“What’s past is prologue” is one of the more famous lines from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It’s a line with great relevance to Frederick Brown’s wonderful new book, For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus, which I review for Commentary magazine here. In his book, Brown explores how nineteenth century France was divided between secular progressives and religious believers. Switch the religious preference, from Roman Catholicism to Islam, and we seem to be witnessing a somewhat similar struggle in France today. Careful though! The full quote reads: “What’s past is prologue, what to come in yours and my discharge.” History is anything but deterministic; study it and we just might avoid making the same mistakes. When it comes to French cultural history, Brown’s important work is an excellent place to start.

Adolph Hitler is commonly regarded as a book-burner, not a book-lover; as a demagogic public ranter, not a demure private reader. But Hitler intimates claimed he loved books and was a voracious reader as evidenced by his personal library which grew to well over 16,000 volumes. The writer Timothy Ryback believes that an examination of Hitler’s private library can tell us a lot about how Hitler became Hitler. Is Ryback on to something? Yes and no as I explain in this article for The Weekly Standard.

Law and Religion: Cases in Context is a new casebook for use in law schools around the country that presents descriptions and discussions of landmark legal cases in the areas of religion and the First Amendment. (To learn more click here.) A full chapter in the book is devoted to Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, which I brought and later litigated at the Supreme Court of the United States together with the brilliant Michael McConnell. To learn more about my role in this landmark case and how Rosenberger left its mark on American law click here.