In one of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history, Alex DeLarge, a young, murderous convict, is strapped to a bed with his eyes propped open and forced to watch videos depicting horrific acts of violence. The sounds of his favorite musician, Beethoven, or “Ludwig van”, as Alex calls him, stream through the air. Part [...]
There is the desert that is a slow wick, and the cactus and the highway defiled in waves of heat. There is the desert of this blank page where waters freeze and are released at the first light. Water and salt water. When Hugo hit these shores people fled. Houses were torn like families, trees [...]
Susan Srigley brings to the fiction of Flannery O’Connor what others have not: a truly Catholic frame of reference informed by Thomas Aquinas. In her study of the South’s preeminent fictionist, Flannery O’Connor’s Sacramental Art, Susan Srigley reconsiders three of Flannery O’Connor’s most significant figures: Hazel Motes, Francis Tarwater, and Ruby Turpin. The former are, [...]
Scholarship on the political thought and career of James Madison is still dominated by a prevailing “Hamiltonian” interpretation.[1] Set forth by such prominent scholars as Irving Brant, Martin Diamond, and George Carey, the “Hamiltonian” interpretation views the years surrounding the formation of the Constitution as the most productive years of Madison’s career and argues that [...]
John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia, was the chief pamphleteer of the Jeffersonian Republicans during the 1790s. With vigor, he attacked the Hamiltonian system with its national bank and privileges for the wealthy. Despite Taylor’s prominence in the Jeffersonian party and in forming its ideological expression, his significance has not always been understood. Historians have [...]
Have you seen the internet ads? “Get Covered America” is literally popping up everywhere with its smiling faces, its semi-anonymous endorsements for Obamacare, and its offers to “help you on your journey to get covered.” At least there is some honesty, there. Far from a point and click process, let alone the semi-automatic process promised [...]
There is a perfect cup of tea. An Englishman knows it can occur most easily at 4 pm (or, say, 8 am), when the solar system is aligned in a particular way. When in a foreign country, he looks around hopefully at five minutes to 4 in case tea is beginning to appear, but he [...]
It was a peculiar board-meeting, thought Daphne, because all of its members were women. It’s most uncommon there, although many small Greek companies are headed by women and most big national conglomerates employ a few female directors. Nor had she heard of MuseCorp, but many firms still survive the economic hardship. These eight ladies were [...]
Russell Kirk: A Critical Biography of a Conservative Mind, by James E. Person, Jr., Madison Books, Lanham, MA, 1999 In the book before us, James E. Person, Jr. has sought “to craft a critical primer” on the thought of Russell Kirk—a man whose 50 years of professional life yielded 32 books, 800 essays and reviews, [...]
Civilization: The West and the Rest, Niall Ferguson ‘The West’, then, is much more than just a geographical expression. It is a set of norms, behaviours and institutions with borders that are blurred in the extreme.—Niall Ferguson, Civilization, Chapter 1. Before reading Civilization by Niall Ferguson, I’d never heard of the man. Well, more likely, I’d [...]
Conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat explores the next stage of creeping—and sometimes creepy—American libertarianism. We Americans are still becoming less Puritanical, if by Puritanical we mean a combination of religious conservatism and liberal communitarianism, a combination that leads us to be concerned with the moral well-being of our fellow citizens and fellow creatures. Now we [...]
The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry, Mark T. Mitchell and Nathan Schlueter, eds., ISI Books. A year ago, when my wife and I were waiting for a flight out of Logan Airport, a roughhewn man of about 60 was sitting a few seats away from us reading a book I would have been surprised [...]
Edmund Burke. Volume II: 1784-1797 by F.P. Lock The two volumes of F.P. Lock’s biography of Edmund Burke span more than one thousand pages and, by the author’s own calculation, over twenty years of research. In structure, method, and argument, they constitute a work of extraordinary consistency and erudition, and one that, in its use of [...]
Photo from the Daily MailQueen Victoria with Heirs Britain’s recent royal christening brings us two fascinating family photographs: one of Queen Victoria and another of her great-great-granddaughter, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, each accompanied by three future British kings. They may tell us something surprising about Time, Technology and Western Culture. The elder [...]