Conservative Memoir

This has been the most controversial pontificate in memory. Catholics are taking sides, for and against the pope and each other. Some Catholics like everything Pope Francis says and does. Others think he’s tearing the Church apart. Some say he’s a breath of fresh air. Others say he’s sowing confusion in the ranks. In recent months three best-selling books have appeared criticizing Francis. Are their criticisms warranted, or do they go too far? How are faithful Catholics to understand this pontificate, and what limits, if any, should there be on criticizing a reigning pope?

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Elizabeth II: The Steadfast by Douglas Hurd, read by Jeremy Clyde. Elizabeth II is the longest-serving monarch who ever sat on the English or British throne. Yet her personality and influence remain elusive. This book, by a senior politician who has spent significant periods of time in her company, and is also a distinguished historian, portrays her more credibly than any other yet published.

With the advent of several controversial social movements in subsequent decades, a non-traditional style of editorial persona began to take control of the news machinery in America. The weighing of ideas gave way to exclusive promotion of a specific world view, and the omission of all opposition within a devotee’s range of hearing. The American right found the voice it needed in the supremely gifted Rush Hudson Limbaugh III. Limbaugh possessed an unmatchable rhetorical reflex, a well-informed sense of each argument’s gist, and a flair for the politically incorrect.