Articles 356
Longing for Home Over Glory: An Artful Interpretation of the Epic Poems by Homer and Virgil
Dramatic paths to glory are viewed with skepticism in our modern democratic age. As Tocqueville suggests, “amongst democratic nations ambition is ardent and continual, but its aim is not habitually…
What You Need to Know About John Lukacs
John Lukacs (1924-) is one of the last great narrative historians, to be numbered among Jacques Gibbon, Jacques Barzun, George Kennan and Samuel A. Huntington. Lukacs wrote more than twenty books,…
Touching Death: Mourning Physically through Burial
In mid-September of this year my father passed away after a several year decline with dementia. With the help and support of family and friends we were able to give…
The Once and Future Boss: The Possibilities of Tammany Hall
We are, here in New York, just about ready to cast our votes for the next mayor: even Mike Bloomberg cannot, apparently, actually appoint himself Patrician after the model of…
Beauty will Save the World
The following talk was given at a symposium titled “‘Beauty will Save the World’ – It’s the Culture,” arranged by Andy Anuzis and The Civil Society Initiative. I want to…
What You Need to Know About Bernard Lonergan, S. J.
From the distance of 750 years, Thomas Aquinas can seem quite the stodgy fellow—not just old school but the old school. One needs to look a little closer to realize…
An Imaginary Conservatism: The Realists vs. the Romantics
Reprinted from Ethika Politika Michael Hannon has made a serious attempt to deal with the disputes between the “capitalist” and “anti-capitalist” conservatives, and such a serious attempt deserves a serious…
The Rhetoric of War Powers
I suppose we have the Constitution we deserve--but we could fight for the one we had.
What You Need to Know About Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald was one of the twentieth century’s great public intellectuals. American culture was Macdonald’s specialty, including government. A journalist by trade, Macdonald’s first professional job was writing for Time…
Conservatism: What’s Wrong with it and How Can We Make it Right?
This is my contribution to ISI’s symposium, Conservatism: What’s Wrong with it and How Can We Make it Right? In one sense, there is nothing wrong with conservatism. The principles…
History as Parable
History is never merely history.
What You Need to Know About Jane Jacobs
Let us suppose we are confronted with a desperate thing-- say Pimlico... It is not enough for a man to disapprove of Pimlico: in that case he will merely cut…
What You Need to Know about Paul Gottfried
Paul Gottfried is among the most important contemporary conservative thinkers. An intellectual historian, since the 1980s Gottfried has been the foremost critic of American conservatism from the perspective of someone…
What You Need to Know About Wilhelm Röpke
This is an entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about a…
What You Need to Know About Michel Foucault
This is an entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about a…
Community among Academics: An Economist’s Retrospective
Two weeks ago I spoke to an orientation program for new faculty at Pepperdine. I shared with them what I had been told at my new faculty orientation nineteen years…
What You Need to Know About Mozart
This is an entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about a…
Life Under Compulsion: The Minotaur
When we lose the sense of transcendence, when in our hearts and minds the things of time are no longer oriented toward eternity, then, writes Jacques Maritain in The Range…
What You Need to Know About Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
This is an entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about a…
On Killing (Chickens)
Hidden Springs Lane. Last weekend the deed was done. Having acquired 25 chicks in the spring (they were free) it soon became clear that this was, as they say, a…
What You Need to Know About Henry David Thoreau
This is an entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about a…
The REPEALicans and the GOP’s Secret Hope
In what passes for political humor these days, Nancy Pelosi has ridiculed the GOP as the “REPEALicans.” She did so in response to the House Republicans’ fortieth vote to repeal…
Nourishing America
In a recently popular documentary, Rosie, a 5th-grader from a small town in Colorado, describes how she often goes to bed with an empty pit in her stomach. Sometimes the…
What You Need to Know About Hans Urs von Balthasar
This is an entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about a…