“To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have nothing to do with their own happiness or misery; that people ought not to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved, deceived or instructed, protected or destroyed.”—Marcus Cato The Elder “Didst thou forget [...]
Below is an excellent interview with Pat Buchanan on his 2011 book Suicide of a Superpower. Peter Robinson sits with author, journalist and former presidential candidate, Patrick J Buchanan to discuss the death of Western Civilization. For more on America’s Future and History visit The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. Books related to the topic of this video may be found [...]
Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered, by Russell Kirk, with a Foreword by Roger Scruton, Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1997. Russell Kirk’s book on Edmund Burke, first published in 1967, now revised and handsomely re-issued, testifies not only to the “enduring Burke,” but also to the enduring Kirk. As a British statesman and political [...]
The sequel to Beauty for Truth’s Sake has been published by Angelico Press. Called Beauty in the Word, it completes the retrieval of the seven liberal arts begun in the earlier book by examining the first three, the “Trivium”, which Dorothy L. Sayers made the basis of Classical Education in her famous essay, “The Lost Tools of [...]
“Democracy … arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects,” said Aristotle. But if the Philosopher disliked the form of government that arose out of the fallacy of human equality, the Founding Fathers detested it. “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule,” said Thomas [...]
In the history of ideas, there are ideas that need to be rescued from those who should know better, but simply do not. For example, all the false views about the Middle Ages. Way too many to even get started in this blog. Interestingly, even the Renaissance has its share of misreadings. There are some Christians who [...]
Honor, justice and humanity call upon us to hold and to transmit to our posterity, that liberty, which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children; but it is our duty to leave liberty to them. No infamy, iniquity, or cruelty can exceed our own if we, [...]
Under the listings of Shakespeare, the Internet abounds in essays, reviews, texts, and comments, almost anything one can imagine about his works and about works explaining his works. My Viking Edition of Shakespeare comes to 1,471 pages. I suspect that at least that number of pages of new materials about Shakespeare appears almost every month. [...]
G.K. Chesterton was once described as a “Conservative” thinker. He responded as follows: Because I want almost anything that doesn’t yet exist; because I want to turn a silent people into a singing people; because I would rejoice if a wineless country could be a wine-growing country; because I would change a world of wage-slaves [...]
The Federal District of Columbia, both in its formal character as a capital and also in its self-conscious attempt at a certain visual splendor, is, for every visitor from the somewhat sovereign states, a reminder that the analogy of ancient Rome had a formative effect upon those who conceived and designed it as their one [...]
The power under the Constitution will always be in the People. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own chusing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their Interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their Servants can, and undoubtedly will be, recalled. — to Bushrod Washington, 9 [...]
Painting by Jef Murray Almost half of a decade ago, I applied for an interesting position–to be the first head of a new liberal arts program at a Catholic college in New England. The college is old and venerable, but it’s gone through the typical changes toward the worse experienced by most small [...]
“Always a friend to peace, and believing it to promote eminently the happiness and prosperity of nations, I am ever unwilling that it should be disturbed, until greater and more important interests call for an appeal to force. Whenever that shall take place, I feel a perfect confidence that the energy and enterprise displayed by [...]
A Better Guide Than Reason: Studies in the American Revolution. (La Salle, IL: Sherwood Sugden & Company Publishers, 1979). Cited in the text as Guide. Remembering Who We Are: Observations of a Southern Conservative. (Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1985). Cited in the text as Remembering. A Worthy Company: The Dramatic Story of [...]