There have been claims throughout the history of Christianity that portions of the Church were excessively feminized. Though author Leon Podles is a Catholic himself, most of the space in his book, Losing the Good Portion: Why Men are Alienated […]
Books
The Gerontocratic Democracy of Old Africa, and Gerontocracy in Our Own Time
Young people have always probably chafed against their elders. But in Africa, a gerontocratic system was instituted, which at least frustrated the development of a hereditary elite. And we are not without elements of gerontocracy in our own society. I […]
On the Urbanist Classic, “Crabgrass Frontier,” by Kenneth T. Jackson
One of the classic books on the history of suburbia is Kenneth Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier. It came out in 1985, two years before my personal favorite, Bourgeois Utopias, by Robert Fishman. This book notice discusses Crabgrass Frontier in view of […]
The Adams Map: A Different Spectrum, A Challenge
Michael Adams’ 2005 book, American Backlash: The Untold Story of Social Change in the United States, got little attention in the States. In fact, since he is a Canadian author, only used copies can be found on the regular amazon.com, […]
Michael Lind’s New Paradigm, and the ‘End’ of Social Conservatism
Michael Lind has released a new essay titled “The Coming Realignment” in The Breakthrough Journal, one of the most innovative magazines around today. He predicts that social conservatism as we know it will fade away, but that we will not […]
No Place Like Home Conference – June 3, 2013
This conference is being hosted by me and others to discuss the current state of subsidized home ownership in America, something that has been happening since the end of World War II but since the 1970s has been less successful […]
Stealth Democracy: A Summary of the Thesis of John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse
It was fashionable in the sixties to talk of ‘participatory democracy.’ But John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, claim, on the basis of much research and reading, that that is exactly what the […]
Learning from Francis Fukuyama
I have finished Francis Fukuyama’s magnum opus, The Origins of Political Order, and as you might expect I like the way he cuts across traditional categories. Of course I have read his notorious The End of History and the Last Man, […]
Different Kinds of Freedom
Here is a quotation from Aldous Huxley’s 1946 foreword to Brave New World: “As political or economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty […]
Does Justice Equal Entitlement: A Book Review
Marvin Olasky, one of the most saintly people I know, has also done a review of Timothy Keller”s new book, Generous Justice. I’m sure it is superior to mine. Nevertheless, I think I have something to say.Timothy Keller, the […]