Beneath the Contract: On Hobbes, Locke, and The Social Contract
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. It is difficult for a person…
First Impressions and Ideas
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. This past week we read excerpts…
Religion and the Postmodern Student
For this semester I will be offering my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. By the second week…
A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present
A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present. Rens Bod. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. A New…
The Public Value of Higher Education
There has been a renewed debate about the crisis of higher education, particularly about American public institutions, although the nature of this crisis and how best to…
What Does it Mean to be an American Citizen? A Review of “Citizenship and Civic Leadership in America”
Carol McNamara and Trevor Shelley, eds. Citizenship and Civic Leadership in America. Lanham: Lexington Books 2022. Today’s polarizing debates in America about immigration, critical race theory,…
The Misunderstood Father of History: A Review of Michael Colebrook’s “The Recurrence of the End Times”
Michael J. Colebrook. The Recurrence of the End Times. Voegelin, Hegel, and the Stop-History Movements. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2022. The past decade hasn’t been kind to…
Scholasticism Confronts Illiberalism
What does scholasticism have to say about politics today, especially the politics of Catholics who have followed the likes of Patrick Deneen to reject liberalism, or those,…
Let’s Save Liberal Education by Rethinking It
The ascendency of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subject matter in American higher education has largely displaced the previous model, liberal education. But this displacement raises…
The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic
COVID-19. The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic. Barry Cooper and Marco Navarro-Genie. Winnipeg: Frontier Centre for Public Policy, 2021. The Politics of a Pandemic Moral…
This is Not Who We Are
That is Not Who We Are! Populism and Peoplehood. Roger M. Smith. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. In This is Not Who We Are, Smith…
What We Must Demand For Our Democracy to Survive
What We Must Demand For Our Democracy to Survive. What Commitments Should Presidential Candidates Make in the Writings Prior to the 2020 Election. Adam Strum and Stephen…
Russia’s Capitalist Realism
Russia’s Capitalist Realism. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov. Vadim Shneyder. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2021. Russia’s Capitalist Realism breaks new grounds in the studies of nineteenth-century Russian…
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. In which four Russian give a master class on writing, reading, and life. George Saunders. New York: Random House,…
Value, Conflict, and Order
Value, Conflict, and Order. Berlin, Hampshire, Williams, and the Realist Revival in Political Theory. Edward Hall. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. Is the purpose of…