Books in Brief.

The Dark Side of Liberalism: Unchaining the Truth, by Phil Kent (Harbor House, 201 pp., $24.95)

--We need look no further than the first three words of Phil Kent's book to grasp its theme: "Conservatives can win." It's an important reminder, a counterweight to the prognostications of conservative gloominaries who (often quite understandably) take a less rosy view. Kent, the president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest law firm, is a cheerleader for freedom. His passion is on display in The Dark Side of Liberalism, which attacks the liberal line on everything from race and immigration to taxes and the environment.

It is in legal matters that Kent shines. His chapter on the courts makes the point that, when it comes to things judicial, the labels "conservative" and "liberal" have become meaningless. Also highlighted in this chapter is the vital lesson that "the list of social and economic seismic shifts in the United States can ultimately be traced to the courts-not to Congress or the president."

Kent is a dedicated conservative activist, in the most literal sense of that word. He actively seeks to further freedom and conservative principles, anywhere and everywhere. The Southeastern Legal Foundation is currently leading the important fight against campaign-finance reform; in the fall, Ken Starr is expected to argue the case before the Supreme Court.

The Dark Side is a good pep talk for conservative activists-those who toil, as Kent says, "in the trenches." May they not lose heart!

-Sarah Maserati

Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, by Ann Coulter (Crown Forum, 355 pp., $26.95)

In her latest bestseller, Ann Coulter has yet again enraged her fellow chatterati. Her critics on the right are embarrassed at how Coulter has her way with the history of the Cold War; those on the left are galled by the sheer audacity of her defense of Joseph McCarthy (no one ever called him Uncle Joe). Many have compared the skinny provocateuse to the girthy Michael Moore. In fact, Coulter has no counterpart. Moore and Coulter may both be loudmouths, but while Moore is unrelievedly doctrinaire, Coulter is a free spirit. She can be accused of many things, but dogma is not one of them.

Coulter may be cavalier with facts, as many critics have charged-but, then again, nobody should mistake her for a scholar. Careful historians have already vindicated anti-Communism; Coulter's role, by contrast, is to move debate, to push rightward the boundaries of respectable opinion. Conservatives won the debate over Communism, but liberals still own the soapboxes and lecterns from which Cold War history is taught. In fact, Coulter's thesis-that liberals err invariably on the side of America's enemies, whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, utopian or cynical-is substantially correct. In the hands of a less polemical writer, this thesis would have made for a more influential book. As it is, Treason is primarily entertaining, as also outrageous.

If Coulter's half-a-million readers come away from Treason sensing that anti-Communism was about more than "witchhunts," she will have done a good deed-as hard as it may be for many to admit.

-Sarah Maserati

Creed and Culture: A Touchstone Reader, edited by James M. Kushiner (ISI, 254 pp., $25)

A touchstone is a piece of hard rock used to test the authenticity of precious metals. Fittingly, these pieces drawn from the quarterly Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity serve as a standard by which the reader can judge the quality of contemporary Christian polemic. If this book is any indication, it thrives.

Touchstone began as a newsletter in 1986. With the help of Russell Kirk, it grew in size and stature until settling down as a monthly journal in which Christian thinkers of every stripe could debate the great theological and social questions of the day. The essays here tackle a variety of topics, from the virtues of home-schooling to the vices of feminist theology. The diversity of subjects means that there is something for everyone: Readers whose theological fires aren't stoked by the thought of reading 15 pages on Chrysostom, for example, may find James L. Sauer's Catholic take on the Bambi myth enlightening and entertaining. What the anthology lacks in unity, it makes up for in holy spirit.

Sauer's two pieces are the strongest in the book. In "An Everlasting Life," a meditation on the six-week life of his daughter Mary, Sauer describes the crisis in faith that accompanies an unexpected death. His words combine pathos and abiding faith in a manner that one is unlikely to encounter in the mainstream press. The power of his essay lies in its use of postmodern pastiche, juxtaposing the Creed with the unfolding tragedy of his daughter's death. To be sure, it is somewhat surprising to find postmodern literary techniques in an outspokenly anti-modernist publication; but the Lord works in mysterious ways.

-Matthew Continetti