Kirk’s Constitution: From the Roots to the End of American Order?
The Roots of American Order By Russell Kirk. ISI Books, 2003. Paperback, 534 pages, $18. Reviewed by Bruce P. Frohnen. Let me begin with what may seem an odd claim: the American Constitution is a central concern of Russell Kirk’s vast body of work. This statement is...
Our Republic and How We Lost It: Philip Hamburger on the Structure of Self-Government
By Bruce P. Frohnen. From Rome, through the Italian and German city-states, to the Dutch experience and the conflicts that shaped constitutional monarchy in Britain, and most importantly for us, the colonial agreements, peoples, and social order that produced our...
Ted McAllister’s Place: A Memorial Tribute
By Bruce P. Frohnen. Ted V. McAllister died on January 27 after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer. A native Oklahoman, he spent most of his career living in Moorpark (culturally quite distant from Los Angeles) while teaching at the Pepperdine University School of...
Common Good Credentialism
Common Good Constitutionalism by Adrian Vermeule. Polity, 2022. Hardcover, 270 pages, $59.95. Reviewed by Bruce P. Frohnen. Thirty years on from its victory over Soviet communism, liberal individualism has shown itself to be a spent force. The drive to “liberate”...
Decades ago, Robert Nisbet anticipated many of today’s concerns about loneliness, bureaucracy, and declining community. Luke C. Sheahan (@lsheahan) revisits the ideas behind those warnings and their relevance today.
Questions about first principles have become fashionable again. @HorcherF and @DanJTPitt apply generosity to smooth contention between intellectuals and politicians, they embrace the tension between theory and practice, and they highlight the power of particularity as a source of