A Tribute to Jacques Barzun on His Centennial

by | Dec 26, 2007

The shank end of 2007 has brought Jacques Barzun, the distinguished historian and cultural critic, to his one-hundredth birthday. This would be a notable event in any life. But for all of us who cherish the quiet witness of civilized men living decent, profitable, and...

The Infinite Anguish of Free Souls

by | Dec 26, 2007

On Essays and LettersIn Albert Camus’ Lyrical and Critical Essays (Vintage, 1968), I found a 1940 essay entitled, “The Almond Trees.” This collection has long been a favorite of mine. It bears much of the somberness of the then up-coming War. Camus himself was from...

The Moral Foundations of Economics

by | Dec 26, 2007

The following essay appears in the final chapter of Russell Kirk’s textbook Economics: Work and Prosperity (Pensacola, Fla.: A Beka Book Publications, 1989), pp. 365–368.Some people would like to separate economists from politics, but they are unable to do so. Another...

Searching for a Usable Past

by | Dec 26, 2007

Of Time and Place: A Farm in Wisconsin by Richard Quinney. Ivan R. Dee (Chicago), 192 pp. $28.00 cloth, 2006. The American experience has always existed in tension with, if not outright hostility towards, the strictures of time and place. By the very nature of its...

Of the Soul and the Soil

by | Dec 26, 2007

Agrarianism and the Good Society by Eric T. Freyfogle. University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky) 183 pp., $30.00 cloth, 2007. Wendell Berry: Life and Work edited by Jason Peters. University Press of Kentucky, 349 pp., $35.00 cloth, 2007. The Mother of All...

A Rare Specimen

by | Dec 25, 2007

The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs. HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco) xxvi + 432 pp., $25.95 cloth, $14.95 paper, 2005. J. R. R. Tolkien once told a future biographer of C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) that “You’ll never get to the bottom of...

Henry Brougham and the Building of a New Political Party

by | Dec 25, 2007

The Whig Revival, 1808–1830 by William Anthony Hay. Palgrave-Macmillan (New York and London) 256pp., $69.95 cloth, 2005. Educated at Sewanee and the University of Virginia, William Anthony Hay has been close terms with the disciples of Herbert Butterfield, once...

On Buildings, Boomers, and the ’Burbs

by | Dec 25, 2007

Interview with James Howard Kunstler James Kunstler is the author of The Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and other works exploring issues of architecture, resource depletion, and the need for human-scaled living. His strikingly irreverent blog may be found...

Doing Good by Doing Well

by | Dec 25, 2007

The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity by Gene Sperling. Simon & Schuster (New York), 368 pp., $26.95 cloth, 2005. The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth by Benjamin M. Friedman. Knopf (New York), 592 pp., cloth, 2005; Vintage...

The Chastened Planner

by | Dec 24, 2007

Understanding the Process of Economic Change by Douglass C. North. Princeton University Press (Princeton and Oxford), 187 pp., $10.00 cloth, 2005.Douglass C. North’s new book represents a watershed in the social engineering consciousness. North, who won the Nobel...