Review of Politics, Hollywood Style
Politics, Hollywood Style: American Politics in Film from Mr. Smith to Selma. John Heyrman. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. John Heyrman’s Politics, Hollywood Style: American Politics in Film from Mr. Smith to Selma is a brilliant review of films dealing with American politics since the Great Depression. Since…
The Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime
Understanding the American Pursuit of Happiness Happiness is now the serious study of human well-being. As the study of happiness becomes more serious and exact, happiness researchers become flush with optimism. They are optimistic that their findings will help individuals and policy makers make decisions that will contribute to…
Review of The Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime
The Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime: Political Theory in Literature. Elizabeth Amato. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. In a time marked by enormous economic inequality, upsurges in nationalism and racism, mounting environmental catastrophe, and political life tending toward factional conflict, it is tempting to conclude with…
Gardening and Nobility in Tolkien
In his Letters, Tolkien often mentions working in his garden. He was a keen plantsman: “I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and…
Civil Servants on the Silver Screen
The Intersection of Film and Government It is hard to know why a particular film and its initial viewing makes such an impression on us and it is unlikely that any of us start watching a movie because we think it is likely to have a tremendous effect on…
Barry Cooper's Consciousness and Politics: 25% Off Until September 30!
Barry Cooper’s new book, Consciousness and Politics, is 25% off if you enter the code, APSA25, before September 30, 2018. The direct link to St. Augustine’s Press is here. Consciousness and Politics deals with some of the same texts discussed in two earlier books on Voegelin, Eric Voegelin and the…
John Heyrman’s Politics, Hollywood Style: American Politics in Film from Mr. Smith to Selma is a brilliant review of films dealing with American politics since the Great Depression. Since one can argue that almost every film ever made includes elements of power…
Happiness is now the serious study of human well-being. As the study of happiness becomes more serious and exact, happiness researchers become flush with optimism. They are optimistic that their findings will help individuals and policy makers make decisions that will contribute to happier results. For all of happiness’s gauzy connotations, happiness can be thoroughly…
In a time marked by enormous economic inequality, upsurges in nationalism and racism, mounting environmental catastrophe, and political life tending toward factional conflict, it is tempting to conclude with scholars like Patrick Deneen, that liberalism has, indeed, failed.[1] Such a failure of…
"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats" (The Letters…
It is hard to know why a particular film and its initial viewing makes such an impression on us and it is unlikely that any of us start watching a movie because we think it is likely to have a tremendous effect on us, but it happens. Think for a moment about a film that…
In choosing movies to include in this book, we had to start by asking what makes a film political. This seemingly simple question has caused considerable debate among those who have tried to answer it. One school of thought opts for a very narrow definition. Harry Keyishian's textbook includes films "about politicians and the political process in America"…
Bruce Altschuler is professor emeritus of Political Science at SUNY Oswego, where he specializes in American government. His efforts at interpreting American political films risks upsetting film studies professors, some of whom are leery of what they regard as intrusions by political scientists into their…
In a time where many literary critics think that the “author is dead,” or, if he is living at all, a mere function of his social context, David Oliver Davies’ new book, Milton’s Socratic Rationalism, is a breath of fresh air. Davies…
Review of Politics, Hollywood Style 
The Life of the Scholar 
The Use of Force 
“A Cow Is Just a Cow”: George Grant and Eric Voegelin on the United States 
The Collected Works: The Drama of Humanity (Volume 33) 
Eric Voegelin as Master Teacher 
New Political Religions, or An Analysis of Modern Terrorism 
What is a Miracle? 
What Enlightenment, Exactly? 
God is Not Just the Good, as Plato Claimed But Love 
The Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime 
Gardening and Nobility in Tolkien 
Civil Servants on the Silver Screen 
Seeing Through the Screen: Interpreting American Political Film 
Milton’s Socratic Rationalism 
Review of Milton’s Socratic Rationalism 
On Politics and Physics: Stanley Jaki on Science in Islam 
On Understanding Islam