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Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Weekend Beacon: They Say They Want a Revolution Also: Europe's bumpy road to unity, Japanese crime fiction, and Obama the musical Vic Matus May 10 READ IN APP May 9 - 10, 2026 With America’s 250th anniversary approaching, the Weekend Beacon embarks on its own patriotic quest—to tackle the books devoted to our Founding and early history. And we begin with Jonathan Turley’s Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution. Tal Fortgang gives us a review. “On the eve of America’s bicentennial, the American Enterprise Institute published Irving Kristol’s lecture, ‘The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution.’ Kristol noted that at the time ‘the idea and very word, “revolution,” are in good repute today; the American Revolution is not.’ Yet the American Revolution was ‘the only truly successful revolution’ because it was able to ‘subordinate’ human ‘passions to serious and nuanced thinking about fundamental problems of political philosophy.’ In other words, the revolution yielded, by its unique design, to a stable and flourishing republic rather than carry on the bloody work of eternal radicalism. Dyed-in-the-wool revolutionaries blanch at the idea that a well-structured republic could ever carry out the work of a once-vital revolt against the ruling order. “Our Founding Fathers understood better, Kristol argued, and displayed as much in speaking candidly ‘about the frailties of human nature and the necessity for a political system to take such frailties into account.’ Humans being fallen creatures, perpetual revolutions seeking to perfect the human condition would only result in bloodshed and tyranny. “Now, on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, law professor Jonathan Turley has picked up the Kristolian thread and issued a stern warning against perpetual revolution, coupled naturally with a defense of limited, republican government. His Rage and the Revolution: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution places readers back into history, showing how we Americans are not so far removed from our revolutionary origins. The embers of 1776 smolder, which is not a bad thing—as long as they are used responsibly. Misdirected energy can do a great deal of damage. Turley is borderline obsessed with the imagery of Saturn devouring her children, the prototypical myth of revolutionary excess later exemplified by the French Revolution first sending aristocrats to the guillotine—and then sending insufficiently radical revolutionaries to the same fate. The Bolshevik Revolution followed a similar trajectory. Yet the American Revolution succeeded. Or, at least, it has thus far. Our story is indeed unfinished. Can we maintain our success?” Indeed, it can take years, even centuries, to form a more perfect union. In Europe's case, it can take millennia: Jakub Grygiel reviews Europe: A New History by Roderick Beaton. “The Roman Empire was the closest thing to the EU in ancient times, even though it achieved that through arms rather than rules and norms. In 212 A.D., Emperor Caracalla extended Roman citizenship to every subject of the empire except for slaves, a rare political decision that did not occur until the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that created an EU citizenship supplementing the national one. Charles V was the last emperor to attempt to unify Europe as a coherent Christendom, and the treaties of the peace of Utrecht (1715) were the last to mention a respublica Christiana, giving space to secular political entities that could seek cooperative arrangements from the Concert of Europe to the Versailles accords. “The narrative culminates in what it presents as its apex—its conclusion, its true telos: the post–World War II drive to unify Europe. The significance of these efforts, from Jean Monnet to the euro and beyond, is reflected in the space they occupy in the book: While the first 1,300 years of Europe’s history are admirably condensed in 100 pages, a comparable length is devoted to the 70 years since 1945. Europe is, according to the book’s argument, reaching its full and best expression as it progresses toward the unity that neither the Greeks nor the Christians could achieve. “And yet, this unity seems as much a mirage now as it had been in the past. Some of the reasons for failure are given, perhaps unwittingly, by the author. For one, the gradual expulsion of Christianity from the idea of Europe undermined it. Twenty years ago, Brussels tried to have EU member states ratify a European Constitution (all 448 articles, compared with the 7 of the U.S. Constitution). The French and the Dutch rejected it, and the constitution was transformed into a mere treaty that did not require popular ratification by each nation. One of the key criticisms of this constitution was that the preamble rejected all reference to Christianity as foundational to the idea of Europe, choosing instead an insipid reference to the ‘cultural, religious and humanist inheritance.’ A political project based on uninspiring ideas in the end has little chance to succeed. People don’t sacrifice for ‘To Whom It May Concern.’” From European facts to Japanese fiction, John Wilson reviews Keigo Higashino's latest crime novel, Guilt: A Mystery. “The novel begins like a classic police procedural. Tsutomu Godai, identified atop the ‘Cast of Characters’ as a detective in the Homicide Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, is chatting with a detective sergeant identified only by his surname, Nakamachi. They are about to interview a man who knew Kensuke Shiraishi, a lawyer who (we soon learn) has been murdered; his body was in the back seat of his car when a couple of traffic cops, responding to a phone call from a pierside security guard, came to check out the illegally parked vehicle. “This initial impression of Guilt—the impression of the kind of story we have embarked on—is deliberately misleading. While the police investigation headed by Godai appears to be making rapid progress, the narrative soon takes an unexpected turn. Tatsura Kuraki, a suspect whom the police have been grilling, has resolutely denied any involvement in the lawyer’s murder—but suddenly he does an about-face, not only confessing to the murder of the lawyer Shiraishi but also confessing to another murder that took place 30 years earlier! “Wait a minute, you may protest, you’re giving away too much. You’ll spoil our enjoyment of the book. Not so. Kuraki’s confession comes early (just past page 60 in a novel of more than 400 pages), and many readers will question its authenticity even before it becomes explicitly clear that in fact he didn’t commit either one of the murders. Why then does he ‘confess’? Could his deception be fueled by a powerful sense of guilt for something he really did do—or perhaps for something he didn’t do when he should have? And this is only the first twist in a series of revelations that force the reader repeatedly to rethink the trajectory of the novel.” You won’t find any twists or revelations in 44: The Musical, an unadulterated celebration of the Obama presidency. And yet we still sent our Andrew Stiles to check it out at D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre. “You might be surprised to learn that 44 was created by a white male Millennial nepo baby. [Eli] Bauman is the son of Jon ‘Bowzer’ Bauman—best known as the greaser frontman for doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na. His cousin, Eric Bauman, chaired the California Democratic Party until his resignation in 2018 due to sexual misconduct allegations. “It makes perfect sense, actually. Few demographics have cashed in on the Obama name more successfully than white men (see also: Pod Save America). ... Bauman, who worked on the 2008 Obama campaign before going to journalism school, has described 44 as his ‘best answer’ to an ‘inexplicable’ question: How did we get from Obama—hope and change, soaring rhetoric, epic vibes—to Donald Trump? “There have been many attempts to answer this question. Very few have incorporated a live R&B band, a slutty Sarah Palin ... and a racy scene in which Barack and Michelle Obama croon about being one another’s ‘freak dot gov’ while making ‘White House love.’ “In other words, 44 is a relatively good answer to the question of how we got from Obama to Trump. Certainly not in the way it was intended, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Obama and his swooning fans presumably envisioned a Lincolnesque figure who could inspire a nation with words. Now he’s just another celebrity we hear about every now and then. But nostalgia is a powerful drug. To revel in what could have been, irrespective of what actually was. “The titular character, played by T.J. Wilkins, starts things off with a catchy refrain: ‘I’m mutha-f—ing Obama.’ He belts out a sultry homage to the speech that launched his career at the 2004 Democratic convention. ‘There ain’t no red states, there ain’t no blue / There’s only the United States, that’s me and you.’ It’s pretty jarring to hear those empty words sung back at you in 2026, when Obama is actively encouraging Democratic governors to gerrymander their blue states even bluer in the name of ‘fairness.’” Happy Mother’s Day! Vic Matus Arts & Culture Editor Washington Free Beacon Thanks for reading the Washington Free Beacon! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. Subscribed