FROM THE MAGAZINE

July 2024

Spectator Editorial

Can the GOP do normal?

2024 should have presented a golden opportunity to the Republican Party

By Spectator Editorial

From the Magazine

Diary

My surprise call with Donald Trump

The former president is convinced he’s heading back to the White House

By Piers Morgan

From the Magazine

Politics

‘Justice’ and the fall of a republic

The United States was built on the ideal of equality before the law. The very words now ring with a mournful quaintness

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

Campaign 2024

Who can right the RNC ship?

It’s a tall order to have less than a year both to reform the GOP’s primary party machine and deliver a win in a presidential election

By Amber Duke

From the Magazine

Politics

Antony Blinken embodies decades of failure

At least it seems like the secretary of state is having fun

By Ben Domenech

From the Magazine

Politics

Turbulence after the Trump verdict

It’s not just a matter of one man or one trial. It is a split about the country’s direction

By Charles Lipson

From the Magazine

Culture

The American Ornithological Society’s war on the past

Birding has become a battleground — far from the broad sunny uplands it was before 2020

By Parker Bauer

From the Magazine

Family

How divorce never ends

It will affect your kids for the rest of their lives

By Bridget Phetasy

From the Magazine

International

The bitter fights around the globe

Let’s hope Ukraine’s allies keep their commitments so that this resistant, isolated nation may eventually prevail

By Bernard-Henri Lévy

From the Magazine

Letters

Letters from Spectator readers, July 2024

Normandy, Philly and crushing the cartels

By The Spectator

From the Magazine

Science & Tech

The space race gets serious

Can the Western private sector give us the edge over China and Russia?

By Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky

From the Magazine

International

What is war good for in the twenty-first century?

Israel and Russia — very different countries, morally and otherwise — should be asking themselves today

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

International

Inside the handover of Hong Kong

Was there an alternative?

By Algy Cluff

From the Magazine

Family

Adopting the Great Loop mindset

About 200 people are becoming Loopers each year

By Teresa Mull

From the Magazine

International

Meet Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s anti-Trudeau

His insular communications strategy is a necessary defense against Canada’s anti-American psychosis

By Sam Forster

From the Magazine

Russia

How demand for petroleum is helping Russia evade sanctions

The country controls a great and valuable resource that the world can’t do without

By Owen Matthews

From the Magazine

China

Explaining China’s IP problem

The country has never respected international Intellectual Property laws. Now, it’s finding that a problem

By Dennis Unkovic

From the Magazine

Education

What does the Olympic torch have to do with Hitler?

It is now in the hands of 10,000 runners across France and French territories to arrive in Paris for the opening of the Games on July 26

By Peter Jones

From the Magazine

International

Why Japan won’t repeat the West’s mistakes on immigration

You must follow the rules to stay — and those who do not are welcome to leave

By Oliver Jia

From the Magazine

Books + Arts

Book Review

Anne Applebaum’s solutions to the ‘threat’ of autocracy

Autocracy, Inc. is woefully inadequate to the times in which it appears

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

Book Review

John Freeman’s Hit and Run is gorgeously crafted

This is a work about significant moments, glittering with reflections and refractions

By Philip Womack

From the Magazine

Book Review

Stephen King’s You Like it Darker shows a master at his peak

You Like It Darker inevitably harks back to Carrie, King’s debut novel, published fifty years ago this spring

By Brice Stratford

From the Magazine

Books

Is the hype for The Bee Sting justified?

Over the course of 600-odd pages, Paul Murray marshals elements of tragedy, black comedy and drama with consummate skill

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Book Review

Kevin Barry’s latest novel is bursting with energy, brutality and poetry

The Heart in Winter is a rambunctious galumph of a story

By Anne Margaret Daniel

From the Magazine

Books

Suburbia’s irredeemable reputation in the American canon

As it stands, its place as a literary locus in the American canon is a fraught one

By Amelia Butler-Gallie

From the Magazine

Art

Bianca Bosker’s snapshot of the art scene

What drives people’s interest in art is profoundly linked to what makes us human

By Laura Allsop

From the Magazine

Art

CreatiVets and the art of war

CreatiVets helps disabled veterans through the arts

By William Newton

From the Magazine

Music

The evergreen, ageless Rolling Stones

How did the band achieve this curious headlock on our affections?

By Christopher Sandford

From the Magazine

Books and Arts

This month in culture: July 2024

What should be on your radar this July

By The Spectator

From the Magazine

Life

London Life

The tantric sex retreat that wasn’t

I could treat the whole thing with bemused Tom Wolfe snarkiness — or keep an open mind and get with the program

By Cosmo Landesman

From the Magazine

American Life

The awesome Alan Pell Crawford

The writer has made a literary reputation on his fluid narratives of late eighteenth and nineteenth-century Southern history

By Bill Kauffman

From the Magazine

Life

Plane stupidity: my waking flight-mare

My iPhone spent almost a week last October trapped inside the belly of a Boeing 767

By Solveig Lucia Gold

From the Magazine

Prejudices

The joy of experiencing the Mountain West on horseback

I believe in going horseback for as far and as long as I can

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Life

Why cats are a vintner’s best friend

For many vintners, cats have become their favorite unsung but essential partners in pest control and free PR

By Kathleen Willcox

From the Magazine

Place

Place

Rewilding the world

The movement to bring back wildlife and nature is gaining steam

By Ben Goldsmith

From the Magazine

Place

A mystery on Mount Everest

A century on, the outcome of George Mallory and Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine’s tragic ascent still looms large over the world’s highest mountain

By Harry Cluff

From the Magazine

Place

Paris: a gold-medal minibreak

As the Olympic Games descend on the French capital this July, the contest that really matters for this sports-shy travel writer is where to stay

By Estella Shardlow

From the Magazine

Place

You know when you’ve been ‘Peru’d’

A South American adventure

By Casey Chalk

From the Magazine

Food and Drink

Food

Iron clad: good cooking’s most essential metal

Here the ancient actually beats out the modern

By Timothy Jacobson

From the Magazine

Food

Venezuela’s arepas are a godsend

The older the budare is, the better. Or so says my mom

By Juan P. Villasmil

From the Magazine

Food

How to make the perfect clafoutis

Difficult to pronounce. But oh-so divine and easy to make

By Calla Jones Corner

From the Magazine

Drink

The boozed-up beers of summer

Beer cocktails needn’t be so crass and uninteresting

By Ross Anderson

From the Magazine

Drink

The secrets of South African wine

The country makes wines that are not only great bargains, but also are delicious in their own right

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

And Finally

And Finally

In praise of Swiss Army knives

2023 was the year my wife finally agreed our son could have a knife of his own

By Andrew Watts

From the Magazine

And Finally

The myth of the global majority

I find the concept of a majority undefined by any common feature rather hard to grapple with

By Dot Wordsworth

From the Magazine