Books in Little

by | Dec 26, 2007

Separating Fools from their Money: A History of American Financial Scandals, by Scott B. MacDonald and Jane E. Hughes (Transaction Publishers, 264 pp., 2007). In the early 2000s a series of corporate and financial scandals rocked the business world. For months...

A Tribute to Jacques Barzun on His Centennial

by | Dec 26, 2007

The shank end of 2007 has brought Jacques Barzun, the distinguished historian and cultural critic, to his one-hundredth birthday. This would be a notable event in any life. But for all of us who cherish the quiet witness of civilized men living decent, profitable, and...

The Infinite Anguish of Free Souls

by | Dec 26, 2007

On Essays and LettersIn Albert Camus’ Lyrical and Critical Essays (Vintage, 1968), I found a 1940 essay entitled, “The Almond Trees.” This collection has long been a favorite of mine. It bears much of the somberness of the then up-coming War. Camus himself was from...

The Moral Foundations of Economics

by | Dec 26, 2007

The following essay appears in the final chapter of Russell Kirk’s textbook Economics: Work and Prosperity (Pensacola, Fla.: A Beka Book Publications, 1989), pp. 365–368.Some people would like to separate economists from politics, but they are unable to do so. Another...

Searching for a Usable Past

by | Dec 26, 2007

Of Time and Place: A Farm in Wisconsin by Richard Quinney. Ivan R. Dee (Chicago), 192 pp. $28.00 cloth, 2006. The American experience has always existed in tension with, if not outright hostility towards, the strictures of time and place. By the very nature of its...