Books in Brief

Liberty or Equality, by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (Christendom Press, Front Royal, Virginia; 395 pp., $14.95)

I HAVE always thought of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn as a radio station, WEKL, beaming its odd and unmistakable signal from the heart of the Dual Monarchy. In the new preface to Liberty and Equality, first published in 1952, he admits that he has changed his mind on two important issues over the years, coming to see the free market as a necessity and Martin Luther as something other than a villain. The rest of his message has been remarkably stable, and in many cases prescient. He was onto the French Revolution long before Simon Schama. His remarks on the incompleteness of Thomism and the need for theologians to take account of human subjectivity anticipate John Paul II. He also did not have to live through the last three years to know that Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History would be premature. With exactly one thousand and one footnotes.

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Liberty or Equality, by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (Christendom Press, Front Royal, Virginia; 395 pp., $14.95)

I HAVE always thought of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn as a radio station, WEKL, beaming its odd and unmistakable signal from the heart of the Dual Monarchy. In the new preface to Liberty and Equality, first published in 1952, he admits that he has changed his mind on two important issues over the years, coming to see the free market as a necessity and Martin Luther as something other than a villain. The rest of his message has been remarkably stable, and in many cases prescient. He was onto the French Revolution long before Simon Schama. His remarks on the incompleteness of Thomism and the need for theologians to take account of human subjectivity anticipate John Paul II. He also did not have to live through the last three years to know that Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History would be premature. With exactly one thousand and one footnotes.