City Desk: After the Fall

■ How to Destroy a Village: What the Clintons Taught a Seventeen Year Old (PublishAmerica, 228 pp., $19.95) is one of the most remarkable documents to emerge from the Clinton era. Its author, Jason D. Fodeman, was the 17-year-old of the title; and his book is a very young man’s passionate reflection on the decade of scandals. Though its subject is clearly political— because its main characters are politicians—it’s not chiefly just another scandal book but a work of moral instruction. Fodeman tells the well-known stories from the Clinton years and asks the pointed question: Is this how people should behave? Fortunately, however, moral truth outlasts the vices even of the most powerful; and when looking for role models we would be wise to heed the words of the psalmist, “Put not your trust in princes” (146:3). NR Buy JINGO!

Patriotize your office, family room, or den with these beautiful, full-color keepsake prints (suitable for framing, and printed on heavy stock) of the “Pledge of Allegiance” and “America, the Beautiful.”

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

Department of Education

■ How to Destroy a Village: What the Clintons Taught a Seventeen Year Old (PublishAmerica, 228 pp., $19.95) is one of the most remarkable documents to emerge from the Clinton era. Its author, Jason D. Fodeman, was the 17-year-old of the title; and his book is a very young man’s passionate reflection on the decade of scandals. Though its subject is clearly political— because its main characters are politicians—it’s not chiefly just another scandal book but a work of moral instruction. Fodeman tells the well-known stories from the Clinton years and asks the pointed question: Is this how people should behave? Fortunately, however, moral truth outlasts the vices even of the most powerful; and when looking for role models we would be wise to heed the words of the psalmist, “Put not your trust in princes” (146:3). NR Buy JINGO!

Patriotize your office, family room, or den with these beautiful, full-color keepsake prints (suitable for framing, and printed on heavy stock) of the “Pledge of Allegiance” and “America, the Beautiful.”