Under the Light of the Same Communion Candle: From Russell Kirk to James Matthew Wilson
T. S. Eliot: Culture and Anarchy By James Matthew Wilson. Wiseblood Books, 2024. Paperback, 72 pages, $5. Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl. Matthew Arnold’s thesis in The Function of Criticism at the Present Time reads much like a response by Arnold to suggestions...
The “Art of Being” and “The Art of Becoming”
Some Permanent Things, Second Edition By James Matthew Wilson. Wiseblood Books, 2022. Paperback, 162 pages, $15. Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl. During an interview a few years back, James Matthew Wilson was asked what he meant by the “good,” a fitting question for...
Whether the Heart Has Its Reasons of Which It Knows Nothing
Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment By Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey. Princeton University Press, 2021. Hardcover, 264 pages, $27.95. Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl. My parents’ wish is for me to be happy is a phrase so often quoted to...
This Comes of Settling a Country
Freedom by Sebastian Junger Simon & Schuster, 2021. Hardback, 160 pages, $26. Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl An example of freedom is a bird being let out of a cage, or a prisoner being released from prison after serving a certain amount of time, or a woman...
"Haven’s book is an engaging introduction to Girard. Reading through its presentation of the components and explanatory power of mimetic theory, it becomes clear Americans have arrived at a time for a very different kind of choosing."
"Knowing the truth about scapegoating does not mean it has been abandoned. Indeed, while people have become increasingly good at seeing the scapegoats of others as just that, scapegoats, they remain convinced their enemies really are evil."