A very smart but also very fun piece. A real labor of love about Warhammer (and its dark appeal to the right.) open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Several books about the Odyssey have been timed to come out along with Christopher Nolan's new movie. Here—in her Bulwark writing debut—is Alyssa Rosenberg with a review of two: one by anti-liberalism icon Patrick Deneen, the other by classicist Joel Christensen. www.thebulwark.com/p/are-we-rea...

This kind of John Birch Society rhetoric used to be the sort of thing most Americans laughed at. Now it’s just standard issue GOP talking points.

Absolutely stoked to publish one of my favorite critics and culture writers today. www.thebulwark.com/p/are-we-rea...

Possible foreign policy implications from Graham’s sudden death: no guarantee that the next SC senator won’t be an America First isolationist rather than a turbo hawk.

Thank you to @joshuatait.bsky.social and @thebulwark.com for publishing my take on JD Vance's recent defense of Richard Nixon. I couldn't help myself, especially since the speech took place down the hall from my old job. www.thebulwark.com/p/vance-and-...

Platner Out: National Review hardest hit.

Nixon---ironic, unfiltered, prejudiced, resentful---has become an avatar of the MAGA right, as Michael Koncewicz shows. www.thebulwark.com/p/vance-and-...

Everyone eventually makes some sort of neocon explainer chart or device, and I am glad to have found this glossary from the Rothbard-Rockwell Report. Some things never change!

A short libertarian quiz, courtesy of Murray N. Rothbard. Are you a paleolibertarian or a nihilolibertarain/modal libertarian?

I can't believe Trump radicalized conservatives on immigration.

Check out our new book, Frontiers of American Reaction Vol. 1! This ebook collects essays written from 2022 to 2026 and takes on themes ranging from myths and MAGA to the tech right and liberalism. Download it for free now! www.illiberalism.org/frontiers-of...

As an American history professor, I regularly read new books, articles, and dissertations, and also evaluate unpublished manuscripts for journals and book publishers. I would not categorize the recent and emerging historiography in the binary way that Ezra Klein does.

My friend @lkatfield.bsky.social has execrable Trumpian id Michael Anton utterly dead to rights in this piece (and elsewhere). www.thebulwark.com/p/how-trumpi...

Here is a super thoughtful essay on the nature of neutrality and the way the Supreme Court lies to us (and to itself?) www.thebulwark.com/p/the-suprem...

I thought this was a super fun read. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-the-tr...

America at 250 faces a challenge: how to preserve liberty without sliding into blind deference or corrosive cynicism. Gordon Wood's work remains a guide. @joshuamzeitz.bsky.social' latest uses the history of the American Revolution to explain the paradox that lies at the center of American life.

A really super read and thoughtful essay about Americans, democracy, and authority with challenging contemporary resonances.

Snapshots from the @reaganinstitute.bsky.social's "Cities on a Hill" retreat, which I was honored to co-convene at the Greenbrier in the Alleghenies. Here's our lively panel on history vs. nostalgia with Bev Gage, @kathrynbrownell.bsky.social, and @joshuatait.bsky.social, moderated by yours truly.

Thread.

Excellent review of an important book. www.thebulwark.com/p/jd-vances-...

My piece for @thebulwark.com on far right podcaster Auron MacIntyre. www.thebulwark.com/p/far-right-...

Really great piece by @mattpolprof.bsky.social that could be called "The Closing of the Chud Mind." www.thebulwark.com/p/far-right-...

There is such a pronounced dynamic where certain Twitter figureheads say explicitly they are not racist or not antisemites, but their followers all 100 percent know the score. If these accounts aren't horrified by their followers then they are in on the whole laundering process.

Far-Right Pastor Rejects "Performative Poverty" But Tells Church-goers to Give Till It Hurts. Johnson is a harbinger of politicized churches that skirt their tax-exempt status. www.thebulwark.com/p/meet-the-m...

Possible corollary to O'Sullivan's Law: All organizations that are founded as "heterodox" will over time become explicitly MAGA.

A First Things essay that argues against headphones on the grounds they are anti-contemplative and create the illusion of re-enchantment.

RIP Gordon Wood. We've lost something special. www.golocalprov.com/news/pulitze...

This has been something I've been meaning to write for quite some time and the Homer contretemps gave it the opportunity. The thing I most wanted to draw out is that it isn't one fool on Twitter with a helmet, but a radicalization pipeline designed to lead antiquity-curious young men into fascism.

If you’ve been on Twitter you’ll see that statue avi weirdos have been having a years-long meltdown over Classics. @bretdevereaux.bsky.social tells us why. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-stone-...

Shoutout to Policy Review for this hilarious ad/article pairing.

Very cool work here by Matt Dallek at @thebulwark.com

This is a wild ride of a story with eerie contemporary resonances. www.thebulwark.com/p/john-birch...

I had a great time with this group.

Every day is just "Give us Barabbas! Give us Barabbas!"

I didn't know this was an option.

Libertarianism may be a dead end, but Trump sure as heck isn't the answer.

Smart analysis on the nativist hard right’s freak out over Neil Gorsuch and the American creed open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Only Nixon can go to China; but only Trump can go to China and sell out America.

For @theipaper.com, I tried to explain why we live in a world where Laura Loomer is still a thing. inews.co.uk/opinion/pro-...

Calvin: Lists. Hobbes? Also lists

My latest weekly roundup of reading and listening recommendations, taking in militarism and conflict in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, new reactionary modes of governance, and institutional racism in Britain, among other themes. 🧵

Pretty restrained, as these things go.

I suppose now we’ll see a remigration — of rightwing intellectuals out of Hungary.

In my most recent post on To Live is To Maneuver, I mentioned the rehabilitation (or celebration) of Paul Gottfried — a major figure in the episode I was writing about. Well: wapo.st/4vuig7K

Feed: "To Live Is To Maneuver" By: Joshua Tait on Wednesday, April 8, 2026

A 1986 meeting of conservative minds represents a funny and interesting episode in intellectual history, but it also prefigures fault lines present with us today. It created victors and martyrs whose positions have now reversed. open.substack.com/pub/joshuata...