Kyle Sammin is a writer and attorney who contributed articles to The Weekly Standard between 2016 and 2018. His pieces for the magazine focused on American history, politics, and book reviews, exploring subjects ranging from the legacy of Brandeis and Nixon to the intellectual life of Ulysses S. Grant. He has also written for publications including The Federalist and Broad + Liberty.
In 1878, Chester Alan Arthur held one of the most powerful and lucrative patronage positions in the federal government: collector of the Port of New York. Thanks to the percentage system by which he was paid, Arthur took in about $50,000 per year at a time when the president earned half as much.…
Amateur psychology is best avoided in a biography, but in a life of Richard Nixon, an author probably cannot help but indulge in it. In his new book, Richard Nixon: The Life, author John A. Farrell employs armchair diagnosis just enough to capture the flavor of one of the most bizarre men to ever…
Activists on the left have opposed the confirmation of education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos for a host of reasons, some more poorly considered than others. DeVos has spent decades as an activist and philanthropist for school choice, and with the Democratic establishment's love for teachers…
Eighty years is a lot of history. In the latest addition to the Penguin History of the United States series, A Nation Without Borders: The United States and Its World in an Age of Civil Wars, 1830-1910, Steven Hahn writes about the eight decades from 1830 to 1910 in a brisk and thought-provoking…
Ulysses S. Grant has been the subject of scores of biographies, but his character has long remained elusive to historians. Even Grant's closest friends found him hard to figure. General William T. Sherman noted that, despite having known Grant for decades, "to me he is a mystery, and I believe he…
People in the United States are experiencing a level of political discontent unseen in decades. Partisans on the right have long fought against the inexorable growth of big government, just as those on the left have always railed against the growing power of big business. This year, the sides have…