Books in Little
The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals, edited by Robert George and Jean Bethke Elshtain (Spence Publishing, 316 pp. $29.95) The meaning of marriage has become a prime subject of the culture wars. The subject is itself extremely difficult to...Old China
On Essays and Letters On December 31, 2003, I chanced to come across the essay of Charles Lamb (1775–1834) entitled, “Old China.” Naturally, I thought it was about Ancient China. “China,” however, new or old, turned out to be...Historical Consciousness and Its Enemies
The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, by John Lewis Gaddis (Oxford 2004) The Limits of History, by Constantin Fasolt (Chicago 2003) During the eighteenth century history flourished as literature. By the 1770s, however, a German school of...Faith and the Marketplace
Business and Religion: A Clash of Civilizations? edited by Nicholas Capaldi (M&M Scrivener Press, 2005), 442 pages. This book is the first in a series published by M&M Scrivener Press, and edited by Nicholas Capaldi, the Legendre-Soule Distinguished Chair of...Faith-based Initiatives in Action
Street Saints: Renewing America’s Cities by Barbara J. Elliott (Templeton Foundation Press, 2004), 320 pages Some of the world’s greatest people are largely unknown, for they accomplish positive, life-changing deeds in quiet, unannounced ways. Their work...Books in Little
Darwinian Fairytales, by David Stove. With an introduction by Roger Kimball (Encounter Books, 345 pp., $27.50). The Australian philosopher David Stove, who died in 1994, was largely unknown in the United States until Roger Kimball, of the New Criterion, began writing...Shakespeare for Our Time
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt. W. W. Norton (New York), 384 pp., $26.95 cloth, 2004; $14.95 paper, 2005. Some things we may never know about England’s greatest playwright and poet. What did Shakespeare think? Why and...Memoir of a Moral Farmer-Philosopher
News From Somewhere: On Settling by Roger Scruton. Continuum (London and New York), 192 pp., $13.33 paper, 2006. Roger Scruton is one of those unique philosophers in that he has abandoned the city in favor of more rural climes. Philosophers, by contrast, have...The Rebirth of Russian Conservatism
What We Fought For and Whom We Fought With by Natalia A. Narochnitskaya. Minuvshee (Moscow), 80 pp., cloth, 2005. Russia and Russians in World History by Natalia A. Narochnitskaya. Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniya (Moscow), 536 pp., cloth, 2004. Orthodox Civilization in a...
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!