The Common Mind by Andre Gushurst-Moore A hallmark of the current age is the ease with which it embraces any number of rival moral narratives in the name of “open-mindedness” or “diversity.” Indeed, the thousand and one “isms” that are impossibly espoused serve only to erode further even the very concept of a common culture. [...]
Liberty or Equality by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn In Liberty or Equality, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn first examines the historical and current meanings of both democracy and liberalism, demonstrating why the two do not necessarily coincide. He then puts forward a series of propositions, the first of which is that the impulse of democracy as popular government [...]
In “Liberty, the God That Failed,” Christopher Ferrara asks us to open our eyes to harsh realities, but also to the possibilities for a rightly-ordered society and the true liberty that can still be ours. To read this book is never to think about the modern West and American history in the same way again. [...]
Against Inclusiveness by James Kalb Diversity. Inclusiveness. Equality.—ubiquitous words in 21st-century American political and social life. But how do those who police the limits of acceptable discourse employ these as verbal weapons to browbeat their often hapless fellows into having a “real conversation”? How do these terms function as mere doublespeak for the expectation of full-scale [...]
Thoughts and Adventures by Winston S. Churchill (380 pages, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2009) This material progress, in itself so splendid, does not meet any of the real needs of the human race…. No material progress, even though it takes shapes we cannot now conceive, or however it may expand the faculties of man, can bring [...]
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government by Charles Murray Featured Book: The crux of Murray’s argument is that in order to be happy, individuals must be members of communities. Through an unerring use of examples drawn from social science, Charles Murray shows how we know, or should know, that people have a need for close personal [...]
Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson, by Bradley J. Birzer Featured Book: Since religion is the heart of culture, Dawson wrote, then “religion is the key to history;” therefore “[w]e cannot understand the inner form of a society unless we understand its religion.” To understand Europe and the West, then, [...]
Featured Book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen Christianity. Judaism. Dead white males. Old-fashioned morality. The traditional family. Tradition itself. These are the bêtes noires of the elites.They are the pillars of political incorrectness. Together, they constitute that thing called Western civilization. Political correctness, at its heart, is the effort to dissolve the [...]
Featured Book: The Quest For Community, by Robert Nisbet, ranks high among the foundational works of post-war American conservatism. In it, Nisbet argued that the emergence of the “centralized territorial State” in the wake of the Middle Ages decisively impacted Western social organization. Nisbet was particularly sensitive to the rise of the “national community,” the total political [...]
Featured Book: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. For all bibliovores, regardless of age, this book is for you. It is beautiful in form and content, it is good in form and content, and it is true in form and content. Rarely does one find a children’s picture book that so throughly celebrates a bookish life, [...]
Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad Featured Book: Reading Homer’s poems is one of the purest, most inexhaustible pleasures life has to offer–a secret somewhat too well kept in our time. The aim of this book is to tell anyone who might care–first-time, second-time, or third-time readers or people who [...]
Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver Ideas Have Consequences contributed significantly to the philosophical coherence of contemporary conservatism. Frank Meyer went so far as to say that “the publication of Ideas Have Consequences can well be considered the fons et origo (source and origin) of the contemporary American conservative movement.” For Mr. Meyer, what was adumbrated [...]
Book of the Day: Hailed as the guide to capitalism when it first appeared in 1981, Wealth & Poverty is one of the most famous economics books of modern times. In it Mr. George F. Gilder argues that supply side economics and free market policies are the answer to decreasing America’s poverty rate and increasing her prosperity. He also [...]
Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the Framers of the United States Constitution M.E. Bradford’s brief lives of the Founding Fathers, free of ideological prejudices, tell us the sort of delegates those fifty-five were: gentlemen, with few exceptions, attached to precedent and custom, prescription and “ancient constitutions.” Those colonial gentlemen, so very British, were not in [...]