Empirical
“Empirical,” by Rex Wilder.
As I can fathom neither endlessness
nor the miracle work of deities,
I hypothesize, assume, and guess.
The fact that I love
you and you love me
is all I can prove
and proves me.
In This Issue
Articles
A Time for Choosing
The conservative movement has never been a uniform, doctrinaire group. Pro and anti-Trump conservatives have a chance to forge a stronger movement.
Europe’s Left Collapses — Or Does It?
A rejection of social democrats is reconfiguring the continent’s politics.
The Happiest Census
What the Forbes billionaires list tells us about how to get rich in America.
Features
The Anthropology of Manhood
In our modern age, how does a man demonstrate his worthiness if he has no children to raise and no enemy to fight?
Books, Arts & Manners
A New, Old Geopolitics
Mackubin Thomas Owens reviews ‘The Return of Marco Polo’s World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century,’ by Robert D. Kaplan.
Wisdom Literature
Tracy Lee Simmons reviews Leading a Worthy Life: Finding Meaning in Modern Times, by Leon R. Kass.
The Age of Fighters
Michael Brendan Dougherty reviews The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled the Ring, by Paul Beston, and A Ringside Affair: Boxing’s Last Golden Age, by James Lawton.
A Scholar and His Times
Jibran Khan reviews Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography, by Robert Irwin.
A Shocking Flopperoo
Jay Nordlinger on the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Gustavo Dudamel at Carnegie Hall.
Sections
The Incalculable Loss
Nothing says “middle-aged, Sunday, married, no football on” like walking through the big-box hardware store with a toilet seat under each arm…
Remember the Razor
Once upon a time I had friends who shaved. Now I have friends who look like roadies for the Doobie Brothers.