Political Economy Before Adam Smith

Political Economy Before Adam Smith

Early English Tracts on Commerce Edited by John Ramsay McCulloch. CL Press, 2024.  Paperback, 693 pages, $19.50. Reviewed by Gregory M. Collins. John Ramsay McCulloch (1789-1864) doesn’t roll off the zealous tongues of free marketeers as smoothly as Adam Smith, but he...
Science and Meaning: Parallel Tracks?

Science and Meaning: Parallel Tracks?

Purpose: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply About the Meaning of Our Existence By Samuel T. Wilkinson. Pegasus Books, 2024. Hardcover, 352 pages, $29.95.  Reviewed by Gene Callahan. Samuel T. Wilkinson, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University, has written a...
Geopolitics and the Making of the Modern World

Geopolitics and the Making of the Modern World

The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars and the Making of the Modern World By Hal Brands. W.W. Norton, 2025. Hardcover, 320 pages, $29.99. Reviewed by John P. Rossi. Hal Brands, author of a handful of books on foreign policy and a professor at Johns Hopkins (as well...
The Context for Human Dignity

The Context for Human Dignity

On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law By F. Russell Hittinger. The Catholic University of America Press, 2024. Paperback, 490 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by Rev. Joseph Scolaro. The Church needs a strong leader now more than ever. The dignity...
Between Greatness and Hubris 

Between Greatness and Hubris 

Gems of American History: The Lecturer’s Art By Walter A. McDougall. Encounter Books, 2025. Hardcover, 336 pages, $32.99. Reviewed by Nicholas Callaghan. As we rapidly approach the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, a question remains at the fore...
Protestant Institutionalism and Christian America

Protestant Institutionalism and Christian America

Religion & Republic: Christian America from the Founding to the Civil War By Miles Smith. The Davenant Press, 2024. Paperback, 350 pages, $42.95. Reviewed by Glenn Moots. Beginning in the 1970s, American Christians sensing a cultural shift engaged in a war of...
Reviving the Vanished Voice of a Maker

Reviving the Vanished Voice of a Maker

The Worlds of Dorothy L. Sayers: The Life and Works of the Crime Writer and Poet By Stephen Wade. Pen & Sword History, 2025. Hardcover, 256 pages, $39.95/£25.00. Reviewed by Adam Schwartz. In 2011, A. N. Wilson numbered Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) among authors...
A Scholar for all Seasons

A Scholar for all Seasons

Flannery O’Connor and the Church Made Visible: A Revolutionary Witness for the Sake of the Gospel By Ralph C. Wood. Baylor University Press, 2024. Hardcover, 181 pages, $42.99. Reviewed by Henry T. Edmondson III.  Ralph C. Wood, over his long and remarkable career,...
The Formless Void of the Therapeutic

The Formless Void of the Therapeutic

The Philosophy of Philip Rieff: Cultural Conflict, Religion, and the Self Edited by William G. Batchelder, IV and Michael P. Harding. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. Hardcover, 324 pages, $115. Reviewed by Albert Norton, Jr.  We should care about the philosophy of Philip...
Thales College Essay Contest Winners

Thales College Essay Contest Winners

Thales College, a liberal arts and professional education institution based in Raleigh, North Carolina, hosted an international essay contest for high school students. In line with its tradition of publishing rising thinkers alongside established humane voices, The...