Meditations at the Dump

by | Nov 8, 2017

I envy my stepmother. For she is chairwoman of the town dump of Baldwin, Michigan. This is by virtue of her recent election to the village board; also she has been appointed to the high dignity of chairwoman of parks and recreation. But I’ll take my recreation at the...

Conserving Nature in This Land

by | Nov 8, 2017

As I wander from state to state, speechifying on everything under the sun, I find that two subjects are most popular with lecture-audiences this year: sex and conservation. The former has always been with us, but the latter topic has taken on urgency, what with the...

The McKinley Mystery

by | Nov 5, 2017

President McKinley: Architect of the American Century by Robert W. Merry. Simon & Schuster, 2017. Hardcover, 624 pages, $35.This biography’s bold subtitle announces Robert W. Merry’s revisionist project. In the popular imagination, McKinley is a nondescript,...

Books in Little: The Disaffected

by | Nov 5, 2017

The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality by Justin Gest. Oxford University Press, 2016. Paper, xiii + 249 pages, $24.95The past year or so has seen the appearance of quite a few books dealing with the white poor and the...

Announcing Kirk on Campus

by | Nov 1, 2017

We are pleased to announce a web presence for Kirk on Campus, our new project that celebrates and defends the permanent things at America’s colleges and universities. As a unique source of cultural conservative thought, Kirk on Campus fills a critical niche in the...

Edwards on Kirk

by | Nov 1, 2017

Lee Edwards has written an essay on Kirk in the Fall 2017 edition of Modern Age—“The Mind Behind ‘The Conservative Mind’,” outlining the unique traits of character, background, and mind that enabled Kirk to write his catalytic book, The Conservative...

Discipline and Desire

by | Oct 29, 2017

Some Permanent Things by James Matthew Wilson. Wiseblood Books, 2014. Paperback, 156 pages, $16.50. James Matthew Wilson’s first full-length poetry collection explores how we might rediscover “permanent things” in a time of distraction, disruption, and disposability....

Shining a Light on Dark Deeds

by | Oct 29, 2017

The Moral Imagination in the Mystery Novels of Sally Wright by Ashlee Cowles When it comes to fictional works of the moral imagination, fantasy novels tend to receive the most attention from critics who believe literature plays a vital role in the conservation of the...

’Tis the season!

by | Oct 25, 2017

No, not that season. All Hallows’ Eve approaches—a perfect time to read or re-read one of Russell Kirk’s Ghostly Tales. We recently posted The Surly Sullen Bell (along with Ex Tenebris) here, and there are more stories, links, and commentary linked at Ghostly...