Practical Sermons
Redeeming the Time by Russell Kirk. Edited with an introduction by Jeffrey O. Nelson. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1996, 321 pp., $25 cloth, $15 paper. This posthumously published collection of Russell Kirk’s essays once again reminds us of the extent of our...
‘The Farther from the Scene of Horror, the Easier the Talk’
Paul Fussell, R.I.P. Paul Fussell died on May 23, 2012 at Medford, Oregon, aged 88. His smack-in-the-jaw prose makes it appear incredible that he should have succumbed to natural causes. A far more appropriate quietus for so aggressive a wordsmith would have been a...On Statesmanship: The Case of John Adams
This article is the first of two parts and is based on a talk delivered to a Colloquium on Statesmanship and the Constitution at the Rochester Institute of Technology, April 13–14, 2012.What kind of person is worthy of being called a “statesman”? What type of...The Arrogant Elite
The New Communitarians and the Crisis of Modern Liberalism by Bruce Frohnen. University Press of Kansas, 1996. vii + 271 pp., $30 cloth.In seven concisely written chapters, Bruce Frohnen has captured in The New Communitarians the misguided arrogance and deceit of...Longshoreman, Philosopher, Mystery
Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher by Tom Bethell. Hoover Institution Press, 2012. Hardcover, 328 pages, $30.None of Eric Hoffer’s ten slim and streamlined books allowed room for photographic inserts. His biography, Tom Bethell’s Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman...A Philosopher of Ordinary Language
Wittgenstein: From Mysticism to Ordinary Language by Russell Nieli. SUNY Press 1987, 261 pp., $32 paper. One of the persistent themes of the Enlightenment was the need to simplify philosophy, to disentangle it from the rhetoric and methods of scholasticism, and to...chords of wonder
All great systems, ethical or political, attain their ascendency over the minds of men by virtue of their appeal to the imagination; and when they cease to touch the chords of wonder and mystery and hope, their power is lost, and men look elsewhere for some set of...Christopher Lasch, Conservative?
Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch by Eric Miller. Eerdmans, 2010. Cloth, 394 pages, $32. Christopher Lasch (1932–1994) has often posed a categorical problem for conservatives despite his insightful criticisms of liberalism. On many issues,...The Household Gods of Freedom
John Randolph of Roanoke: A Study in American Politics by Russell Kirk. Third ed., with select letters & speeches. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1978. [Fourth edition, 1997, cloth $24, paper $14.50.] For Southerners of my antique persuasion, Russell Kirk’s John...
"Delsol’s analysis stands out for the breadth of its perspective. Her essay covers topics as varied as corporatism, the French love for status and strikes, immigration, religion and secularism, populism and the role of intellectuals, Jacobinism, and the EU..."