Shaping Memoir and History

In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War by David Reynolds. Random House (New York City), 656 pp., $35.00 cloth, 2005. A person typing “memoir” into an internet search engine could be forgiven for thinking that, with the exception of...

The Irreconcilable Faces of French Conservatism

Impossible Conservatism [Le Conservatisme impossible: Libéraux et réactionnaires en France depuis 1789] by François Huguenin. La Table Ronde (Paris), 395 pp., €21.50, 2006. While in America, defining and redefining conservatism has long been a conservative pastime,...

In the Name of God and of Profit

Cattolicesimo, protestantesimo e capitalismo by Paolo Zanotto. Facco-Rubbettino (Italy), 286 pp., 2005. According to the well-known weberian theory, capitalism is a product of the Protestant Reform or, rather, of Protestant faith, particularly of the Calvinist...

The Rise of Books on the Fall

The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins. Oxford University Press (Oxford, England) 239 pp., $28.00 cloth, 2005. The Fall of the Roman Empire. A New History of Rome and the Barbarians by Peter Heather. Oxford University Press (New York) 572...

Human Person: Structure or Superstructure?

Politics and Economics. An Essay on the Genesis of Economic Development by Rocco Pezzimenti with an Afterword by Paolo Savona. Città Nuova (Rome), 230 pp., $18.00, 2006.“Despite the beliefs of numerous economists, a new idea is now taking hold, that to change our...