Book Reviews

September 24, 2018|A Politician Thinking, Jack Rakove, James Madison

Madison: Pragmatist, Idealist . . . and Game Theorist?

Jack Rakove makes a plausible case for Madisonian game theory even as he maintains respect for the Madison who said “justice is the end of government.”

September 17, 2018|Bashar al-Assad, Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Islamism, Muslim Brotherhood, Nationalism, Said Qutb, Secularism

Secular Nationalism, Islamism, and Making the Arab World

by Luma Simms|2 Comments

(Alamy Stock Photo)

Democracy is not impossible in the Middle East, but a people, a nation, a culture, must work out its own form of government.

September 10, 2018|Bradford P. Wilson, Carson Holloway, Political Writings of Alexander Hamilton

The Essence of Hamilton

by Michael Federici|2 Comments

The essays, reports, letters, and speeches that will unveil the historical Hamilton to non-specialists.

September 3, 2018|Benjamin Franklin, Maimonides, Naïve Readings, Ralph Lerner

Philosophy As Statesmanship

by Geoffrey Vaughan|1 Comment

Ralph Lerner’s essays on founders and sages.

August 27, 2018|despotism, Edward Said, Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Vickie B. Sullivan

Montesquieu: The Ultimate Revisionist

by Henry Clark|9 Comments

Vickie B. Sullivan demolishes the notion that he was an apologist for Western political culture.

August 20, 2018|Consciousness and Fundamental Reality, cosmopsychism, Liberty, Materialism, panpsychism, Philip Goff, Rene Descartes

Oh, and About Modern Science’s Disenchantment of the World—Not So Fast

by Graham McAleer|4 Comments

Are we moderns destined always to think that consciousness ultimately reduces to matter?

August 13, 2018|Benjamin Constant, On Religion

How Religion Defends Freedom

by Gianna Englert|6 Comments

Constant critiqued the ethic of self-interest and called for religion to sustain human freedom.

August 6, 2018|Charles Mann, Norman Borlaug, The Wizard and the Prophet, William Vogt

America’s Debate between Scientific Innovation and Caution

by Patrick Allitt|4 Comments

Charles Mann traces the history of two competing frames of mind: The “wizards” of scientific innovation and the "prophets" who warn of hubris.

July 30, 2018|Montesquieu, Persian Letters, Stéphane Douard, Stuart D. Warner

Montesquieu: From the Harem to the French Church and Court

by Mark Blitz|4 Comments

Persian Letters may well be Montesquieu’s introduction to his own literary art—to how to write, and how to read.

July 23, 2018|Alexander Hamilton, Chief Justice John Marshall, Common Law, Federalist 78, Kate Elizabeth Brown, McCulloch v. Maryland, Necessary and Proper Clause, Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, Weston v. Charleston, Whiskey Rebellion

Hamilton the Lawyer

by Carson Holloway|Leave a Comment

“Colonel Hamilton, by means of his fine melodious voice, his reasoning powers and persuasive address, soared far above all competition.”