I have heard your requests made for reading that might provide some background to the ideas I’m working out, and I gladly comply. I have mentioned Martin Heidegger and Leo Strauss - but the former is almost impossible (and evil, by the way, but also indispensible) and the latter himself requires some background. (But pick up WHAT IS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY if you want to have a look.) Tocqueville’s DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA manages to be both profound and accessible — and don’t underestimate the profundity as many (even credentialed) readers do. See the expert introduction in the U. Chicago Press translation by our friends Harvey Mansfield and (the late) Delba Winthrop. Then, perhaps more helpfully, try Philippe Beneton’s EQUALITY BY DEFAULT (ISI Press) - which gracefully synthesizes insights from Tocqueville, Heidegger, Strauss, and the Catholic tradition. And then my fellow blogger Peter Lawler is a master of being accessible and deep at the same time: check out his POSTMODERNISM RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD and just about anything else he has written, including the recent HOMELESS AND AT HOME IN AMERICA. And finally, it occurs to me, C.S. Lewis’ ABOLITION OF MAN, though dated in its references, is unsurpassed in stating the problem with modernity clearly and powerfully. (But is Lewis’ take compatible with our "postmodern" venture. Good question.) But I’m getting carried away — see, you mustn’t get me started.
