Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday reading: Six books by Republican presidential hopefuls, Kissinger’s world view, Khodorkovsky’s notes on prison, Bob Hope’s demonic will to entertain, visionary William Blake, and how apocalyptic movements have always appealed to alienated youth. THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY WOLF HALL

The Road from Westphalia Jessica T. Mathews Henry Kissinger’s learned, thoughtful, often fascinating World Order sheds much light on the past but has surprisingly little to say about the present or the future.   ADVERTISEMENT   2016: The Republicans Write Michael Tomasky The 2016 election appears destined to be about the condition of the middle class and the issue of wage stagnation. But in six recent books by likely GOP presidential contenders, one hardly encounters the word “wages.”   My Fellow Prisoners Mikhail Khodorkovsky I’m writing these notes because I want people who care about these things to know what I have personally experienced in prison. I’ve discovered that for many people the prison world remains terra incognita.   How He Captured America Frank Rich Biographer Richard Zoglin tells Bob Hope’s story in authoritative detail. But his real mission is to explain and to counter the collapse of Hope’s cultural status, a decline that began well before his death and accelerated posthumously.   Lure of the Caliphate Malise Ruthven Apocalyptic movements under a charismatic leader have always appealed to people who are at the margins or who are seeking some new source of meaning. Until we properly recognize this tradition we will have difficulty fulfilling Obama’s goal of destroying ISIS.   William Blake: Wonderful and Strange Jenny Uglow Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum has always been a place of surprises, which has made it an absolutely fitting place for “William Blake: Apprentice and Master,” an exhibition that is at once didactic and very strange.