Ill Literacy: Books with Benson

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined once again by Daniel J. Mahoney, professor emeritus at Assumption University and senior fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, to discuss his latest book, The Persistence of the Ideological Lie: The Totalitarian Impulse Then and Now. They chat about what is the “Ideological Lie,” how the totalitarians from the Jacobins onward have relied on it, and how our failure to learn from the totalitarian tragedy of the twentieth century allowed the ideological virus to metastasize in new and alarming ways.Get the book here: https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/persistence-ideological-lie/Show Notes:The American Mind: Daniel J. Mahoney – “Fighting the Ideological Lie”https://americanmind.org/salvo/fighting-the-ideological-lie/City Journal: Daniel DiSalvo – “The Destructiveness of Ideological Thinking”https://www.city-journal.org/article/daniel-j-mahoney-persistence-ideological-lieFusion: Juliana Geran Pilon – “To Lie or Not to Lie”https://fusionaier.org/2025/to-lie-or-not-to-lie/Law & Liberty: Theodore Dalrymple – “Diagnosing the Ideological Mind”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/diagnosing-the-ideological-mind/Law & Liberty: Daniel J. Mahoney – “The Persistence of the Lie”https://lawliberty.org/the-persistence-of-the-lie/National Review: John O’Sullivan – “Lies, Damned Lies, and Ideology”https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2025/06/lies-damned-lies-and-ideology/The University Bookman: Jeffrey Folks – “Unmasking the Ideological Lie”https://kirkcenter.org/reviews/unmasking-the-ideological-lie/

In Episode 182 of Ill Literacy, Tim Benson talks with Jonathan W. White, co-editor of Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln.Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined once again by Jonathan W. White, Professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University, to discuss his latest book, co-edited with Lucas E. Morel, Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln. They chat about how White discovered a cache of unknown, insightful letters in England by Douglass on Lincoln, the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln as he moved slowly and methodically toward emancipation, how three personal interactions between the two led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration, and how, after Lincoln’s assassination, Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln’s statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. Get the book here: https://reedypress.com/shop/measuring-the-man/Show Notes:Smithsonian Magazine: Lucas E. Morel & Jonathan W. White – “When Historians Rediscovered These Frederick Douglass Letters, They Were Surprised by His Candid Opinions About Abraham Lincoln”https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/historians-rediscovered-frederick-douglass-letters-surprised-candid-opinions-abraham-lincoln-180987175/The Wall Street Journal: David S. Reynolds – “‘Measuring the Man’ Review: Partners in Their Time”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/measuring-the-man-review-partners-in-their-time-2a96aff1?mod=books_more_article_pos114

In Episode 180 of Ill Literacy, Tim Benson talks with David Zweig, author ofAn Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions. Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by David Zweig to discuss his latest book, An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions. They chat about how everyone from journalists to eminent health officials repeatedly made fundamental errors in their assessment and presentation of evidence regarding COVID and the closing of American schools, and how there was never any evidence that long-term school closures, nor a host of interventions imposed on students when they were in classrooms, would reduce overall cases or deaths in any meaningful way. Get the book here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262549158/an-abundance-of-caution/ Show Notes: The Atlantic: David Zweig – “The Disaster of School Closures Should Have Been Foreseen” City Journal: James B. Meigs – “What Were We Thinking?” Commentary: Noam Blum – “School’s Out Forever” The Dispatch: Kevin D. Williamson – “The Wrong Kind of Abundance” Education Next: Frederick Hess – “The Junk Science of Pandemic School Closure” The Free Press: David Zweig – “How Covid Lies Destroyed Kids’ Lives” The Wall Street Journal: Philip Wallach – “‘An Abundance of Caution’ and ‘In Covid’s Wake’: Failing the Pandemic Test” Washington Examiner: Jesse Adams – “David Zweig proves the fog of war is no excuse for the damage done to children’s education in the name of public health” The 74: Greg Toppo – “Journalist David Zweig Calls COVID School Closures ‘A False Story About Medical Consensus’”

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by David L. Roll, founder of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, to discuss his latest book, Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World. They chat about Truman’s struggles to emerge as president in his own right after his accidental ascension to the office and how Truman’s decisions during these pivotal years changed the course of the world in ways so significant we live with them today.Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690665/ascent-to-power-by-david-l-roll/Show Notes:Foreign Affairs: Jessica T. Mathews – “Review: ‘Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged From Roosevelt’s Shadow and Remade the World’”https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/ascent-power-how-truman-emerged-roosevelts-shadow-and-remade-worldWall Street Journal: Robert W. Merry – “’Ascent to Power’ Review: Harry Truman’s Moment”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/ascent-to-power-review-harry-trumans-moment-e5654cb0

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by David Reynolds, emeritus professor of international history at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, to discuss his latest book, Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him. They reevaluate Churchill’s life by viewing it through the eyes of his allies and adversaries like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, FDR, Chamberlain, Attlee, De Gaulle, and Gandhi, as well as his own family. They also chat about Churchill’s lifelong struggle to overcome his political failures and his evolving grasp of what “greatness” truly entailed. Get the book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-reynolds/mirrors-of-greatness/9781541620209/?lens=basic-booksShow Notes:The Wall Street Journal: Robert D. Kaplan – “‘Mirrors of Greatness’ Review: Churchill’s Personal Diplomacy”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/mirrors-of-greatness-review-churchills-personal-diplomacy-c8e300e3Washington Examiner: Sean Durns – “Making history with Winston Churchill”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2838794/making-history-with-winston-churchill/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Richard Carwardine, Emeritus Rhodes Professor of American History and Distinguished Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University, to discuss his new book, Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union. They chat about how the tensions surrounding the moral quandary of slavery cracked the United States in half, and even formed rifts within the North itself, how Lincoln proclaimed more days of national fasting and thanksgiving than any other president before or since, and how these pauses for spiritual reflection provided the inspirational rhetoric and ideological fuel that sustained the war.Get the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/24975/righteous-strife-by-richard-carwardine/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Yuval Levin, the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy, to discuss his new book, American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation―and Could Again. They chat about the Constitution’s true genius and reveals how it charts a path to repairing America’s fault lines. They also discuss the Constitution’s exceptional power to facilitate constructive disagreement, negotiate resolutions to disputes, and forge unity in a fractured society.Get the book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/yuval-levin/american-covenant/9780465040742/?lens=basic-booksShow Notes:The Atlantic: Yuval Levin – “What’s Wrong With Congress (And How to Fix It)”https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/congress-reform-filibuster-constitution/678604/Commentary: Tal Fortgang – “We Are the Reformers We’ve Been Waiting For”https://www.commentary.org/articles/tal-fortgang/american-covenant-constitution/The Dispatch: Ben Rolsma – “The Constitution That Binds Us”https://thedispatch.com/article/the-constitution-that-binds-us/Law & Liberty: Charles C.W. Cooke – “A Roadmap—If We Want It”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/a-roadmap-if-we-want-it/Law & Liberty: John G. Grove – “The Latent Wisdom in Our Constitution”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-latent-wisdom-in-our-constitution/Law & Liberty: Mark Landy – “How the Constitution Unifies the Country”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/how-the-constitution-unifies-the-country/Law & Liberty: Scott Yenor – “Can Our Constitutional Order be Revived?”https://lawliberty.org/book-review/can-our-constitutional-order-be-revived/National Review: Matthew J. Franck – “The Constitution We Still Need”https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/08/the-constitution-we-still-need/Washington Examiner: Michael M. Rosen – “Yuval Levin’s constitutional glue”https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/3064559/constitutional-lore/Washington Free Beacon: - Robert P. George – “A Constitution, If You Can Keep It”https://freebeacon.com/culture/a-constitution-if-you-can-keep-it-2/The Washington Post: Ramesh Ponnuru – “The Constitution was supposed to be a uniter, not a divider”https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/18/yuval-levin-american-covenant-review-essay/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Jonathan W. White, professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University, to discuss his new book, co-authored with William J. Griffing, A Great and Good Man: Rare, First-Hand Accounts and Observations of Abraham Lincoln. They chat about the excerpts of the more than 200 previously unpublished accounts written by men and women who lived during the Civil War featured in the book, what the writers thought about Lincoln, and how these letters and diaries shed new life on Lincoln’s life, his contemporary reputation during the war and before his assassination, and how his death instantaneously turned Lincoln into a revered martyr. Get the book here: https://www.reedypress.com/shop/a-great-and-good-man-rare-first-hand-accounts-of-abraham-lincoln/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Cara Rogers Stevens, associate professor of history at Ashland University, to discuss her book Thomas Jefferson and the Fight against Slavery. They chat about the evolution of Jefferson’s views on race and slavery, his legislative attempts to put the practice on a pathway to extinction in Virginia beginning in the colonial period, the antislavery intentions of his lone book, Notes on the State of Virginia, and how he tried to persuade younger slaveholders to embrace emancipation.Get the book here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700635979/Show Notes:The Imaginative Conservative: Bradley J. Birzer – “Redeeming (Mostly) Thomas Jefferson”https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/07/thomas-jefferson-cara-rogers-stevens-fight-slavery-bradley-birzer.html

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Anthony Eames, director of scholarly initiatives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, non-resident fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and professorial lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, to discuss his new book, A Voice in Their Own Destiny: Reagan, Thatcher, and Public Diplomacy in the Nuclear 1980s. They chat about how the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher used innovations in public diplomacy to build back support for their foreign policy agendas at a moment of widespread popular dissent. They also discuss how ow competition between the governments of Reagan and Thatcher, the Anglo-American antinuclear movement, and the Soviet peace offensive sparked a revolution in public diplomacy.Get the book here: https://www.umasspress.com/9781625347107/a-voice-in-their-own-destiny/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Maurice Isserman, Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College, to discuss his new book, Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism. They chat about the deeply contradictory nature of the history of the Communist Party USA, the history of the American far left, and how the Bolshevik Revolution skewed the American far left. They also discuss CPUSA’s unwavering faith in the Soviet Union, how many American communists became involved in espionage on behalf of the USSR, and the organization’s decline into political irrelevance. Get the book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/maurice-isserman/reds/9781541620032/?lens=basic-booksShow Notes:The American Prospect: Harold Meyerson – “Red Weather Vanes”https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-08-08-red-weather-vanes-isserman-review/The Bulwark: Ron Radosh – “How and Why American Communism Failed”https://www.thebulwark.com/p/communism-failed-maurice-isserman-reds-reviewForeign Policy: Casey Michel: “The Contradictions of America’s Communist Party”https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/07/communist-party-america-history-illiberal-democracy/The Wall Street Journal: Joseph Epstein – “‘Reds’ Review: Communism in the U.S.A.”https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/reds-review-communism-in-the-u-s-a-1e0b14d7

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Spencer D. Bakich, Professor of International Studies and Director of the National Security Program at the Virginia Military Institute, and Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, to discuss his new book, The Gulf War: George H. W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era. They chat about how Bush fashioned a grand strategy to bring about a New World Order designed to transform international politics by focusing on great power cooperation through the United Nations, how Bush’s strategic beliefs oriented American statecraft in peace and war, and how the war’s outcome exposed faulty assumptions about the international system that underpinned that strategy.Get the book here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636884/the-gulf-war/