Recovering the Esoteric Reader
Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing by Arthur M. Melzer. University of Chicago Press, 2014. Hardcover, 464 pages, $45.It sounded like jabberwocky to some, but then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s distinction between “known...America’s First Public Intellectual
Selected Writings of Thomas Paine Edited by Ian Shapiro and Jane E. Calvert. Yale University Press, 2014. Paperback, 676 pages, $18. In his lively introduction to this new edition of Paine’s legendary writings, Yale political scientist Ian Shapiro calls Thomas Paine...Dinner with Aristotle
The Virtues of the Table: How to Eat and Think, by Julian Baggini. Granta Books, 2014. Paper, 280 pages, $14. There are few areas of life as difficult to navigate or moderate as eating. It’s necessary for existence—one of the most primal acts in which we partake. And...Is the Use of Religious Rhetoric by Presidents Effective?
God Wills It: Presidents and the Political Use of Religion by David O’Connell. Transaction, 2014. Hardcover, 452 pp., $54.95.David O’Connell’s God Wills It: Presidents and the Political Use of Religion is a thoughtful, engaging, but ultimately unconvincing examination...I Would Kill for the Thrill of First Love
Marta Oulie by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tiina Nunnally, with an introduction by Jane Smiley. University of Minnesota Press, 2014. Paperback, 128 pages, $16. Marta Oulie opens with the confession, “I have been unfaithful to my husband.” So it comes as no surprise...Lives of the Saints
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. Simon & Schuster, 2014. Hardcover, 543 pages, $35. The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s story of the scientists, engineers, programmers, and entrepreneurs...Harry V. Jaffa, RIP
Harry V. Jaffa (October 7, 1918–January 10, 2015) died at the beginning of the 150th anniversary year of the end of the Civil War. He was one of the great scholars, perhaps the greatest, on Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, andthe American Founding. So there is...Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner and the Faith that Comes by Hearing
Pedro Blas González “I readily believe that there are more invisible Natures in the universe than visible ones. Yetwho shall explain to us this numerous company, their grades, their relationships, their distinguishing features, and the functions of each of them?”...That Was in Another Country
Hoover’s FBI and the Fourth Estate: The Campaign to Control the Press and the Bureau’s Image by Matthew Cecil. University of Kansas Press, 2014. Hardcover, 368 pages, $35.Reviewed by R. J. StoveThe largely ignored death in South Carolina, in March 2013, of...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!