Inequality is normal, says Thomas Sowell in his new book, “Discrimination and Disparities.”

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Sowell explains what Americans most misunderstand about disparity, the extent to which discrimination accounts for inequality, and why in his late 80s he has retired from writing newspaper columns but he keeps on writing books.

Love, family, and friendship are the ingredients for a worthy life, but these days they’re under assault, says Leon Kass, author of “Leading a Worthy Life: Finding Meaning in Modern Times.”

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Kass explains why so many people find it hard to live meaningful lives, how much of the blame goes to the rise of secularism, and how listeners might begin to recover the things our culture has lost.

Philip Hamburger describes what he calls the most pressing civil-liberties issue of our time in The Administrative Threat.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Hamburger describes the problem of the administrative state, why Woodrow Wilson deserves much of the blame, and whether President Trump is providing a solution.

Patrick Deneen isn’t talking about merely Democrats and progressives in his new book with a bracing title, Why Liberalism Failed — he’s talking about the American political regime, including conservatives.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Deneen describes why he thinks liberalism’s days are numbered, how Americans have become more individualist and more statist at the same time, and whether there’s actually a viable alternative to the liberalism we’ve come to know, even with its weaknesses.

He was the first modern Republican, says Robert W. Merry in his new biography, President McKinley: Architect of the American Century.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Merry argues McKinley is more important than most people recognize; that his lack of recognition is partly the fault of his colorful successor, Theodore Roosevelt; and that McKinley pioneered a form of “non-colonial imperialism” that holds lessons for American foreign policy today.