Poetry as Enchantment: And Other Essays By Dana Gioia. Paul Dry Books, 2024. Paperback, 272 pages, $21.95. Reviewed by Oliver Spivey. In his essay titled “Reading,” W. H. Auden sets forth what he views as the special duties of the literary critic: What is the function...
Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity By Paul Kingsnorth. Thesis/Penguin Random House, 2025. Hardcover, 368 pages, $32. Reviewed by Paul Krause. In the beginning was the garden. That is a very standard myth to start. Many cultures have foundation myths that...
Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political By Melissa Lane. Princeton University Press, 2023. Hardcover, 480 pages, $49.95. Reviewed by Jesse Russell. In October of 1993, a trial took place in Colorado regarding Colorado Amendment 2, a ballot measure that...
By Coyle Neal. Since the beginning, we Americans have been concerned about the end of our republican freedoms at the hands of a tyrant. Whether colonists decrying George III, anti-Federalists staring suspiciously at the Constitution, or Whigs wringing their hands over...
By Pedro Blas Gonzalez. Plainness, Sancho, for all affectation is bad (Llaneza, Sancho, que toda afectación es mala). – Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes addresses perennial concerns about human nature and reality, the snare of confusing...
The Growth of the Liberal Soul (2nd Edition) By David Walsh. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997/2025. Paperback, 416 pages, $39. Reviewed by Barry Cooper. In The Modern Philosophical Revolution (2008), David Walsh tells us where he changed his mind on several...
