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 Money” Wall Street Journal, Aug. 7, 2025

“Subservience to Progressive Little Notions” Front Porch Republic, Feb. 25, 2025

“Biden DOJ Exposed the Deep State’s Underbelly” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 17, 2025

“It’s Time for States to Break Their Dangerous Dependence on Federal Funds” National 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 Speech” Wall 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 Disintegrate” American 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 America” American Conservative, June 8, 2020

“Bring Me My Bow of Burning Gold: Micturition and Its Discontents” Front Porch Republic, May 7, 2020

“I Come Not to Praise the Megachurch” Good 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 Holders” Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2010

“Boy, the Scout Handbook Keeps Changing” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 26, 2010

“Twilight Chic” National Review, Mar. 27, 2009

Norman Rockwell Freedom of Speech: By Norman Rockwell

Fiction

Parenting

Politics

Appearances

Politics

Fiction

Parenting

Appearances