Why Caesar Was Not Called King

by | Nov 16, 2015

An interview with Mary Beard on the history and enduring myths of ancient RomeAfter two thousand years ancient Rome still helps define and understand the way we live our lives today. To ignore the Roman past is not just to turn a blind eye to history, but also to...

Why Study Latin?

by | Nov 16, 2015

TO THE POINT: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1966Rather to my surprise, but considerably to my pleasure, the study of Latin has been reviving somewhat in our better high schools, these past few years. Once upon a time, every properly educated person knew his Latin authors. That...

What’s Relevant? Roman History and Latin Literature

by | Nov 16, 2015

TO THE POINT: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1973Having written some books concerned with the history of ideas, I sometimes am asked, “What period of history ought young people to study nowadays, to understand the world we live in?” And I answer, “The history of Rome in the age...

On Becoming a Journalist

by | Nov 9, 2015

TO THE POINT: THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1962Among the numerous vices of American education, one of the silliest is our passion for offering vocational courses and curricula, from high school through graduate school, in occupations that can be learned only through experience...

Are Chance Acquaintances Providential Acquaintances?

by | Nov 9, 2015

TO THE POINT: SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1970, or SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 1970Nowadays the idea of Providence is out of fashion. Yet I venture to affirm that men and women will come to believe once more in divine providence: that is, to believe that there exists a power greater...
A new issue of Studies in Burke and His Time

A new issue of Studies in Burke and His Time

by | Nov 7, 2015

The Edmund Burke Society of America announces a new issue of their journal, Studies in Burke and His Time, Volume 24. The issue features articles on Burke’s identity, and also includes a report on the 2015 conference on Burke held at Villanova University. Articles...

Four Federal Judges Celebrating Poetry at Poets House

by | Nov 2, 2015

Poets and critics oftencomplain that most contemporary American verse is beautiful but pointless. It is introspective, limited to the poet’s experiences or lack thereof, sometimes shrill, at times unintelligible. On Tuesday, October 20, 2015, four U.S. federal judges...

Pierre Manent’s Common Political Science

by | Nov 2, 2015

Seeing Things Politically: Interviews with Benedicte Delorme-Montini by Pierre Manent. St. Augustine’s Press, 2015. Hardcover, 240 pages, $30.   “Thomists have moralized and depoliticized Aristotle,” French Catholic philosopher Pierre Manent charges in his book,...

Risking Literature in the Obama Era

by | Oct 25, 2015

Bearings and Distances by Glenn Arbery. Wiseblood Books, 2015. Paperback, 335 pages, $13.To those who desire to think the same way others think, who long to crush dissent and to be on the right side of history, real literature is an oddity, an affront, the relic of an...

Fighting Cousins

by | Oct 25, 2015

Yanks and Limeys: Alliance Warfare in the Second World War. by Niall Barr. London: Jonathan Cape, 2015. Hardcover, 548 pages, $30. Reviewed by John P. Rossi It is generally agreed that World War II was a victory of Russian numbers and American industrial output. True...