Economics & Empire

The Philanthropic Revolution

West Chester, PA Jeremy’s wonderful new book illuminates a question at the heart of American philanthropy:  Can we be charitable or loving toward our fellow...

Does North American Cultural History Provide for a ‘Third Option’?

Having read several books on American history recently, including Colin Woodard’s book American Nations, itself based partly on David Hackett Fischer’s four-nation thesis in...

Wichita and the Dilemma of Mid-Sized Cities

There's been some depressing news here in Wichita, Kansas, of late. Not the sort of depressing news that one might typically fear to hear...

Just Another Naked King

What hath Athens to do with Main Street?  Why should an economic crisis in a small European nation shake up the world?  And can...

Puritans and The Pope: The Conflicted Christian History of American Ecological...

The responses from American Christians to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ have fallen into two predictable categories: Economic conservatives push back against Francis’ critique...

The Incredible Industrial Egg

The local library’s inventory reduction sale had progressed over several weeks from a buck a book and a dollar a DVD, to two dollars...

Palmyra, Centurions, and Fighting ISIS from the Bottom Up

The fact that the chattering classes outraged by ISIS’s atrocities would unleash the latter-day centurions of the air so eagerly, while leashing ordinary people so cavalierly, should give pause to those of us suspicious of the modern state and jealous of society’s spaces.

The Cardinal and the Capitalist

A cleric with the ear of Pope Francis recently sent Catholic defenders of free markets into a tizzy. At a press conference, Cardinal Oscar...

A Presidential Proposal Worthy of the Porch

The blogger, pundit, screenwriter, and all-around mensch Noah Millman has come up with a brilliant idea--Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont, and Jim Webb,...

Hanging Out with, and Learning from, Some Thoroughly Material Benedictines

A few weeks ago I was able to, once again, do something that I enjoy doing immensely--take a group of students out on a...