TTo say that Peggy Noonan is one of our best political columnists isn’t entirely fair to her, because she so often writes about topics and people that aren’t political, or at least not overtly so. She is deeply honest and empathetic, and she writes in such a deceptively easy style that reading her every week is like sitting across the table from her and listening while you drink your coffee.

Her latest book, A certain idea of ​​America, is a collection of 80 of her recent ones Wall Street Journal columns, selected from about 400, and as I read them again I was struck not only by how timeless they are (a neat trick for a weekly columnist), but also by how broad her knowledge is. There’s an old saying that a columnist can be wrong, but never doubts; However, Noonan brilliantly refutes this rule by gently suggesting, rather than loudly proclaiming, a way to think about a person, an issue, or life itself.