C-SPAN has just released its rankings of American presidents. Several dozen notable historians and professional observers of the presidency were surveyed and asked to rank the presidents in 10 different categories. Most of the categories are somewhat subjective, such as “moral authority” and “pursued equal justice for all.” One category, however, “economic management,” can be analyzed empirically. Numbers are available Read More ›
Science, we are told, is tentative. And given the history of science, there is every reason for science to be tentative. No scientific theory withstands revision for long, and many are eventually superseded by theories that flatly contradict their predecessors. Scientific revolutions are common, painful, and real. New theories regularly overturn old ones, and no scientific theory is ever the Read More ›
The Death of Medicine in Nazi Germany: Dermatology and Dermatopathology Under the Swastika. By Wolfgang Weyers, M.D. Madison Books. 472 pp. $18.95. The Nazi War on Cancer. By Robert N. Proctor. Princeton University Press. 365 pp. $29.95. Reviewed by Wesley J. Smith For lovers of history and those interested in preserving cultural morality and virtue, the Nazi era is a mine that never runs Read More ›
The existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) has been debated since the ancient Greeks. Views have never been unanimous, and the center of opinion has periodically shifted between positive and negative. Over the last few decades, both intellectual and public opinion have been decisively in the pro-ETI camp. Unfortunately, the debate has taken place on a very slanted playing field, at Read More ›
Richard Feynman once remarked that unless one is able to make one’s ideas understandable to college freshmen, one doesn’t really understand them. On the other hand, when asked by a reporter to explain why he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Feynman remarked, “Listen buddy, if I could explain it in fifty words or less, it wouldn’t be worth a Nobel Read More ›
by James O’Fee The Backward Glance: C. S. Lewis and Ireland, by Ronald W. Bresland,(The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, 1999) ISBN 0 85389 746 8, paperback, 140 pp, 8.50 (UK), $17.95 (amazon.com). C. S. Lewis, at Home in Ireland by David Bleakley, Foreword by Walter Hooper (Bangor, Northern Ireland: Strandtown Press, 1998) ISBN 0953 55120-2, Read More ›
A survey of widely varying accounts by Perry Bramlett The actual event took place during the late church service on 21 July 1940 In books about Lewis this event is usually switched to after the early morning service, and the date has been published as 14 July 1940. 15 July 1940, 20 July 1940, and autumn 1942. So far, Light Read More ›
“An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.” William Hazlitt (1778-1830) “A forger would have no trouble finding paper and ink that are 40 years old” Charles Hamilton, America’s leading autograph expert “Each cover of a true book enfolds the concentrated essence of a man. The personalities of the Read More ›
John Lawlor arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford, in October 1936, and learned that his tutor was named C. S. Lewis.Thirty-seven years later, in November 1963, Lawlor was one of the few people to attend Lewis’s funeral. In 1966 he published Patterns of Love and Courtesy: Essays ln Memory of C. S. Lewis, a collection of literary essays by friends of Read More ›
In 1995 W. A. Meeuws, Managing Director of Thornton’s bookstore in Oxford, thoughtfully sent me a list of all the books by Lewis that had been translated into foreign languages, including the publisher, location, date, number of pages, and binding. The list included 168 books in 23 languages ranging from Afrikans to Swedish. The language with the most Lewis books Read More ›