With its Fall 2025/Winter 2026 double issue, the Claremont Review of Books celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is full of excellent essays and learned reviews. I’ve been working my way through its 154 oversize pages. Some of the reviews are written by friends and acquaintances I esteem, such as Wilfred McClay, Jean Yarbrough, and Paul Rahe. Their contributions make the 25th anniversary issue itself something to be celebrated.
Among my favorites in the issue is Randy Barnett’s review of the biography of Charles Sumner by Zaakir Tameez. Tameez’s biography is Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation. Professor Barnett’s review is “Radical Republican.”
A second favorite is a good companion to Professor Barnett’s review. Diana Schaub reviews a compilation of Frederick Douglass’s writings on Abraham Lincoln. The compilation, edited by Lucas Morel and Jonathan White, is Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln. Professor Schaub’s review is “Citizen Friendship” (behind the CRB paywall). In the review, Professor Schaub reconciles Douglass’s apparently contradictory assessments of Lincoln. I found her review to be a moving tour de force.
Earlier this week I just finished my third favorite, an essay which the CRB has now made accessible to nonsubscribers: “Clint Eastwood’s long run,” by Doug Jeffrey. Doug is vice president for external affairs at Hillsdale College, editor of Imprimis, and a formidable writer in his own right.
My idea of the world’s best conversation starter is, “What’s your favorite Clint Eastwood movie?” Doug’s essay both instructs and delights. It helped to fill the gaps in my knowledge of the Eastwood canon and suggests to me that I can rightly go with The Outlaw Josey Wales as my favorite Eastwood movie.
