Some Reflections on the American Constitution
The Constitution of the United States, in its Article VI “Supremacy Clause,” announces itself and laws made pursuant thereto to be the “supreme Law of the Land”…
Truth in American Common Sense
Our subject of “Common Sense Philosophy and Politics in America” suggests a number of important questions about the rational basis of society, the practical role of philosophy…
Mormonism and America
LDS in the USA: Mormonism and the Making of American Culture. Lee Trepanier and Lynita K. Newswander. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012. There is a…
Were the Anti-Federalists Right?
The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States. Gordon S. Wood. New York: Penguin Press, 2011. This book is a collection of…
Self-Evident Truths: America and the Political Philosophy of Common Sense
America and the Political Philosophy of Common Sense. Scott Philip Segrest. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2009. Scott Segrest begins with the remark that it…
Tocqueville and the Democratic Intellect
Philosophy and the American Outlook Tocqueville presents American democracy in its practice as learning by doing and not through philosophical ideas. But in the first part of…
Remembering that Forests are Made of Trees: The Constitutionalism of American States
The Constitutionalism of American States. George E. Connor and Christopher W. Hammons, eds. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2008. With a Starbucks or Walmart on…
Voegelin at Notre Dame
The South Dinning Hall JOHN ROOS: We would often watch out for Voegelin on campus. There was a professor named Anton-Hermann Chroust, a real character. He was…
A Spiritually Decapitated U.S.?
Staat und Gesellschaft in Amerika. Charlotte Lütkens. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1929. Review originally published 1930. [In a] sociological study of America of the rank…
The American Welfare State: How Ideology Ruins Responsibility
Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State. William Voegeli. New York: Encounter Press, 2010. In fiscal year 2010, the United States federal government ran a deficit of…
Voegelin at Baton Rouge (Part II)
Q. When Voegelin lived in Baton Rouge he was ill a couple of times, too, wasn't he? jo scurria: I'll never forget it. He had serious colon…
Voegelin at Baton Rouge (Part I)
LISSY VOEGELIN: After we arrived from Europe, we were in New York for two days. PAUL CARINGELLA: They arrived in New York, and just as they got…
Havers Replies to Lincoln Review
Professor Glenn Moots concludes his review on the critical note that my study of Lincoln’s usage of Christian charity will be valued only by readers who need…
More Lincoln; Less Political Debate
Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love. Grant N. Havers. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2009. The central argument of Professor Havers’s new book is…
Young Voegelin in America
A Well-Thought-Out Program of Study During its brief period of operation, from 1918 to 1929, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, according to Robert M. Hutchins, “did more…