, their cheese and their chocolate. They also adore their railway

By Jonathan Ray

From the Magazine

Place

Florida’s equestrian field of dreams

Ocala is a playground for the 1 percent

By Dave Seminara

From the Magazine

Food and Drink

Food

A salt for all seasons

We need the white stuff to live — and eat well

By Jane Stannus

From the Magazine

Drink

Hungarian wine: Europe’s best kept secret

Bikavér is the ‘mysterious and historical’ red wine at the heart of Magyar culture

By Will Collins

From the Magazine

Drink

The beauty of the Beaumont inn

It has been said that Kentucky culture distils down to thoroughbred horses, beautiful women and bourbon whiskey

By Timothy Jacobson

From the Magazine

Drink

There’s a sherry for everyone

It’s an appropriate drink with which to reflect on the complexity of life

By James Jeffrey

From the Magazine

Drink

Planning world domination, fueled by Burgundy

One more bottle and we would have gotten ourselves into a land war in Asia — and you know where that leads

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

And Finally

And Finally

The resurgence of Dungeons & Dragons

If you haven’t tried it, you’re missing out

By Robby Soave

From the Magazine

And Finally

‘Quite’ has gone quite wrong

Something has gone wrong with the use of ‘quite’

By Dot Wordsworth

From the Magazine