Author Archives: Bill Kauffman

What Drove Booth Tarkington?

How a 20th-century gentleman from Indiana fought giantism

James Webb, War Novelist

The former senator’s literary work displays his noninterventionist past and appealing populism.

America’s Home-Made Art

The essential work of reclaiming local artisanship

The Zephyr Before the Storm

How one underdog candidate heralds a coming political hurricane

Love Is the Answer to Empire

Reclaiming citizenship means rescuing the color and vitality of home from the march of imperial gray.

Grover Cleveland’s Better Half

Frankie Cleveland was known for wearing low-cut gowns and selling liver pills.

Still America First

Quaker Oats heir Bob Stuart fought to keep America at peace—then he went to war.

John Milius: A Real Wolverine

The 70-year-old filmmaker is an authentic rebel and a true son of liberty.

The Hyperlocal Beat

The Batavian is both crux of local culture, and beacon to small-town America newspapers.

Vermont’s Republican Radical

John McClaughry brings an “ornery” yet humane spirit to American politics.

What Rural America Is For

Farmers aren’t cannon-fodder—or dangerous gun nuts, either.

Paranoia Will Destroy Ya

Neighborliness usually trumps hysteria—it’s the placeless who fall for conspiracies.

How Not to Watch ‘Copperhead’

Sidney Blumenthal misunderstands a film about peace, community, and the limits of dissent—not the Union or Confederate causes.

A League of My Home

Baseball at its best is about place, not players.

For President Buchanan

The screenwriter of the new Civil War movie “Copperhead” on historical fiction and one of America’s least loved leaders.

Look Homeward, Devil

The tenth anniversary of a little book about the America overshadowed by war: Dispatches From the Muckdog Gazette.

The Utica Club

Pledging allegiance to Little America

I Clean My Gun and Dream of Galveston

Singer Glen Campbell (1936-2017)

Who Needs a President?

The Founders’ greatest error

Party Animus

Why your vote doesn’t matter

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