Claremont Review of Books
Quarterly journal of the Claremont Institute; founded and edited by Charles Kesler; publishes long-form essays on politics, history, philosophy, and culture from a West Coast Straussian perspective; the flagship intellectual venue of the Claremonter movement; published The Flight 93 Election (September 2016)
The CRB is the most prestigious outlet associated with the Claremont ecosystem. It publishes work by Claremont fellows, Straussian academics, and mainstream conservatives. Under Kesler’s editorship it served as the vehicle for rehabilitating increasingly extremist positions within a framework of academic respectability.
Key publications and episodes:
- The Flight 93 Election (September 2016) — Michael Anton’s pseudonymous essay; made Claremont the intellectual nerve center of Trumpism overnight
- Michael Anton’s BAP review (“Are the Kids Al(t)-Right?”, Summer 2019) — reviewed Bronze Age Mindset; brought Hard Right ideas into the Claremonter mainstream
- Christopher DeMuth’s “Trumpism, Nationalism, and Conservatism” (Winter 2019) — called a “watershed essay” by Hazony for National Conservatism
- The Eastman debate — Kesler published a long exchange between John Eastman and Joseph M. Bessette treating January 6 as a “complicated” case
- Christopher Caldwell’s Robert E. Lee essay (Spring 2021) — Lost Cause hagiography
- Christopher Flannery’s defense of Eastman (August 2022) — “John Eastman Is an American Hero”
Ryan Williams founded The American Mind as a complementary online publication — a “punk-rock CRB” for a younger, edgier audience.
Cross-References
- Claremont Institute — parent organization
- Charles Kesler — founding editor
- The Flight 93 Election — the essay that made CRB famous
- Michael Anton — author of The Flight 93 Election and BAP review
- John Eastman — subject of Kesler’s sympathetic coverage
- Ryan Williams — founded The American Mind as CRB’s complement