If it’s two weeks till Christmas and you haven’t bought most of your Christmas presents (like me), you’re in luck! This is your chance to prove your creativity, with my expertise in responding to panicky situations. I’m currently typing this with one hand while my other hand holds a binky in my infant’s mouth. Yes, [...]
We need not assume the mantle of an anti-materialist to appreciate that a certain degree of social equilibrium is dismissed or ignored during the holidays, allowing for a lack of societal and personal restraint. Many otherwise normal considerations are subsumed into the pursuit of a “happy” holiday. All too often this demands we forgo normal [...]
It’s somewhat criminal that Kevin McCormick is not better known. An avid reader and fan of The Imaginative Conservative, a father of four, and a dedicated husband and member of his small Texas parish, McCormick has been fighting for the good, the true, and the beautiful all of his adult life. I can vouch for [...]
A Tory, according to Samuel Johnson, is a man attached to orthodoxy in church and state. A bohemian is a wandering and often impecunious man of letters or arts, indifferent to the demands of bourgeois fad and foible… Tory and bohemian go not ill together: it is quite possible to abide by the norms of [...]
Making a Christmas list is, or at least should be, a joyful endeavor. It is therefore with a good deal of pleasure that I’ve set about compiling this list for imaginative conservatives. I feel, however, that I should clarify the sort of “conservative” for which this Christmas list is intended. It is for those who [...]
Plenty of Christmas gifts have been suggested by our imaginative contributors for imaginative conservatives; some affordable, some posh, but always appropriate. But what do we give to our Leftist friends, assuming that we have any? One should not suggest anything that mocks their obvious deficiencies, even if those are self-induced; after all, Christmas gifts ought [...]
Now well into the third century since our nation’s birth, imaginative conservatives can’t help but wonder where we might be in the life of the Republic. It is instructive to note that when our Founders were preparing to give birth to our Republic, they were imagining the end of the Roman Republic and pondering how to keep [...]
People love biographies, and I am regularly asked to recommend good ones during the lead-up to Christmas. One of the most frustrating things about the bookselling business is that there is no necessary correlation between the prominent placement of books at the bookstore, or the review of them in newspapers and magazines, and the enduring [...]
William Lee Miller’s complementary books, Lincoln’s Virtues and The President: The Duty of a Statesman, are a rare combination of historical investigation and moral reflection presented in comfortable prose filled with real world insight. The Publisher’s Review excerpt from the Amazon site is right on: Margaret Whalen Turner’s Attolia series makes a great gift for those who know nothing can [...]
The optimist says the glass is half full, the pessimist that it is half empty, and the imaginative conservative asks why the glass is twice the size of what it needs to be. He soon discovers that his cup always runneth over. Because the unbought grace of life cannot be purchased, it can be challenging [...]
A number of my fellow travelers have recommended books for Christmas gifts. Here are some ideas for gifts that will enhance the reading experience. Cigars. In the movie Crimson Tide, Gene Hackman’s character, the captain of a nuclear submarine, tells his executive officer (Denzel Washington) not to grow too fond of cigars because “they’re more expensive than drugs.” [...]
Our friends at ISI have made all of their books available at a 40% discount for this holiday season. All The Imaginative Conservative readers should got to their online bookstore and add these books to your library. Introduce your family and friends to the ideas of Russell Kirk and other conservative thinkers by purchasing extra books to give away as gifts. [...]
H. Lee Cheek In many regards, 2012 has been a troubling, nay, bewildering year. 2013 offers the possibility of a recovery and the renewal of our political tradition. Here are the books that I am giving as Christmas gifts. Kevin Gutzman’s James Madison and the Making of America (St. Martins, 2012), offers the [...]
My six gift ideas are all recently published books, if only because I will always take books under the Christmas tree over socks, ties, and video games, no matter how trendy the latter might be. The Complete Thinker: The Marvelous Mind of G. K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press, 2012) by Dale Ahlquist. If there is a better [...]