Civilization

Standing Athwart History: Can We Stop the Decline of the West?

That Western culture is in an advanced state of decay is, I would guess, an article of faith for many readers of The Imaginative Conservative. But consciousness of this decay goes back further than many people are...

Four Sides of a Cube: The Way of Great Books

We turn to the Great Books so that the encounter with them might do for us what they did for past generations. We turn to them as world makers, that they might aide us in understanding the world they were instrumental in bringing about, our world...

Eating Alone: Aristotle and the Culture of the Meal

Aristotle identified man’s eating habits as one of the cornerstones of civilization—one of two activities that highlighted the nature of man’s exquisiteness (and barbarousness). The importance of eating to the human condition should be self-evident to everyone. But what is...

Three Dangerous Philosophical Novels

In a culture in which algorithms control the content we consume—what movies to watch, what goods to buy, what news to listen to—the choice to read a book whose philosophy opposes our own and questions our sacred assumptions is nothing short of revolutionary...

Nature, Science, and Civilization

At its finest, the new conception of nature enabled people to appreciate, and wish to safeguard, the natural environment on which life depends. At its worst, this reverence for the natural world gave rise to a mindless sentimentality that regarded all human activity as harmful and exploitive...

Can Shakespeare Save Civilization?

Perhaps an apology might be necessary for the sheer audacity of beginning any essay with such a question and with such a seemingly absurd claim. Of course, Shakespeare cannot save civilization, at least not on his own. Perhaps we...

Civilization and Its Enemies

The attack against Western civilization is, in some way, an attack against the Body of Christ. And Christians need to understand that... What is civilization and why is it important? Civilization is many things, but at its heart,...

Decadence and Its Critics

If conservatives can pin down the idea of decadence while avoiding shrill tones, they may go far in explaining what it means for a civilization to decline... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Gleaves Whitney as he explores...

G.K. Chesterton’s “What’s Wrong With the World”

The next time someone tells you that reactionaries and other assorted defenders of the family and private property do not care about the poor, invite them to read G.K. Chesterton’s final words in What’s Wrong with the World... A...

Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South

The South's combination of architectural preservation with genealogy and with the documentation of human toil has often resulted in a much richer testament of the past and a more balanced view of the region’s history... In the...

Future Shock: Notes for a Novel I’ll Never Write

Here's the scenario: As the culture of death destroys itself in its auto-cannibalistic self-consumption, millions begin to flock to the Faith. In the very death throes of decadence, Christ and His Church rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes... I have...

Photographing the Lost World of Rural America

Today America is on its third economic upswing, even as the places I visit have continued to fade away... For 23 years I have been driving country roads, photographing the ruins of rural America for a documentary I call...

Victor Davis Hanson on Daily Life in “Mexifornia”

For those on the Left and the economic-libertarian Right who glibly say, “Build bridges, not walls,” Victor Davis Hanson would reply, “It’s easy to say that when you don’t live in Mexifornia”... With its elegant prose and page after...

A Long & Living Tradition: Architecture, Ancient and Modern

Leon Battista Alberti’s work remains a guidebook for those who value the traditions of both classical and post-Renaissance European architecture. To read Alberti today is to discover an essential link in that long and living tradition... Like a signal...