What We’re Reading
Antonia Fraser, Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit. Lady Caroline Lamb is a notorious and famous woman for lovers of Romantic poetry—she is remembered as one of…
Across the Great Sea: Moby-Dick and the Problem of Suffering
Having read Moby-Dick three times, I confess that I have read Moby-Dick three more times than your average twenty-something. Unusual though I may be, I am (mostly)…
Rape and Civilization in Shakespeare
No offense threatens the fabric of civilization as profoundly as rape because no offense threatens as profoundly the equality of citizens. Under the old understanding of sex…
Linda Vista: Of Proper Farewells
O, tender-hearted death, when it is time for you to haul my Lilliputian soul away inside your giant pentapedal palms —Herculean, innocent and friendly— sweating with midnight’s…
In Memoriam: Ellis Sandoz
Ellis Sandoz was my first American friend. It is almost fifty years since I got off the Greyhound bus that brought me to East Texas State University…
On Order and Education
At the beginning of Augustine’s theodicy, “On Order,” he writes to Zenobius, the friend to which he addressed to the work: There is an order to be…
Does the Renaissance Matter?
There are only a few epochs of revolutionary philosophical change in the standard presentation of the history of philosophy. One was where it all began: Athens in…
End of Season
Another summer winding to its end, Its half-achieved ambitions softly ease Into a sort of sleep. What now my friend? What should we do now cold winds…
The Crisis of Modern Philosophy: Authenticity, Powerlessness, and the Struggle for Humanization
To say there is a crisis in philosophy could be the understatement of the past few centuries. Ever since Kant, and especially since Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the…
The Dazzling Dvorak You’ve Yet to Hear
So you’re acquainted with Antonin Dvořák’s buoyant, instantly accessible “New World Symphony,” are you? And you loved it? Yay, you are part of an enormous fan club that…
Why Am I an English Major?
A friend of mine recently told me that she could tell I read a lot as a kid. Does that matter? I’ve wondered ever since. Does it…
Social Hierarchies and Subtle Sabotage: Jane Austen’s “Mean Girls”
Bitches in Bonnets is a stunning and irreverent tribute to a fine pairing: women and Jane Austen. In this personal and sociological piece of literary criticism, Makowski…
Russell Kirk and Reenchanting the Political Imagination
In his final collection of essays, the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco describes the current social climate as “liquid.” In using this term, he meant that postmodernism is…
Aristotle Can Help Resolve Our Crisis of Citizenship
In Aristotle’s Politics, citizenship is defined as a partnership of people committed to working on behalf of the polis. More than just a bundle of rights that…