Wilfred M. McClay

Christianity has always had a complicated, even paradoxical, relationship to the world. It is, first and foremost, an incarnational faith, which means that it is neither entirely transcendent nor entirely worldly in character. It steadily partakes of both. The Word became Flesh, and dwelt among us. . . . . Continue Reading »

The discipline of history is the science of incommensurable things and unrepeatable events. Which is to say, it is no science at all. We had best be clear about that from the outset. This melancholy truth may be a bitter pill to swallow, especially for those zealous modern sensibilities that crave . . . . Continue Reading »

Reading a new edition of Allen Tate’s collected essays ( Essays of Four Decades , ISI Books, 640 pp., $29.95) is at once a stimulating and dispiriting experience. In encountering (or re“encountering) the mind behind this rich and varied collection, one catches a pleasing glimpse of the . . . . Continue Reading »

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in partnership with the White House Millennium Council, announced in 1999 a “millennium project” entitled “My History Is America’s History.” The project’s literature enjoins us to “follow your family’s story . . . . Continue Reading »

We’d done business over the phone for years, but I hadn’t actually seen her for at least a decade, and I was greatly looking forward to it. A businesswoman of immense energy, competence, and focus, she had worked punishingly hard for many years, and was now reaping the rewards. The . . . . Continue Reading »

Few small American towns exude a more winning charm than Concord, Massachusetts. Much of its charm flows from the respectful but unpretentious way it has preserved its past”an uncommon achievement in today’s America. On the northern edge of town stands an evocative reminder of . . . . Continue Reading »

It was not very long ago that most scholars and political observers assumed federalism to be an utterly dead issue”an intellectual relic every bit as antique as the divine right of kings. Obviously, the political tides of the day have shifted dramatically”though it still remains to be . . . . Continue Reading »

We acquire language through repetition, and in everyday life the repetition of a word helps fix its meaning. But not always. Especially not in the academic world, where the most intense intellectual commerce often involves exchanging, and haggling over, the semantic equivalent of wooden . . . . Continue Reading »

From all appearances, it is now back in style to be critical of American individualism. Indeed, that critique has never gone entirely out of style, and for very good reasons. But views on these matters also seem to follow cycles which, if not of Schlesingerian predictability, are nevertheless . . . . Continue Reading »