Books, Arts & Manners: Bitter Medicines

This Will Hurt: The Restoration of Virtue and Civic Order, edited by Digby Anderson (National Review Books, 183 pp., $19.93)

SHUN sinners. Ostracize bastards. Practice retribution. Reconsider branding and the pillory. Stop dithering about intentions; focus on what people do. Stop expecting community from cities; they cannot deliver. If these things fail, “employ the skillful services of a Messer Remirro de Oreo— that cruel and expeditious man—who reduced Romagna to peace and unity.”