Weekend Beacon: A History of (Leftist) Violence

Also: Breaking the recession cycle, memories of Manuela Hoelterhoff, and in the rough with Rory

May 16 - 17, 2026

How commonplace is political violence these days? A man shooting at federal officers near the White House as JD Vance's motorcade passed by was barely mentioned in the papers. Still, the timing could not be better for Noah Rothman's new book, Blood & Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America. Ian Haworth returns to the Weekend Beacon with a review.

“’This is a book about the assassins, the vandals, the small-cell terrorists, and the lizard-brained mobs that mete out destruction, violence, and death in the name of political causes and in the pursuit of political outcomes,’ Rothman declares, before leading readers on a fascinating and yet phenomenally depressing tour of left-wing violence, reminding us of just how violent American life has become (again).

“This journey includes the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and the unbelievable response to an act of cold-blooded murder (such as the use of pregnant ‘buts’ by Democrats to condemn and then immediately justify violence, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who declared, ‘You don’t kill people. It’s abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. … but…’; the nationwide explosion of violence under the banner of Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis; the establishment of an occupied autonomous zone in Seattle lauded by the New York Times as ‘a homeland for racial justice’; the attempt to assassinate Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh; the explosion of antisemitism and antisemitic violence that followed the attacks of October 7, 2023, including the firebombing of Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s home and the murder of a young couple outside Washington, D.C.’s Jewish Museum by an assassin who screamed ‘Free, Free Palestine’; and, of course, the multiple attempts on the life of President Donald Trump.

“One particularly jarring moment in the first chapter comes not when we find that left-wing violence has become hugely prevalent in modern American life, but that we have all become—to some degree—numb to this left-wing violence. Even the most avid political enthusiast will likely have forgotten—under the weight of sheer frequency—at least one example of violence that should be once-in-a-generation, but is now more once-in-an-afternoon. Even as a conservative reader whose career focuses on the battle against antisemitism in the West—making the notion of political violence far from imaginary—I was astonished by how normal this constant onslaught of violence has become, with the ‘fiery but mostly peaceful’ riots of just a few years ago feeling more like a long-forgotten dream.”

From cycles of violence to economic cycles, Samuel Gregg reviews Tyler Goodspeed’s Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do About It.

“Since World War II, economists have developed theories to try and explain the business cycle’s ups and downs. They have also identified indicators to give us a sense of what phase of the business cycle we may be in.

“But what if it is the case that there is nothing cyclical at all about the economy’s fluctuations? This is a key question raised by the economist Tyler Goodspeed in his new book, Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do About It. A former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and presently chief economist at ExxonMobil, Goodspeed is an accomplished scholar who has published books on topics ranging from the Keynesian revolution in economics to 18th-century Scottish banking.

“In all these works, Goodspeed integrates attention to economic theory and history with analysis of existing datasets. But he is also adept at deploying language and concepts drawn from other disciplines to add precision to his arguments.

“This way of proceeding is replicated in Recession. The book’s core thesis is that recessions are usually sparked by unforeseen external shocks to the economy in the form of events such as natural disasters, the outbreak of war, plagues, or pandemics. Goodspeed also regards many such jolts as emanating from mistaken government interventions that end up inducing and prolonging periods of economic contraction.

“To make his case, Goodspeed looks primarily at major recessions that have occurred in Britain and America going back to the 18th century. The available data, Goodspeed argues, makes it difficult to discern any business cycle-like patterns to the process of economic growth and contraction. He also maintains that ‘the forecasting record of the business cycle indicators’ initially developed by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the late 1950s ‘is unimpressive.’ This and other critical datapoints illustrate, according to Goodspeed, that the causes of recessions are better described as idiosyncratic.”

Speaking of idiosyncratic, the longtime arts critic Manuela Hoelterhoff has died. Weekend Beacon contributor Dave Shiflett remembers the Pulitzer Prize winner, editor, mentor, and friend.

“We were entirely different people. She was born in Hamburg just after World War II (or 11, as our better public intellectuals might put it). Her father was one of 5,000 or so German survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad, where hundreds of thousands of fellow soldiers died. After the family came to America, her mother got a job at the Tolstoy Foundation, run by the great writer’s daughter. By contrast my dad served in the Pacific theater, then started out his career in a gas station. My mother was a public school teacher.

“Manuela was bright and ambitious. She wrote a few articles for William F. Buckley’s National Review and then, in 1975, joined the Wall Street Journal, where she stayed for over 20 years in various capacities, including book editor. She won a Pulitzer in 1983 for criticism, in which she truly excelled, once writing of a Metropolitan Opera performance that ‘the place was so empty I thought I’d missed an air-raid drill.’

“She also had a heart as warm as a Christmas fire.”

“I had just finished (I hope) rewriting a novel the day Manuela died. I hadn’t talked to her in a while. Her love life had gone bad, her beloved Beagles had died, she’d been battling cancer, and I wasn’t feeling that great myself. I might have dared to send her the title page (Three Clicks Past the Paraclete) to see what she thought.

“I can imagine her response. ‘Shiflett—you’re groping for profundity. Try again. But don’t give up!’

“She now belongs to the ages, and the ages had better watch their step.”

Rory McIlroy is certainly not one to give up. The recent Masters champion is the subject of Alan Shipnuck's new bio, Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf's Most Human Superstar. And with the PGA Championship final round today, what better time for Jay Nordlinger to give us a review.

“Rory did not cooperate with Shipnuck on this bio. Indeed, he was hostile to it. Shipnuck explained to him that Arnold and Jack had always cooperated with their biographers—it helped burnish their legacies and the history of golf. But Rory was unpersuaded.

“‘It pisses me off that you’re making money off my name,’ he told Shipnuck. That was one objection—or stated objection. Shipnuck guesses that the issue was less money than control. He also points out that, while Rory flies in a private jet, sportswriters usually fly coach, and sometimes in the middle seat.

“I would have been tempted to tell Rory: ‘Would you rather be written about or the writer? Would you like to be the biographer or the biographee? The star or the scribe? Come on. Wanna trade places?’

“In any event, Shipnuck has written a good and thorough biography, with the cooperation of plenty in the golf world. McIlroy, moreover, is a good subject: interesting, thoughtful, quirky. He took up juggling, because it engages both halves of the brain.”

“McIlroy’s 2025 Masters victory ends Shipnuck’s bio. It is his dénouement, his grand finale. Yet, at 37, McIlroy has a fair amount of golf left in him—and he has already donned that second green jacket. (I am being metaphorical here. When you win a green jacket—it stays your green jacket, no matter how many more times you win.)”

Happy Sunday.

Vic Matus
Arts & Culture Editor
Washington Free Beacon