Mr. McGurn appears to be one of these Americans who speak on the issue just by the virtue of being, not in result of the toil of learning.
This, after three decades of international toil, is his first book, and a rather extraordinary debut: part autobiography, part history, part political tract, part polemic, all bound together by a pilgrim's progress of learning experiences.
From the toil of reading or thinking or writing they had absolved their conscience, and the first shoots of learning and ingenuity withered on the ground.
The now ancient routes to credibility at small magazines and newspapers — toiling in menial jobs while learning the business — have been wiped out, replaced by an algorithm of social media heat and blog traction.
Béla, Tibor, and the rest will toil like madmen to learn a few phrases of Swedish, but they refuse to do their Tacitus homework.
And bid the toils of slavery cease!
Moyal describes the toils of English platypus hunters who explored the Australian bush, attempting to locate specimens to send back to England alive.
In Fujian province Pai learns of men who toil in unsafe mines for the equivalent of 18 pence a day, risking lung diseases for which they can't be compensated because they lack work contracts.
MBA students toil day in, day out to learn concepts and frameworks.
She described meeting a scholar who had been sent to toil in the countryside but spoke glowingly about the joys of manual labor and the terrific opportunity to learn from peasants.
"It was the toil of many".
