Out on a Limb: Selected Writing, 1989–2021

Sixty essays from Sullivan (Virtually Normal), former editor of the New Republic, are collected in this frank critique of America’s social and political culture. The pieces, which come from the New Republic, the New York Times and New York magazine, among other publications, are organized chronologically. “The Princess Bride,” from 1997, studies the phenomenon of Princess Diana’s fame, while 2007’s “Goodbye to All That: Why Obama Matters” sees Sullivan arguing that the case for an Obama presidency “has less to do with him than with the moment he is meeting.” “Why I Blog,” from 2008, meanwhile, takes a look at Sullivan’s early dabbling with online journalism, wherein he found blogging an “exhilarating literary liberation,” and 2016’s “Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic” uses Plato’s Republic to study Trump’s presidency. The author takes provocative views on such topics as campus culture (which he admonishes for turning “away from liberal education... toward the imperatives of an identity-based ‘social justice’ movement”) and the concept of hate crimes (he’s wary of them as “an oddly biased category”)—and readers across the political spectrum will find themselves under fire. Fans of Sullivan’s work are sure to enjoy having his intellectual curiosity and impassioned prose collected in one place. (Aug.)