Literature as Praise, Resistance, and Consolation: Part I
Every coherent writer praises something, implicitly or explicitly.
The Latest
History as Wisdom: Thomas Carlyle vs. the ‘Perfectibilarians’
The most memorable critic of ‘Enlightenment’ rationalism was also a visionary moralist.
James Davison Hunter and the Inadequacy of Naturalism
Voluble academic philosophers and social scientists promote astoundingly reductive views of the human person.
Lionel Trilling in the Age of Enormity
A new collection of the eminent public intellectual’s letters reveals a man for his time — and ours.
Mimicry, Mania, and Memory: René Girard Remembered
In a new biography of the anthropologist and literary critic, we glimpse the personal experiences that corresponded to his analysis of competitive envy.
Lincoln and Leo XIII against the Nietzscheans
Though from starkly different backgrounds, the two men remain pillars of the natural-law tradition, under assault from both the Left and the Right.
Two Great Literary Women in the Light of Today’s Sexual-Harassment Scandals
Remembering two great women writers, Jane Austen and Madame de Staël, in light of today’s sexual-harassment scandals.
Reductionism Rampant
Scientific reductionism, a relentlessly secular view of life, has baleful effects on our Western culture even as it leaves large areas unexplained.
The Restoration of the Person and the Uses of Memory
History and memory can save the sacredness of humanity from the onslaught of progressivism, scientism, and utilitarianism.
The Radical
Long after Henry David Thoreau’s death in 1862, Walt Whitman praised him for his “lawlessness -- his dissent -- his going his own absolute road let hell blaze all it ...