Fate of the West
Where Western civilization is headed. History, demography, culture and power, with serious attention to both decline and renewal.
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This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Fate of the West. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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Ross Douthat: How to Survive the Robot Apocalypse
The prophets of AI doom have outlined the ways the technology might kill us all in a series of gripping yarns, writes Ross Douthat. Are they convincing?
Tough Love: My Ex-Wife Turned My Brothers Against Me
‘It wouldn’t be fair to say my brothers are spineless. Perhaps they are wise,’ writes a 47-year-old divorcé. ‘Wise enough to accept their wives’ position, which is that I’m the bad guy.’ Our advice columnist, Abigail Shrier, weighs in.
Has Sally Rooney Been Censored? Plus
Anthony Scaramucci’s advice for Trump’s new press secretary. Why modern dating is rigged against ordinary men. The shocking scale of the debanking scandal. And more.
How Modern Dating Left Ordinary Men Behind
There is only one group that has far worse dating outcomes than almost everyone else: young, single men without college degrees. That’s because the system is rigged against them, writes Daniel Cox.
Sally Rooney Is No Free Speech Hero
If you believe best-selling Irish author Sally Rooney, then she has just been censored by the United Kingdom’s government. On Wednesday, Rooney announced that her publisher had concluded that the sale of her novels in Britain could constitute a serious criminal offense, and so the books were being withdrawn from sale in the country.
How Long Will Katie Zacharia Last as Press Secretary? We Asked Anthony Scaramucci
Anthony Scaramucci knows what it’s like to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day working for Donald Trump. As the president’s communications director in 2017, Scaramucci ended his first and only White House briefing by blowing a kiss to the press as he left the podium. Ten days later, he was fired.
How Debanking Took Hold Inside the Biggest Banks
Only two years ago, the idea that some Americans were being “debanked,” or cut off from financial institutions after being deemed politically incorrect, extreme, or dangerous, was often dismissed as a conspiracy or an accident.
Winnie-the-Pooh’s Most Important Lesson
Winnie-the-Pooh turns 100 today. Actually, that’s not quite true. Yes, A.A. Milne’s beloved book Winnie-the-Pooh, with equally beloved illustrations by E.H. Shepard, was first published on October 14, 1926. But the eponymous bear first appeared by name in a short story—illustrated by J.H. Dowd rather than Shepard—that Milne then expanded into the first chapter of what quickly became and has remained a classic of children’s literature.
Allie Beth Stuckey and Deja Foxx: Do We Need Feminism?
Is feminism still helping women in 2026? Or is the movement holding them back?
Who Will Govern Israel? Plus
No, your kid doesn’t need extra time on tests. President Trump’s disastrous diesel deal. And more.
No, Your Kid Probably Doesn’t Need Extra Time on Tests
The hardest part of my job is when I have to tell parents that their children are completely fine. I’m a neuropsychologist in New York City with more than a decade of experience specializing in neuropsychological evaluations and therapy for kids with learning and attention deficit disorders. But in recent years, I’ve noticed a marked shift in my private practice. Rather than dreading a diagnosis signaling their kid has a learning disability, my clients have come to expect and hope for one.
Trump’s Disastrous Diesel Deal
Toward the end of his 2024 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump pledged to “cut your energy costs in half within 12 months after taking office.” The promise was outlandish, but Trump is hardly the first politician to make outlandish promises. In his first 12 months in office, the price of gas did come down, modestly, as did the price of heating oil.
The Future of Israel May Belong to This Man
The Netanyahu era could end this month with a victory by Gadi Eisenkot, the plainspoken former IDF chief who wants to disempower the populist right, writes Yonah Jeremy Bob.
How Will Israelis—and History—Judge Benjamin Netanyahu?
In Israel’s first election since October 7, voters will deliver a verdict on their longest-serving prime minister. Haviv Rettig Gur, Michael Oren, Yossi Klein Halevi, and others weigh his record.
Douglas Murray: The International Criminal Court Is a Sham
Recent years have seen a flourishing of BS institutions. There is the International Association of Genocide Scholars, an organization that suddenly leaped to prominence last year when it was reactivated in order to accuse Israel of “genocide” in Gaza; there is the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a politicized pseudo-court that seems determined to fast-track that same genocide allegation; there is the United Nations Human Rights Council, whose only standing agenda item devoted to a single country is, yes, about the Jewish state;
Will Israel Ditch Netanyahu? With Haviv Rettig Gur
Israelis are at a crossroads. The country is voting for the first time since October 7. Haviv Rettig Gur breaks down what’s on the ballot.
This Week in Canada: The Mayor Who Won’t Fly the Israeli Flag
The truth comes out in a reelection campaign; a big stink about an F-bomb; the Supreme Court goes in circles; and more.
Don’t Livestream the Death Penalty. Plus
The president vs. the Somalis. Why Jews are leaving this Ivy League feeder school. The young heirs of Carlos the Jackal. And more.
When, Not If: The Baltics Prepare for War
Lithuanian and Latvian leaders won’t say when they expect war with Russia, but they’re planning as if it’s already begun.
Tyler Cowen: America Needs African Immigrants
I have been pro-immigration since I first started thinking about the subject in the 1970s, but in recent times a new issue has come to the forefront: large-scale immigration from Africa, and specifically sub-Saharan Africa. The president recently has helped inflame this debate, posting on Truth Social last week that Minnesotans should “fight back” against Somali immigrants he says have “taken over” the state. It seems to be a good time for a fuller accounting of what immigration from Africa will mean for America, at scale and over time.
The Heirs of Carlos the Jackal
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was 20 years old when he arrived in Beirut in 1970 and made his way to the offices of al-Hadaf, a weekly Arabic-language newspaper. Deputy editor Bassam Abu Sharif welcomed the young Venezuelan, but they didn’t discuss feature stories or a reporting job.
I Support the Death Penalty. Don’t Livestream It
On a summer morning in 1936, thousands of people packed the streets of Owensboro, Kentucky, to watch a man hang. Rainey Bethea had been convicted of rape and murder, and his execution drew a crowd that treated it like a circus. Vendors sold hot dogs and drinks near the gallows. “Spectators jeered throughout, even while Bethea prayed,” legal historian Stuart Banner writes in The Death Penalty: An American History.
Why Jewish Families Fled This Elite Prep School
In the spring of 2024, a Jewish student at San Francisco University High School (UHS) told his parents that something alarming had happened in a ninth-grade class. Instead of a lesson about African colonialism, the teacher denounced Israel, Zionists, and what he called “colonizers,” according to parents.
Niall Ferguson: Why Europe Is Burning
“The most French thing I’ve ever seen” was a couple sipping wine in a sidewalk café, probably discussing Jean-Paul Sartre, while a fire started by protesters raged on the other side of the boulevard. Disappointingly, the video posted on X was from three years ago, but it suited the moment last week.
El-Sayed’s Unanswered Questions. Plus
Rod Dreher’s dispatch from NatCon Jerusalem. Arthur Brooks on why you shouldn’t pursue happiness. Helen Andrews says the ‘great feminization’ has come to Cornell. And more.
The Bible Story Every Atheist Should Read, with Megan Phelps-Roper
Watch now (70 mins) | She spent her childhood protesting funerals in the name of God. Now she can’t stop reading His book.
Abdul El-Sayed’s Unanswered Questions
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Few things seem to infuriate Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed more than questions about the Iranian regime.
Arthur Brooks: Don’t Pursue Happiness
As someone who has dedicated my life to studying happiness, I am often asked two related questions: What is happiness? And how do we pursue it? During this semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, those questions have taken on new urgency. Two hundred and fifty years ago, after all, Thomas Jefferson famously declared that we have the God-given right to “the pursuit of happiness.”
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