Since many of our readers love reading history books, we’ve had articles the past three Octobers about worthwhile ones. We’ll do that again this year—but amid coronavirus social isolation many of us are looking for good reading material. So here’s a spring set of history book recommendations.

If the United States were a football team, our opponent would score two touchdowns before our players were even paying attention—but we’d claw back into the game during the second quarter and win going away in the second half. 

That’s the way World War II went. That’s how the Space Race with the Soviet Union went in the 1960s, supply side economics went in the 1980s, and the War on Terror went in 2001 and 2002. And that’s the way the coronavirus war is likely to go in 2020 and 2021.

My book The Politics of Disaster came out in 2006 on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I had sections on what went wrong in New Orleans, what went right, how national disaster policy needed reform, how religious organizations could help, and how the United States could help with disaster abroad. The last section, titled “Disasters to come,” included chapters on earthquakes, nuclear terrorism, and pandemics.

Faith in God’s sovereignty has one thing in common with fatalism: Both words begin with the letter F. I’m impressed with the way many Christians are responding to coronavirus pressure, but depressed by those who blithely equate social isolation and theological surrender.

China’s coronavirus response is top-down: Government issues directives. America’s so far has been more bottom-up, or middle-up-and-down. The NBA got the basketball rolling last week and other sports leagues followed. Now the “little platoons” of decentralization are coming up with creative ideas. Here are five things I’ve learned from my recent Twitter feed—I haven’t verified the items, but I’m passing them on in the hope that one creative response inspires another: 

On this page I mostly review secular books, but here in eight categories are worthwhile ones I’ve read recently from Christian publishers.  

How to govern: Michael Wagenman’s Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper (Lexham, 2019) is a good introduction to the theologian, journalist, and politician who scolded the Dutch Conservative Party for abandoning principles “in exchange for the short-term rewards of political power.” He traced “a failure of the church’s ultimate allegiance” back to the Constantinian conversation. 

Calvin College professor James K.A. Smith, 49, grew up in Canada and recently became a U.S. citizen. He is the author of numerous books, including You Are What You Love, Awaiting the King, and (in 2019) On the Road With Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. Here are edited excerpts of our discussion. 

You’ve written that you’ve been estranged from your dad since you were 13, and haven’t seen him for 28 years. Your stepfather also disappeared. What effect did that have on you?