Enchanting Criticism: Dana Gioia as Literary Critic 

Enchanting Criticism: Dana Gioia as Literary Critic 

Poetry as Enchantment: And Other Essays By Dana Gioia. Paul Dry Books, 2024. Paperback, 272 pages, $21.95. Reviewed by Oliver Spivey. In his essay titled “Reading,” W. H. Auden sets forth what he views as the special duties of the literary critic: What is the function...
The Machine or the Garden?

The Machine or the Garden?

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity By Paul Kingsnorth. Thesis/Penguin Random House, 2025. Hardcover, 368 pages, $32. Reviewed by Paul Krause. In the beginning was the garden. That is a very standard myth to start. Many cultures have foundation myths that...
What Plato Meant

What Plato Meant

Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political By Melissa Lane. Princeton University Press, 2023.  Hardcover, 480 pages, $49.95.  Reviewed by Jesse Russell. In October of 1993, a trial took place in Colorado regarding Colorado Amendment 2, a ballot measure that...
After the Republic: Tacitus on the End of a Free State

After the Republic: Tacitus on the End of a Free State

By Coyle Neal. Since the beginning, we Americans have been concerned about the end of our republican freedoms at the hands of a tyrant. Whether colonists decrying George III, anti-Federalists staring suspiciously at the Constitution, or Whigs wringing their hands over...
Why Cervantes’ Don Quixote Matters

Why Cervantes’ Don Quixote Matters

By Pedro Blas Gonzalez. Plainness, Sancho, for all affectation is bad (Llaneza, Sancho, que toda afectación es mala). – Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes addresses perennial concerns about human nature and reality, the snare of confusing...
After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul

After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul

The Growth of the Liberal Soul (2nd Edition) By David Walsh. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997/2025. Paperback, 416 pages, $39. Reviewed by Barry Cooper. In The Modern Philosophical Revolution (2008), David Walsh tells us where he changed his mind on several...
After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul

Liberalism’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

The Growth of the Liberal Soul (2nd Edition) By David Walsh. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997/2025. Paperback, 416 pages, $39. Reviewed by Joseph R. Fornieri. In today’s hyper polarized climate, the partisan label of “liberal” denotes either praise or blame...
After Ideology but Before the Revolution: The Liberal Soul

The Paradox of Liberal Resilience

The Growth of the Liberal Soul (2nd Edition) By David Walsh. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997/2025. Paperback, 416 pages, $39. Reviewed by John von Heyking. The publication of the second edition of Growth of the Liberal Soul is a testament to David Walsh’s deep...
Marxism and the Rising Generation

Marxism and the Rising Generation

NextGen Marxism: What It Is and How to Combat It  By Mike Gonzalez and Katharine Cornell Gorka.  Encounter Books, 2024. Hardcover 332 pages, $34.99. Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks. NextGen Marxism is one of the most informative and relevant books I have read in years. It...