Country
Story Stream
Mental Pastoral September 20, 2024
What does it mean to be “country?” Is it a location, a disposition, or an attitude? Or, as some people say of conservatism, is it something more mysterious, like a sensibility?What is the “pastoral” in art and literature? Is it a genre or a mode? Doe...
Can a Rapper Make Real Country Music? September 20, 2024
“I told him it was not the perfect country and western song—because he hadn’t said anything at all about mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin’ drunk.”–David Allan Coe, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name”Is the rapper Post Malone a count...
George Gilder's Brilliant 'The Israel Test' September 19, 2024
Without defending some (or a lot) of its anti-growth economic policies, the easily-forgotten truth is that California is by far the most enterprising, entrepreneurial state in the most enterprising, entrepreneurial country in the world. Evidence supp...
We Are in a Writing Renaissance September 19, 2024
When I started trying to get into journalism in the early 2010s, the old newspaper business model was in terminal crisis. Whole newsrooms were being laid off. Thousands of newspapers across the country were folding or going online-only. A new crop of...
Essential Reading on the Constitution September 17, 2024
As Constitution Day falls on September 17, we are in the midst of an historically divisive election season. The gaps between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservative have never seemed wider – and many Americans even feel alienated from th...
Midland’s Giant Leap September 17, 2024
By all rights, Midland should be hitting the slots right now. The Austin, Texas, trio are the funnest thing going in country music, the types of guys who, last April, hosted their own Caribbean cruise, where singer Mark Wystrach blew a cool $1,200 on...
The First Great Memoir of the Trump Years September 17, 2024
Emily Witt didn’t set out to write the first great book about what it was like to live through the Trump presidency, the beginning of the pandemic, and the radical moral and political shifts that happened in America between 2016 and 2020. Instead, sh...
On 'Creation Lake' September 16, 2024
The thematic and historical reach of Rachel Kushner’s fourth novel is ambitiously broad, taking in the lives and art of Neanderthals, the mysterious medieval culture of the persecuted Cagot minority in France, and the political sundering of that coun...
The “Return” of Miranda Lambert September 13, 2024
Miranda Lambert grinned as she stood on the smallest stage she’s played in years. She’d just debuted an irreverent, rowdy hook—“Are we in love, or are we just drunk?” from “Bitch on the Sauce (Just Drunk)”—to the thrilled screams of 180 dedicated fan...
Never Trumpers Are on a War Footing September 13, 2024
If you want to know where we are as a country, get your hands on a copy of Robert Kagan’s new book, Rebellion. Don’t worry, you won’t even need to crack the spine and open it. Kagan, who married the Queen of Eternal War Victoria Nuland and helped fou...
Vivienne September 12, 2024
Vesta Furio is grinding her teeth as she often does in the deep sleep hour before waking. Franz, whom her father named after the artist Franz Kline, sleeps beside her, and the crepuscular sounds emanating from her mouth stir him awake. He leaves the ...
Philosophy of the People September 11, 2024
‘As they say that Helen of Argos had that universal beauty that every body felt related to her, so Plato seems to a reader in New England an American genius. His broad humanity transcends all sectional lines.’– from ‘Plato; or, the Philosopher’; Repr...
The Babbitt School of Conservatism September 10, 2024
In the 2020s, “conservatism” sounds passé, and its failure is taken for granted. A new right finds inspiration less in Russell Kirk or Edmund Burke than in Carl Schmitt, and the history of the conservative movement up to 2016 seems largely irrelevant...
Beyond the Cult of Self-Reliant Bootstrapping September 09, 2024
My ventures in attempting to lift myself up by my bootstraps led me to videos filled with hyperbolic exhortations aimed at motivating young men just like me. “Absolutely everything that happens in your life—whether it’s good or bad—is completely your...
Celebrating the Centennial of the Most Underappreciated American of Our Time September 06, 2024
The following essay is adapted from the recently released book Lessons in Liberty: Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans (HarperCollins) September 7th marks the one-hundredth birthday of one of the most extraordinary and inspiring...
Anya Gillinson's Remarkable 'Dreaming In Russian' September 06, 2024
“Think about your most embarrassing moment. Then multiply it many times. That’s what it feels like when your clients are losing money.” The latter is a paraphrase of Shelwyn Weston, a senior wealth manager at Goldman Sachs back in 1998. She was speak...
Language and Leonard Michaels September 05, 2024
All that great writing, trapped in mediocre books! —Elif BatumanCatachresis leads to anthropophagy. —David Bentley HartOrdinary people have a right to feel harassed when their language is criticized. We have grammar school for that kind of thing afte...
Party in the U-S-A September 05, 2024
“Do you still love America?” Hundreds of fraternity brothers, Jewish college students, and their dates respond to the question, posed by country musician John Rich, by howling with delight into the night sky. Two girls, both in white dresses and cowb...
An Interview With Jon Lauck September 05, 2024
JMC Resident Historian Elliott Drago sat down with JMC Network Scholar Jon Lauck to discuss his new book, The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800-1900....
How Gillian Welch and David Rawlings Do It September 03, 2024
For 30 years now, Gillian Welch and her partner David Rawlings have been making music together. Their country-folk songs, delivered in beautiful two-part harmony and often featuring Rawlings’ intricate guitar work, are steeped with a century’s worth ...
Nick Cave Talks Grief, Joy, and Wild God September 02, 2024
Nick Cave doesn’t get enough credit for being funny. To explain to me why his Australian accent is still so strong despite his having left the country in 1980, he begins doing an impression of his wild-haired musical partner Warren Ellis. “I just hav...
The Growing Gender Divide, Three Minutes at a Time September 02, 2024
My friends gave me a bit of grief for the headline of one of my recent articles: “The ‘Espresso’ Theory of Gender Relations.” The title, admittedly, was a bit heady for a story about a catchy song full of beverage-related puns. Was I overintellectual...
Private Equity Is Coming for Youth Sports September 02, 2024
Cooperstown All Star Village sits on a southwest-facing slope in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in Oneonta, New York. It’s about a 20-mile drive south of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown proper. Like many businesses in the a...
