More News of the Book
Our last update of news about the book was October 26. Seemed like it was time for another one. As they say on Glee, here’s what you missed.
Reviews
Alan Wolfe had this to say in The New Republic:
I confess to being one of those who likes to divide conservatives into their parts as opposed to treating them as a whole. Robin makes a vigorous case that I am wrong, and I am tempted by his analysis….Robin is an engaging writer, and just the kind of broad-ranging public intellectual all too often missing in academic political science.
Now I too can invoke that hoary cliche “even The New Republic,” albeit to different purposes.
John Kampfner was less enthusiastic in The Guardian/Observer. Connor Kilpatrick was more enthusiastic—very enthusiastic, in fact—in The Exiled (also check out the many comments his review sparked). The Brooklyn Rail was mixed. And National Review contributing editor John Derbyshire, as you all know, said that if he and I were stranded on a desert island, he’d kill himself. All that and more at The American Conservative.
Interviews/dialogues
It seems as if I’ve spent the last month of my life giving interviews or engaging in on-line dialogues about the book. It’s been exhilarating—and exhausting. If I haven’t replied to an email or to a comment on the blog, that’s why. I can barely type another word! But I’ll try to get back to you. In the meantime…
I had a lovely and intelligent conversation with Guy Rathbun, who does interviews out of California that get syndicated on NPR. Really interesting conversation, excellent questions.
Amanda Marcotte, the take-no-shit feminist blogger, and I talked conservatism and reproductive rights the day before Mississippians voted down the personhood amendment. It was great for me to get to talk through a set of issues that come up in my book but that don’t get a lot of traction in the reviews and commentary. My wife was more taken with Amanda’s post-punk soundtrack.
Jeff Schechtman of KVON in Northern California interviewed me.
Tom Mills, of the New Left Project in Britain, and I had a lengthy phone interview which got written up and posted in two parts.
I think I posted this one earlier, but Daniel Larison, an extraordinarily thoughtful conservative, and I had a several-weeks-long email exchange, which got reprinted at The New Inquiry. It prompted much intelligent comment, a lot from the right, and this from a U.S. News and World Report blog.
And last but not least, here’s a link where you can watch the entire conversation between me and conservative journalist S.E. Cupp that was aired on Book-TV/C-SPAN2 this past weekend. And if you want to catch it on TV one last time, it will be rebroadcast on Sunday, November 20, at 4 pm, EST.
Al-Jazeera
In the last few weeks, Al Jazeera English has been publishing some of my blog posts. It’s been thrilling to see these posts and arguments disseminated to a much broader audience. Two have already been published; three more are to come. Even if you read them already, you should check them out over there just for the commentary they prompt.
Update (7 pm)
I forgot to mention there was an excellent letter from Penny Lewis in the New York Times Book Review, responding to the Times review.