Biography

Patton, Ike, and my teenage boys

I recently took my two teenage sons to a talk by Frank Kravetz, a 90-year-old World War II veteran who survived Hitler’s Nuremberg prisons. Frank published his story in a memoir, Eleven Two: One WWII Airman’s Story of Capture, Survival … Continue reading

Bonding over baseball

Editor’s note: Another version of this article first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. My cousin Drew is a 45-year-old veteran of the first Gulf War (1991), which he served aboard a battleship in the Persian Gulf. A former high school … Continue reading

Bill Clark, a great man remembered

Editor’s note: This article first appeared at The American Thinker. If you were to list the Americans most critical in facilitating the collapse of the Soviet Union, the name of Bill Clark, or “Judge Clark,” might not be on your … Continue reading

Because faith and freedom matter

Editor’s note: As one of his final works of service to his alma mater before retiring, Dr. John Sparks delivered the 2013 Grove City College commencement address, “Because Faith and Freedom Matter,” on May 18. You can watch Dr. Sparks deliver … Continue reading

My inheritance

The great 20th century novelist Chaim Potok wrote, in his novel, My Name Is Asher Lev, “You have a gift, Asher Lev. You have a responsibility.” My Mom had a gift of 89 years, 89 years to live her life; … Continue reading

Happy Birthday to a Great President

Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com. Sunday, April 28, marks the 255th anniversary of President James Monroe’s birth in 1758. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading one of Harlow Giles Unger’s thorough biographies of … Continue reading

True Happiness

One of the most famous opening lines in literature comes from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “All happy families are like one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Great literature causes us to think and ponder; it directs … Continue reading