The Decline of the Liberal Imagination

The two dominant systems of thought in our time are conservatism and liberalism. Of course, there are many variants of the two, but with the demise of Marxism, they remain the principal political movements vying for ascendancy over the minds of men. In the previous...

Permanence and Change

By Russell Kirk From Prospects for Conservatives (Regnery Gateway edition, 1989) The liveliest definition of the word conservative is Ambrose Bierce’s in The Devil’s Dictionary: “Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as...

Returning ‘To the Point’

Russell Kirk, as every reader of the University Bookman knows well, was a man of letters. Kirk’s books, essays, lectures, reviews, and stories deservedly have received much attention, but he is not known today as a columnist. I thought this was a shame, since surely...