Heretics

Chesterton was the great defender of orthodoxy who got to be funny about it. In these twenty essays, he turns his gaze on the notable figures of his age, Kipling, Wells, Shaw, Whistler, each of whom had traded the big truths for smaller, shinier certainties. His argument is deceptively simple: the heretics of modernity don't reject God so much as reject the very idea of absolute truth, replacing it with whatever feels progressive or fashionable. What makes this book endure is that it reads like it was written yesterday. Chesterton saw our current crop of self-satisfied iconoclasts coming a century away. The wit is genuine, the blows land, and the good humor never curdles into contempt. If you've ever wondered why modern intellectuals sound so confident and say so little, start here.