The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, and Identity, by Douglas Murray (Bloomsbury Continuum, 288 pp., $28)

One of the great pleasures of journalism is that your heroes (the living ones, at least) become accessible. That might be an unorthodox way to begin: a warning that I am biased in this author’s favor. But actually, no. Two years ago, I admired Douglas Murray’s The Strange Death of Europe from afar. Today, after having come to know him, I can say that Mr. Murray (a senior fellow at National Review Institute) is just as incisive, my appreciation is (deservedly) unwavering — and in any case, his most recent book, The Madness of Crowds, demands serious attention from friend …