The question of Homer’s existence is a little like the question of God’s. There, unquestionably, like the universe, are the Iliad and the Odyssey: But how did they come to be there? Were they composed by a single author, or were they gradually pieced together, as the classicist Richard Bentley said in 1713, from “a [...]
In The Great Heresies (1938), Hilaire Belloc wrote of the lifting of the Muslim siege of Vienna “on a date that ought to be among the most famous in history—September 11, 1683.” The date of September 11, if not the year of 1683, would become branded on everyone’s memory after the 9/11 attacks. One wonders, indeed, [...]
The musical Hamilton is star-spangled patriotic and worthy of attention, even though hip-hop may not be the favorite musical genre of most Imaginative Conservatives. Why? Intelligence finds the answer to a question, but genius answers a question no one else has thought to ask. The genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda leapt across three centuries to answer [...]
It is sometimes said that religion and politics are the two topics that should not be discussed in polite company. The result is that nothing of importance is ever discussed, reducing the conversation of “polite company” to the level of the banal, at best, or to the level of gossip, at worst. And yet the [...]
After removing family and religion from his life, Abraham Lincoln’s chief object of devotion remained the American nation alone. Shoppers looking for presents at large American book stores have been greeted by a plethora of biographies on Abraham Lincoln recently. Three books have added to the already behemoth historiography of the sixteenth president: Richard Brookhiser’s [...]
“Mrs. Dalloway” has as one of its primary reference points the life and fate of a psychologically maimed soldier who has returned from the Western Front… The British writer, C.E. Montague (1867–1929) poignantly describes this debasing process in an acclaimed book that appeared in 1922, Disenchantment. To read Montague’s text regarding his own personal experiences [...]
Of all Russell Kirk’s books, Enemies of the Permanent Things has the oddest history. Its origins were in the Darcy Lectures that Kirk delivered at Alabama College in 1958. Over the eleven years until its final publication, it evolved significantly, reflecting the evolution of Kirk’s own ideas, especially regarding T.S. Eliot. First appearing in print [...]
In a recent essay, Samuel J. Abrams reports that liberals outnumber conservatives on college campuses by wide margins. This is hardly news to most Americans. Still, it may be noteworthy that Mr. Abrams’ piece was published in the newspaper of liberal record, the New York Times. Even the liberal establishment now acknowledges that universities trend [...]
Ye learned sisters which have oftentimes Beene to me ayding, others to adorne: Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes, That even the greatest did not greatly scorne To heare theyr names sung in your simple layes, But joyed in theyr prayse. And when ye list your owne mishaps to mourne, Which death, or [...]
Science Some of the would-be defenders were the New Humanists of Allen Tate’s era. He criticized Paul Elmer More, Irving Babbitt, and Norman Foerster for their facile attempts to undo the de-humanizing effects of modern natural science. Generally speaking, they held that religion could be used to elevate society beyond the useful. Tate understood that [...]
The nature of philosophy, viewed from a certain angle, is to think about the deep meaning imbedded in ordinary things. Plato’s Socrates made his reputation by challenging people that he encountered to question their own assumptions about the meaning of various ordinary concepts that, upon reflection, prove to be deeper than they seem: justice in [...]
In Toy Story 3, the boy Andy is ready to go off to college. His room is being tidied, and his toys are about to be boxed up and stored in the attic. Then Mom makes a mistake and Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang are packed off to a kiddie daycare center called [...]
Contemporary sexual culture is toxic for young women, and until women stand up and acknowledge that fact, despair, sadness, and regret are going to be the underlying chord structure of their very lives. We fail an entire generation when we withhold from them the “wisdom not to do desperate things.” A stereotyped but unconscious despair [...]
Did you know that the man who co-wrote "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "Cosi fan tutte" died as an American college professor? "Seldom, if ever indeed, has a more interesting personality come to these shores from Europe." —Joseph Russo, Lorenzo Da Ponte: Poet and Adventurer Opera aficionados will know Lorenzo Da Ponte's name [...]