As Likely to End the World as to Save It: Knowledge and Science in Cormac McCarthy
The Passenger and Stella Maris. By Cormac McCarthy. Knopf, 2022. Hardcover, 608 pages, $56. Reviewed by Philip D. Bunn. This essay is part of a symposium on the work of Cormac McCarthy. “And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there...
Learning from the Habsburg Mystique
The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times By Eduard Habsburg. Sophia Institute Press, 2023. Hardcover, 176 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by David G. Bonagura, Jr. What makes the Habsburgs, rulers for six centuries of the Holy Roman Empire and later the...
The Catholic Enlightenment
Rethinking the Enlightenment: Faith in the Age of Reason By Joseph T. Stuart. Sophia Institute Press, 2020. Paperback, 400 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Christian Browne. The question of how, and whether, to reconcile the Catholic Church with the modern world has been...
Tory Violence and Liberal Weakness: An Appreciation of George Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England
By John Rossi. It is rare when an historical study, even when scholarly challenged, continues to dominate an interpretation of events. Churchill’s indictment of appeasement in The Gathering Storm and Richard Hofstadter’s study of the flaws of the progressive idea in...
Will Blowing Up the Universities Really Work?
Paper Belt on Fire: How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University By Michael Gibson. Encounter Books, 2022. Hardcover, 374 pages, $33.99. Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks. Paper Belt on Fire addresses a topic of great interest and obvious relevance, and...
A Modern Dostoevsky–Almost
The Morning Star: A Novel By Karl Ove Knausgaard. Translated by Martin Aitken. Penguin Books, 2021. Paperback, 688 pages, $19. Reviewed by Jeffrey Wald. In “Feodor’s Guide,” David Foster Wallace’s 1996 review of Joseph Frank’s four-volume biography of Dostoevsky,...
Kirk and Del Noce: Two Philosophers Connected through History
By Carolina Riva Posse. “Augusto Del Noce will be a great loss to order, freedom and justice in Italy,” wrote Russell Kirk to Mario Marcolla in March 1990, shortly after the Italian philosopher’s death. Del Noce, probably the most important Italian...
Liberal Education in the Progressive University
What Are the Humanities For? By Willem B. Drees. Cambridge University Press, 2021. Hardcover, 202 pages, $34.99. Reviewed by Jason Jewell. Why do we need another book about the value of a humanities education? The short answer is that in an age of relentless focus...
Helping Those Who Help Themselves
The Tragedy of American Compassion By Marvin Olasky. Regnery Gateway, 2022. Paperback, 300 pages, $18.99. Reviewed by Frank Filocomo. What does it mean to be compassionate to the needy? More precisely: what does it mean to be compassionate, and who are the needy?...
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!