Wilhelm Röpke asked how to address the problems of social fragmentation and the loss of community feeling, in a world where the market is left to itself. Röpke’s own idea was that society is nurtured and perpetuated at the local level, through motives that are quite distinct from the pursuit of rational self interest. Two [...]
Chris Gibson's "The Spirit of Philadelphia" helps us to rethink the role of Common Sense Realism as a unifying principle of American life. But that idea rests on a greater idea. The spirit of Philadelphia has no sustaining power to preserve order in soul or republic unless wedded to the genius of Christianity. The Spirit [...]
What is America? Are we a nation or an idea? A recent essay by one Colin Woodard contends that we must choose one or the other. More than that, Woodard chooses to make his choice very clear, while also claiming to know the choices of President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance. America as a [...]
Historian Walter McDougall is that rare "twofer": a wonderful writer of history and a wonderful lecturer. In this book, he combines essential tips for the writer with a series of uniformly sparkling essays that range from the era of the American Revolution to the present day. Gems of American History: The Lecturer’s Art, by Walter [...]
What exactly is culture but an embodied religion, a faith that is given flesh and blood and bone in a visible and public way? Might it be possible, therefore, to build a culture where it is easier for men to be virtuous? I am looking at a couple of random lines lifted from a bleak little [...]
In his ideas regarding American foreign policy, James Monroe echoed both Washington and Jefferson, yet he had to worry about things neither of them did—in particular, European involvement in the affairs of the republics of the Western Hemisphere. His policy needed to follow the diplomatic thought of the previous administrations while also adapting to quickly [...]
We can trace the desire to understand the universal quality and dignity of the human person as far back as our very origin as a Western people. As I get older, I’m terribly troubled by the move—going on since rise of the New Left and, especially, the Maoists who introduced us to Political Correctness in [...]
When he retired from public life in 1817, James Madison turned his full attention to averting a demographic catastrophe. He foresaw a time when a majority of the population would be “without land or other equivalent property and without the means or hope of acquiring it.” I. During his presidency, Thomas Jefferson struggled to [...]
The Articles of Confederation were doomed by their perceived structural weakness. Yet defenders of the Articles at the time correctly pointed out that this early constitution, drafted under intense pressure at a critical time in the country’s history and intended to deal foremost with the exigencies of war, had been remarkably successful. The Declaration of [...]
For most of our veterans, it should go without saying that military discipline and experience give them a moral authority. It is a recognition—once universal—that is too often forgotten in an age when patriotism itself seems suspect to many. On this day when we honor our veterans, it’s good to recollect both the debt of [...]
Henry Clay and Sam Rayburn fit well with Willmoore Kendall’s views of the democratic statesman. Both were skilled politicians who sought the good, avoided extremism, and consciously represented the people in Congress. For many centuries, scholars have written weighty tomes on statesmanship. In the twentieth century in particular, many students of the American political philosopher [...]
Challenging a number of schools of thought in economics and political philosophy, Andrew Willard Jones in his book, "The Church Against the State," presents an unapologetically Catholic and specifically Thomist view of the world and, in particular, of America. Jones argues that America, in her own unique fashion, blends that which is venerable and ancient [...]
Willmoore Kendall’s support of (relative) free speech is an integral part of his view of the “deliberate sense of the community,” which in turn is informed by the “public truth,” which itself is the political expression of the particular American historical experience of transcendent revelation. “[B]ut a completely open society in which everyone does his [...]
We modern defenders of the liberal arts have to choose between Socrates’ vision and Cicero’s vision: Are we citizens of a particular soil and a particular place, or are we connected—across time and space—to all good men and God? A few weeks ago, I had the grand privilege of attending a Liberty Fund conference on [...]