Algernon Sidney and Yet One More Beautiful Founding Complication

By |2019-07-11T10:17:36-05:00March 24th, 2014|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, John Locke|

Famously, Thomas Jefferson cited four men in his lineage of thinkers who had played central roles in inspiring the American common sense of the subject as declared on July 4, 1776, by the Second Continental Congress. “All its [the Declaration’s] authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in [...]

The Politics of Prescription: Russell Kirk’s Fifth Canon of Conservative Thought

By |2021-05-10T23:45:46-05:00March 23rd, 2014|Categories: Edmund Burke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|Tags: , |

Russell Kirk Defending tradition is a difficult task in an age that is predisposed to innovation and change. Yet that has been the challenge to conservatives in the modern age. Modernity inverts the conservative prejudice for prescriptive wisdom; it favors change and innovation as the instruments of progress; it places faith in what [...]

“Savannah”: A Meditation on the Formative Power of the Past

By |2022-01-14T09:30:32-06:00March 22nd, 2014|Categories: Film, Stephen M. Klugewicz|

The film “Savannah” wants us to see Ward Allen as a larger-than-life figure whose misanthropic lifestyle is grounded in a love of tradition and a resistance to modernity. But we are left to wonder whether its central character cloaks his innate contrarianism in high-minded principle for greater ends, or for his own purposes. Based on [...]

What Difference Does it Make?

By |2014-03-25T09:37:39-05:00March 22nd, 2014|Categories: Europe, Pat Buchanan, Politics, Populism, Russia|Tags: |

In the last stanza of “The Battle of Blenheim,” Robert Southey writes: “But what good came of it at last?” Quoth little Peterkin. “Why, that I cannot tell,” said he; “But ’twas a famous victory.” What did it really matter? The poet was asking of the triumph of the Duke of Marlborough — “Who this [...]

Why the Metaphysicals Matter

By |2014-12-17T14:37:10-06:00March 21st, 2014|Categories: Dwight Longenecker, Poetry, Religion|

What is it about the metaphysical poets that captivate the student’s heart and mind? There is something pure and perfect about the poetry of that band of poetic pilgrims. It seems their work is poetry par excellence. There is a reason for this sense that in their verse we can do no worse. This is because their [...]

Obama’s “Right to Worship” Ushers in New State Religion

By |2017-07-31T23:48:19-05:00March 20th, 2014|Categories: Barack Obama, Christianity, Fr. James Schall, Religion, Thomas Jefferson|Tags: |

The constitutions or laws of many nations provide for what is called “religious liberty.” In practice, this liberty is under severe restrictions in numerous countries, if it exists at all. The fact is that no one can really talk about religious freedom without examining what the “religion” holds. Grace builds on nature but does not contradict [...]

“Un-deporting” Homeschoolers: Thanks for Nothing?

By |2014-12-29T14:55:11-06:00March 20th, 2014|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Catholicism, Christianity, Education|

So, the Obama Administration has decided not to deport the Romeike family after all. You may recall that the Romeikes are the Christian family from Germany that sought to homeschool their children in their homeland. The German government sent the equivalent of a SWAT team to “save” the Romeike children from the horrors of Christian [...]

The Backside of the Universe: Walter McDougall’s “Throes of Democracy”

By |2020-08-07T14:33:29-05:00March 19th, 2014|Categories: Books, History|Tags: , , , |

Walter McDougall’s “Throes of Democracy” shows us a more human, recog­nizable, and uncomfortable past—a more complicated past than the defenders of American pretense will ever acknowledge. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1852 novel, The Blithedale Romance, has been overshadowed for many years by The Scarlett Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Perhaps its unsparing analysis of [...]

How to Read the Constitution

By |2014-04-25T09:57:28-05:00March 18th, 2014|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Books, Constitution|Tags: , , |

The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution, Brion McClanahan, Regnery, 262 pages The two key arguments against bothering with constitutional restraints on government are “who knows” and “who cares”: we can’t know what the Constitution means, and we shouldn’t care even if we did. In The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution, historian Brion McClanahan [...]

Jefferson as a Man of Moderation

By |2017-02-27T21:37:55-06:00March 17th, 2014|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Books, Edmund Burke, England, Thomas Jefferson|Tags: |

The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800, by Conor Cruise O’Brien The Long Affair both succeeds and fails. By attacking the American iconic hero of liberty, Conor Cruise O’Brien succeeds in producing a stir, particularly among Jefferson scholars. The Irish scholar-politician selected passages for inclusion in The Atlantic Monthly (October 1996), entitled [...]

Ray and Russell: Imagination against Idiocy

By |2016-06-22T12:46:50-05:00March 17th, 2014|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Communism, Conservatism, Ray Bradbury, Russell Kirk|

Only a week or so before Henry Regnery published Russell Kirk’s first masterpiece, The Conservative Mind, Mr. Ray Bradbury, science fiction novelist, screenplay writer, and all-around wit, wrote and published a fascinating and insightful article, “The Day After Tomorrow.” Whether or not my ideas on censorship via the fire department will be old hat by [...]

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