St. Pius V and the Battle of Lepanto

By |2023-10-06T20:38:31-05:00October 6th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Christendom, Europe, G.K. Chesterton, Islam, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, War|

Pope Pius, who had done more than anyone to make the Christian victory at Lepanto possible, is said to have burst into tears when news of it reached him. They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy, They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea, And the Pope has [...]

The Purpose of Peace: Maritain, Augustine & the Battle of Vienna

By |2023-11-04T20:09:09-05:00September 11th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, History, Philosophy, Timeless Essays, War, Western Civilization|

The question of the purpose of peace has troubled humanity from the time an ancient hand was first raised in anger. It is one thing to win a war and impose peace on a vanquished enemy, and altogether another thing to cultivate one’s own victorious city or nation once the wolf has been held at [...]

The Odd Uneven Time: Japan & the Atomic Bomb

By |2023-09-09T20:16:06-05:00September 9th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, World War II|

In the reading, listening, and viewing I’ve done recently on the ever-troubling question of the use of atomic bombs on Japan, what I’ve noticed clearly for the first time is the seemingly inexorable retributory escalation in word and deed not so hidden under the ostensible arguments of life-saving necessity. On the Feast of St. Augustine, [...]

A Requiem for Manners

By |2023-08-30T17:46:50-05:00August 30th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Conservatism, Culture, Edmund Burke, History, Robert E. Lee, Stephen M. Klugewicz, Timeless Essays, Virtue|

Today the idea that the cultivation of manners should be an essential part of one’s education has been lost almost entirely. Proof of the demise of manners is all around us, and thus one of the main pillars of civilization is crumbling before us. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee met General Ulysses [...]

Wendell Berry’s “The Need to Be Whole”

By |2023-08-21T18:18:51-05:00August 21st, 2023|Categories: Agrarianism, Books, Civil War, South, Southern Agrarians, Wendell Berry|

More than ever, America is split between populist nationalism and left-wing internationalism, with little room in either ideology for anything like Wendell Berry's vision of local patriotic devotion. Whatever we make of his ruminations, with respect to this subject it is obviously the culture which has changed over the past few years, not him. The [...]

Valkyrie: Remembering the July 20 Plot Against Hitler

By |2023-07-21T07:41:25-05:00July 19th, 2023|Categories: Heroism, Timeless Essays, World War II|Tags: |

Whether or not assassination is a legitimate means of resistance is a point that will be keenly debated. That said, there can be no denying that the efforts of Claus von Stauffenberg and the other German conspirators who tried to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944 are a striking testimony to the decency and resolve [...]

Why Juneteenth Matters

By |2023-06-18T15:15:12-05:00June 18th, 2023|Categories: Civil War, History, Slavery|

The essence of America isn't characterized by four centuries of racial subjugation but by the 247-year-long persistent and often heroic struggle by Americans of every race and creed to live up to our highest ideals. This ideal continues to inspire countless individuals, both domestically and internationally. Juneteenth stands as a symbol of this enduring inspiration. [...]

The Priority of Peace & the Problem of Power

By |2023-07-30T11:13:04-05:00June 12th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, New Polity, Politics, St. Thomas Aquinas, War|

As the father guides the son deeper into virtue through the son’s obedience, through his good inclinations, his particular instantiation of the virtues, so the prince serves as a father to the city itself. The collapse of liberal moral and political order has led to a welcome revival in Catholic political thought. This revival, however, [...]

Whittaker Chambers’ “Witness”: A Story for the Ages

By |2023-06-02T11:56:58-05:00June 1st, 2023|Categories: Books, Cold War, Western Civilization|

"Witness" is a brief against the “dying civilization” that was the United States of the Jazz Age. The America of F. Scott Fitzgerald, flappers, and general frivolity was dying? The young Whittaker Chambers vaguely thought so at the time. The mature Chambers of "Witness" was convinced of that. Whittaker Chambers “Man without mysticism [...]

Remembering in Gratitude Those Who Did Their Duty to the Republic

By |2023-06-02T11:47:54-05:00May 28th, 2023|Categories: Foreign Affairs, Memorial Day, Military, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

Today I honor the men and women of the United States military who have sacrificed their lives while doing their duty to the Republic. For them, and their families, I ask God to bless them and keep them. And for the fallen of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army [...]

Decoration Day, Memorial Day, & Fallen Heroes

By |2023-05-28T21:45:17-05:00May 28th, 2023|Categories: Civil War, Memorial Day, Military, Peter A. Lawler, Timeless Essays|Tags: , |

Memorial Day originates with the Civil War as “Decoration Day.” Southern women took up the task of decorating the graves of what turns to have been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of their fallen heroes. Theirs was highly civilized work—a duty maybe more Greek and Roman than Christian. So I’ve been criticized for saying that [...]

The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War

By |2023-04-25T14:52:16-05:00April 25th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, George Orwell, World War I, World War II|

Does the "socialist-patriot" George Orwell offer a model for us today? Specifically for the young—of left or right—for whom Peter Stansky's book is likely meant to serve as an introduction of sorts? The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War by Peter Stansky (130 pages, Stanford University Press, 2023) Less a brief biography than a lengthy [...]

Let Us Remember Lexington and Concord!

By |2023-04-18T15:02:34-05:00April 18th, 2023|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Memorial Day, Timeless Essays|

Outnumbering the Lexington militia nearly ten to one, the British easily won the skirmish. But, symbolically, they lost. For at the moment the first Lexingtonian died, the American Republic was born. British Major Pitcarne took six companies of an advance team to scout out Lexington, Massachusetts, early morning, April 19, 1775. Behind him marched nearly [...]

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