THE BIG PICTURE
In The J Curve, Ian Bremmer (Tom Friedman with a Gladwellian streak) argues that nations follow a predictable path to democracy, one we should consider before invading them. Empire-defending Niall Ferguson, meanwhile, charts the West’s decline in War of the World.

IT’S MY PARTY
Libertarianish thinker Andrew Sullivan deplores Republican spendthrift-fundamentalists in The Conservative Soul, while former presidential candidate Gary Hart’s The Courage of Our Convictions rejects Clintonian centrism.

GREENS VERSUS CHRISTIANS
In Welcome to Doomsday, PBS’s Bill Moyers confronts Christians who have no problem blithely awaiting environmental apocalypse, while scientist E. O. Wilson’s The Creation takes a conciliatory approach, pleading for the religious to collaborate in saving their planet.

Related:

• Archive: “Arts and Culture”
• Articles by Boris Kachka
• Table of Contents: September 11, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!