He Knew the Reason We Fight

He Knew the Reason We Fight

Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard by Cynthia L. Haven. Michigan State University Press, 2018. Paperback, 346 pages, $30. Reviewed by Patrick Kurp In their 1941 short feature In the Sweet Pie and Pie, Larry, Curly, and Moe are ex-cons hoping to marry three...
From Hope to Hope: On the Mind of Man

From Hope to Hope: On the Mind of Man

James V. Schall, S. J. The second essay of Samuel Johnson’s entries in The Rambler was published on Saturday, March 24, 1750. The essay begins with what must be called a general experience of all mankind, thus including one’s own self-knowledge: “The mind of man is...

Hoffer and the True Believers

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. Perennial Classics, 1960, 2010. Paperback, 192 pages, $15. PEDRO BLAS GONZÁLEZ The American philosopher Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) is a rare thinker. Hoffer is a philosopher in the classic sense...

Everything You Think You Know About Fascism Is Wrong

The Age of Secularization by Augusto Del Noce, translated by Carlo Lancellotti. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. Paperback, 304 pages, $35. Scott Beauchamp There’s a great tradition of Italian philosopher-historians who work by reverse engineering the present...

Political Thinking from the Hillbilly Thomist

A Political Companion to Flannery O’Connor edited by Henry T. Edmonson III. The University Press of Kentucky, 2017. Hardcover, 398 pages, $60. Reviewed by KARL C. SCHAFFENBURG This volume represents the latest addition to an ongoing series from the University Press of...