Rights, Power, and Democracy Among the Anti-Federalists
An Anti-Federalist Constitution: The Development of Dissent in the Ratification Debates By Michael J. Faber. University Press of Kansas, 2019. Hardcover, 536 pages, $55. Reviewed by Adam L. Tate. The battle over ratification of the United States Constitution between...
History Is Never Certain
The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville By Olivier Zunz. Princeton University Press, 2022. Hardcover, 472 pages, $35. Reviewed by Sarah Gustafson. In years since Alexis de Tocqueville’s death in 1859, his popularity has ebbed and flowed...
Reading Dante on His Terms
Love’s Scribe: Reading Dante in the Book of Creation By Andrew Frisardi. Angelico Press, 2020. Paperback, 272 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Ethan McGuire. Dante Alighieri, the Supreme Poet, was an intellectual and a member of the elite of his time, albeit not always in...
In Memory Of Gerald J. Russello, 1971-2021
by Eugene Schlanger We begin again to recall the dead. Poets and lyricists often attempt To reimagine their companions and friends. And then, along comes a younger death That upsets the usual complacency. At our luncheons all things seemed possible, As...
Men Rode to Catraeth
The Gododdin: Lament for the Fallen Translated by Gillian Clarke. Faber & Faber, 2021. Hardcover, 144 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by David J. Davis. At the end of the sixth century, a Celtic British tribe known as the Gododdin met an army of invading Angles at the...
American Hegemony in Higher Education
Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China By William C. Kirby. Harvard University Press, 2022. Hardcover, 504 pages, $37.95. Reviewed by Lee Trepanier. In September U.S. News & World Report released its much-resented but...
The Causes of Moral Agency
Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power By Ian V. Rowe. Templeton Press, 2022. Hardcover, 304 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Rachel Ferguson. The debate over moral agency—whether it...
Resurrecting John Keats
Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph By Lucasta Miller. Knopf, 2022. Hardcover, 368 pages, $32.50. Reviewed by Paul Krause. John Keats wrote to his brother on October 14, 1818, “I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death.” Those prophetic...
Partisan Citizens
I, Citizen: A Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance Tony Woodlief. Encounter Books, 2021. Hardcover, 264 pages, $30.99. Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks. There is much talk among progressives about being a good “global citizen.” By this, they...
@ubookman The series seeks to advance understanding of the significance of the American founding to our times through fresh, concise presentations. The following piece by @ubookman editor @lsheahan sets the stage: https://buff.ly/Aakgs0W
Throughout the semiquincentennial year celebrating America’s independence, @ubookman will invite a range of writers and speakers to contribute to a series drawing upon Russell Kirk’s work on the American Revolution and the constitutional order it secured.