Gore Vidal in the 1960s, from his photo-memoir, *Snapshots in History’s Glare.*

A Gore Vidal Retrospective: Part 2: Playwright, Essayist, and Provocateur (1956-1974)

January 25, 2026

In the mid 1950s, Gore Vidal took a sabbatical from writing novels to try writing plays—specifically plays for television. At the time, television was an extremely new medium, with broadcasters green-lighting a wide swath of productions. In this milieu, live television plays became wildly popular, and Vidal wanted to get in on the action. His plays varied, from wholly original creations to adaptations of famous works.

President Abraham Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865. Photo by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress.

The Politics of Humility: Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

September 14, 2025

For us to rebuild a robust democratic culture, we need to get over having our egos offended and accept that we don’t have all the answers. In short, we need a politics of humility. If we all committed ourselves to thinking before we spoke, listening more instead of shouting over others, and doing the homework needed to articulate informed opinions, this country would be a lot better off. Abraham Lincoln provides us with such an example to emulate. As he said nearly two centuries ago, at the start of his political career, we must gain the esteem of others by rendering ourselves worthy of their esteem. The way to do that is by correctly apportioning our confidence in relation to our competence. Only then can we genuinely make a more just, peaceful, and generous nation.

A view of the Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., July 5, 2025. Photo by the author.

Short Book Reviews: American History

July 29, 2025

The novelist and essayist Gore Vidal once remarked that, “my subject is America,” and I, too, have devoted my life to understanding the United States. And like Vidal, I often research and write about American history in the form of immanent critique, which underscores the difference between the nation’s ideals of liberty and equality and its actual manifestations of power. The following book reviews cover the complex nature of American history, from Lawrence Wright’s day-by-day account of the Camp David Accords to Timothy Egan’s narrative history of the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana during the 1920s. Acknowledging America’s successes—and its profound failures—is an indispensable practice for possessing a real picture of the United States. I hope that the following reviews are but a small contribution to such a picture.

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