The Duke of Wellington was an exemplar of an older England—an England bound by blood, not interest. He affirmed the very English equality of manhood, which comes with honorable service in the line, the rule that he who is with the king on St. Crispin’s Day shall be by him called “brother.” The Great Duke, [...]
To what extent Colonel Edward House’s novel "Philip Dru" contributed to the Wilsonian transformation of the Democratic party will likely never be known. But we do know that Woodrow Wilson read the book, brought House to the White House, and relied on House for advice and companionship. Philip Dru: Administrator - A Story of Tomorrow, [...]
Ghost stories have been killed by a ghost—by the ghost in the machine of television, a murder not without irony. Hidden among the posh townhouses and expensive offices of Mayfair is the Savile Club, resembling a merry old English squire with threadbare cuffs. In the library upstairs above the black leather club-chairs, relics of the [...]
The best poems are always going to be about common things. What is uncommon is always the vision of the poet, made visible to us in words that skip along and yet find a way of stopping the reader so that he may examine his own path and think about new ones. Elizabeth Marshall's "Pathways: [...]
As long as the great powers accept the moral duty of changing an unjust status quo even if it means sacrifice to them, just so long will there be peace. The State in Catholic Thought, by Heinrich A. Rommen, introduction by Bruce Frohnen (Cluny Media, 770 pages) There is no possible evasion of the general principle that [...]
During my years of teaching, I have frequently admonished students with this deeply held conviction. If you can find a cultural critic or essayist that you enjoy, and he or she also happens to write fiction—read it. While Russell Kirk (1918-94) is best known as one of the founding fathers of post-World War II conservatism, [...]
If we really think of God as a Who and not a What—in other words, if we think of him as a Someone capable of speech, then there is no “security” against revelation. And man’s only meaningful response to revelation is faith! The Weight of Belief, by Josef Pieper (Cluny Media, 326 pages) The difficulty [...]
Wilhelm Röpke maintained that freedom depends upon certain social and moral factors, which are essential for a free enterprise system to be successful, enduring, and truly free. A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market, by Wilhelm Röpke, Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1998. 200 pp. Wilhelm Röpke (in some texts spelled “Roepke”), [...]
After the Nazis invaded and occupied France during the Second World War, the Free French, or the French government-in-exile, invited Simone Weil—a political philosopher, Platonist, and mystic—to write a report detailing how to rebuild France once the Nazis took their leave.[1] This, of course, presupposed that the Nazis would eventually depart French soil. In response, [...]
The reader who demands that his own moral code shall not be infringed upon, or his feelings lacerated by any unpleasant happenings in any book he reads, does not want to be made a better man as the result of reading it. How to Read a Novel, by Caroline Gordon (Cluny Media, 250 pages) T.S. [...]
Rod Dreher wants us to see into the life of things—to see the creator hidden in the creation, to see the grandeur of God and sense the “deep down things.” But the trouble with the appeal of mysticism is the perennial danger of gnosticism. Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age, [...]
Each of us belongs to two States—a terrestrial State whose end is the common temporal good, and the universal State of the Church whose end is eternal life. The Primacy of the Spiritual, by Jacques Maritain (Cluny Media, 254 pages) 1. Nothing is more important for the freedom of souls and the good of mankind [...]
It’s not often that one experiences the exhilarating shock and overwhelming satisfaction of discovering a new classic. When one does, it is only right that such satisfaction and exhilaration should be shared with others. It is, therefore, without the least hesitation that I recommend Michael Kent's "The Mass of Brother Michel." The Mass of Brother [...]
As I read Matthew Crawford's "Why We Drive," I was struck by the book, not so much as an ode to awesome driving— which it is—but as a long observation of two modes of being in the world, two political stances that I have increasingly come to identify as Liberalism and Catholicism. Why We Drive: [...]