Wielding Weighty Words to Salvage the World
The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia By Roger Kimball. St. Augustine’s Press, 2022. Paperback, 360 pages, $26.00. Reviewed by David Hein. Not unlike a prime Bordeaux, this collection of essays, originally published in hardcover in...
When Virginians Ruled (or, Against Political Nostalgia)
The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe By Kevin R. C. Gutzman. St. Martin’s Press, 2022. Hardcover, 608 pages, $37. Reviewed by Adam L. Tate. It seems that in every age, the politically frustrated harken back to better days....
The Inspiration We Need
By Strange Ways: Theologians and Their Paths to the Catholic Church Edited by Jonathan Fuqua and Daniel Strudwick. Ignatius Press, 2022. Paperback, 300 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Thomas Griffin. Conversion, the redirecting of one’s life towards God and truth, is the...
A Very American Historian
C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian By James C. Cobb. University of North Carolina Press, 2022. Hardcover, 504 pages, $37.50. Reviewed by John C. Chalberg. Should C. Vann Woodward be regarded as America’s historian? Given his career and this biography, a more...
Arguing the Unarguable Thing
Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing By Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis. Regnery Publishing, 2022. Hardcover, 256 pages, $29.99. Reviewed by Nicole M. King. It is common practice for professors (or teaching assistants) of English...
Why We Need Beauty
A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art By Michael B. Gill. Princeton University Press, 2022. Hardcover, 248 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by Lee Trepanier. Now neglected in the Western canon, Shaftesbury’s Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions,...
Otto von Habsburg Foundation connects with the Kirk Center
Otto von Habsburg Foundation connects with the Kirk Center In a 1959 letter to Russell Kirk, Otto von Habsburg, Archduke of Austria-Hungary, wrote: “I am very much interested to learn from your letter that you devote so much attention to the development of [the...
What Makes a Classic?
Wit’s Treasury: Renaissance England and the Classics By Stephen Orgel. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. Hardcover, 216 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by John Tuttle. What is a classic? It’s a provocative question for the literary-bent mind. Just what...
Where Is Home?
A Song to Keep: A Kinship of Poems and Drawings By Olivia Findlay and Domenica de Ferranti. Scotland Street Press, 2021. Hardcover, 112 pages, $35. Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles. One of the most prominent and compelling themes in literature, including poetry, is the...
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!