Michael Brendan Dougherty - America's Future

By Michael Brendan Dougherty • Feb 26,2006

Crunchy-Cons

After the human waste and material destruction of WWII, Russell Kirk and Richard Weaver sallied forth with a political and moral traditionalism (an “anti-ideology”, in Kirk’s phrase) grounded in literary...

By Michael Brendan Dougherty • Jan 29,2006

Searching for style

Andre 3000 and Fonzworth Bentley, the gradual disappearance of casual Fridays, the spate of new men’s magazines, dandyism.net, a “Seersucker Day” in the U.S. Senate — signs point to a...

By Michael Brendan Dougherty • Nov 27,2005

Dream Boogie and the ossification of boomer culture

After Ray and Walk the Line you could be forgiven for hesitating to pick up all 700-something pages of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick. Again,...

By Michael Brendan Dougherty • Nov 13,2005

The perils and pleasures of celebrity adoration: Or how Rachel McAdams is saving my life

In The Shawshank Redemption, the falsely imprisoned Andy obtains posters of movie stars — Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. Everyone understands why these images are comforting. We know...

By Michael Brendan Dougherty • Sep 18,2005

Reading the Weekly Standard reader

In the introduction to The Weekly Standard: A Reader: 1995-2005, Bill Kristol announces that in his selection he attempts to communicate the magazine’s “essential history and its spirit.” Judged by this...

By Michael Brendan Dougherty • May 02,2005

Outgrowing the knowing grin

In Ben Folds’ case, the numbers (most of them fives and threes), tell the story: Ten years ago, Ben Folds formed Ben Folds Five, a Chapel Hill trio he described...

Author: Michael Brendan Dougherty