As the decade comes to a close, I would like to thank National Review for giving me the opportunity to put forward this annual list of books that you should read. This is my seventh list since 2013. For this one, I have put a lot more emphasis on political books because, like most thinking Americans, I am striving to understand our dynamic and unpredictable landscape. Incredibly useful in this regard were two books by authors well-known to NR readers: Alienated America, by Tim Carney, and The Smallest Minority, by Kevin D. Williamson.
In Alienated America, Carney captures the enormous differences in 21st-century American between tight-knit communities and alienated communities, and the political implications of those differences. He sees religion as a stabilizing force, noting that “popular culture likes to paint the dark picture of religion in America, but the actual data point the other way.” Carney observes, however, that religion’s ability to stabilize social institutions and create community is increasingly limited as younger generations turn away from any faith at all. He notes rather grimly that “if you have to choose between plentiful worry-free sex and church, then church is fighting an uphill fight.”
