Book Review: No Apologies

Why Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men

Anthony Esolen has the distinction of being one of my favorite writers, even though I haven’t read much by him. He earned this on the strength of his Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child and his lament on the death of male friendship. That’s all it took.

I picked up his latest book because the title was an obvious statement of fact, and I wanted to see how he expanded upon it. I was not disappointed.

This book is not designed to change hearts and minds. No hardcore feminist will read this and have the scales fall from her eyes absent some miracle. It is not written for that. But the sad state of our culture is that even reasonable folks have begun to doubt that men are uniquely suited for anything. Like King Theoden being led to despair and ruin, the whispers of Wormtongue have worn us down.

This book is like the Horn of Rohan. It seeks to rally the faithful out of their stupor. In the introduction, Esolen says that he is writing a book that should not have to be written. And that is true. This book is full of obvious things.

But obvious things many have forgotten.