George Orwell and Ideology
The following essay is by Wilson Carey McWilliams, and is drawn from one of the two new collections of his writings, The Democratic Soul....
My Teacher, My Friend
Alexandria, VA Some, perhaps many readers here will know that I learned much of what I know of political philosophy - and, much of...
Simplicity “Bleg”
I'd like to call upon the collective wisdom of the Front Porch Republic, to help me with a new class I'll be teaching in...
History’s Long Road to Tyranny: Tocqueville and the End of Equality
Devon, PA. I have just finished teaching Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America with my freshmen students. In a way I have not witnessed...
Women, The Cosmos, and Cosmetics
I still do not understand why, in a prison and particularly in a jungle prison, where needs multiply like rats, why the need for lipstick should vault to the top of the list. Still, I am convinced that a habit which seems so trivial (to men at least) but which is so universal must have some deeper meaning, must indeed be connected to the cosmos.
Strauss and Schmitt Go to China
"Faced with the poverty, incompetence, and weak tyranny that real, existing socialism had delivered, many Poles I knew had begun a similar intellectual journey....
Ida’s Own Private Husband
My review of Leigh Eric Schmidt's Heaven's Bride appeared in this weekend's Wall Street Journal.
Thanksgiving, All Too Un-Human
Thanksgiving, which may initially seem like a practice that is all too foreign to our second nature, can become an activity that realizes our more original human nature-i.e., the nature given to our species at its creation.
What is it Like to be a Man?
And nowhere, not in so much as a page of this literature, does one discover even the beginnings of an answer to the question, “what is it like to be a man?”
