David Frum - Writings

Writings

Frum's first book, Dead Right, was released in 1994. It "expressed intense dissatisfaction with supply-siders, evangelicals, and nearly all Republican politicians." Frank Rich of the New York Times described it as "the smartest book written from the inside about the American conservative movement," William F. Buckley, Jr. found it "the most refreshing ideological experience in a generation," and Daniel McCarthy of The American Conservative called it "a crisply written indictment of everything its author disliked about conservatism in the early ’90s." He is also the author of What's Right (1996) and How We Got Here (2000), a history of the 1970s, which "framed the 1970s in the shadow of World War II and Vietnam, suggesting, 'The turmoil of the 1970s should be understood ... as the rebellion of an unmilitary people against institutions and laws formed by a century of war and the preparation for war.'" Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report praised How We Got Here, noting that "more than any other book… it shows how we came to be the way we are." John Podhoretz described it as "compulsively readable" and a "commanding amalgam of history, sociology and polemic."

In January 2003 Frum released The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, the first insider account of the Bush presidency. As the title suggests, Frum also discussed how the events of September 11, 2001 redefined the country and the President: "George W. Bush was hardly the obvious man for the job. But by a very strange fate, he turned out to be, of all unlikely things, the right man."

Frum's book An End to Evil was co-written with Richard Perle. It provided a defense of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and advocated regime change in Iran and Syria. It called for a tougher policy toward North Korea, and a tougher US stance against Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations in order to "win the war on terror" (from the book's subtitle).

In 2008 Frum published Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, which garnered "lavish praise from his friends." Former Congressman David M. McIntosh called it "required reading for all GOP candidates." On November 8, 2012, Frum published Why Romney Lost (And What The GOP Can Do About It) arguing that the GOP has become too focused on America's past and on ideological purity.

Frum writes a weekly column for Canada's National Post newspaper and The Week news magazine. He was a commentator for American Public Media's "Marketplace" until his final appearance on October 12, 2011. His writings appear frequently in the New York Times, Italy's Il Foglio, and the Daily Telegraph.

Frum's first novel, Patriots, was published in April 2012.