Socratic and Secular Irony
A Case for Irony by Jonathan Lear. Harvard University Press, 2011, 210 pages, $30. Today we often misunderstand irony for sarcasm, self-detachment, or cleverness instead of a source of potential knowledge that can disrupt the mundane routine of our lives. Jonathan...Freedom Complex
On the Road to Emmaus: The Catholic Dialogue with America and Modernity by Glenn W. Olsen. The Catholic University of America Press, 2012. 303 pp., $70. The Gospel account of the disciples meeting Christ on the road to Emmaus has long been understood as a metaphor for...Belloc’s Social Thought
Hilaire Belloc, Edwardian Radical by John P. McCarthy. Liberty Press, 1978 [IHS Press, 2009, 373 pages.] To have known someone very intimately and loved him very dearly is not a good qualification for making a useful judgment of his work. Under these limitations, not...
Charles W. Colson
The Russell Kirk Center is sad to hear of the death of Chuck Colson. He will mostly be remembered for the wonderful work he did with prisoners, giving their lives dignity and meaning. After his time in prison, Colson devoted himself to cultural renewal, which he saw...Adrienne Rich and an Assessment of Contemporary American Poetry
April is National Poetry Month. It arrived with its usual fanfare: the poetry organizations in the United States breathlessly announcing the many events that they are sponsoring, again suggesting that this month and this art form are important culturally....Poetically Thinking
The Poetry of Thought: From Hellenism to Celan by George Steiner. New Directions, 2012. 224 pages, $25. In an often-cited passage of Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Monsieur Jourdain explains to the Maître de Philosophie that he wants to write a love note to...Spring Newsletter
The latest number of the Russell Kirk Center newsletter (Spring 2012) has just been posted. It features news on the launch of the publishing partnership between the Kirk Center and Brazilian publisher É Realizações and a profile of Wilbur Fellow Ryan Streeter. You...The Sexual Revolution and the Will to Disbelieve
Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution by Mary Eberstadt. Ignatius Press (San Francisco), 2012. 175 pages, $20.Mary Eberstadt’s slim new essay collection, Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution, may at first be more...
