Tony Woodlief | Author

Politics, Culture, and General Curmudgeonry

Listed below are publications curated for especially cultured and thoughtful readers. Foremost is I, Citizen, a pathbreaking book that all the cool kids are reading. You’ll also find essays, reviews, manifestos, and assorted miscellany. If any of the content upsets you, we invite you to fax a letter to our Editorial Department, which reviews complaints on alternate Leap-Year Tuesdays.

Cover art

I, Citizen shows how the real threat to our union isn’t Red vs. Blue America, it’s the slow erosion of self-governance. From foreign wars to local libraries, authority no longer resides with We the People. This is the story of how that happened, and what we can do about it.

 

Praise for I, Citizen

“Woodlief, I believe, offers a compelling explanation for one of the great curiosities of our time: Why our day-to-day lives can seem pretty good while we sense that things are terribly wrong in America.

Andy Smarick, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute

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“Tony Woodlief brings a searchlight to bear on the divisive ideologues working among us to destroy ‘the reservoir of goodwill that characterized American civil life for generations.'”

– Jeff Minick, Smoky Mountain News

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“Tony Woodlief explains why localizing politics and loving thy neighbor can help heal our ailing country.”

– Bill Kauffman, author,
        Dispatches from the
Muckdog Gazette

Essays, Epistles, Screeds & Miscellany

States Pay a High Cost for Federal MoneyWall Street Journal, Aug. 7, 2025

Subservience to Progressive Little NotionsFront Porch Republic, Feb. 25, 2025

Biden DOJ Exposed the Deep State’s UnderbellyWall Street Journal, Feb. 17, 2025

It’s Time for States to Break Their Dangerous Dependence on Federal FundsNational Review, Feb. 2, 2025

Does America Still Do Federalism?Law & Liberty, Jan. 13, 2025

“The Right’s New Divide: Frodo vs Boromir” Spectator World, Oct. 4, 2022

“Beware, party bosses, the rise of the unaffiliateds is coming for you” Washington Post, April 14, 2022

Lincoln-Douglas boxing match cartoon

“Against the Libertarian-Pajama-Boy Consensus” American Mind, Nov. 17, 2020

Free Speech Absolutism Killed Free SpeechWall Street Journal, Aug. 30, 2020

 “Setting the Wheel of History Alight: A Review of Solzhenitsyn’s The Red Wheel” American Conservative, Aug. 2020

Why Conservative Fusionism Was Destined to DisintegrateAmerican Conservative, June 23, 2020

Constitution Preamble: By Printed by Dunlap & Claypoole
Lincoln-Douglas boxing match cartoon

 The Overlooked Potential of State AGs for Police Reform Governing, June 15, 2020

The Fires Foretold: Willmoore Kendall and the Burning of AmericaAmerican Conservative, June 8, 2020

Bring Me My Bow of Burning Gold: Micturition and Its DiscontentsFront Porch Republic, May 7, 2020

I Come Not to Praise the MegachurchGood Letters, Sept. 3, 2015

The Casserole Dish Manifesto”  Good Letters, Jan. 31, 2014

The Collapse of Western Civilization Begins in Your Dentist’s Chair” Good Letters, Sept. 5, 2012

Our Love Affair With the Fairs”  Wall Street Journal, Sept. 10, 2010

Curse of the Greedy Copyright HoldersWall Street Journal, July 9, 2010

Boy, the Scout Handbook Keeps ChangingWall Street Journal, Feb. 26, 2010

Twilight ChicNational Review, Mar. 27, 2009

Norman Rockwell Freedom of Speech: By Norman Rockwell

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Politics

Fiction

Parenting

Appearances