Peter Lawler

That was a dumb title of an article I wrote several years ago talking up the manly authors Mansfield and Tom Wolfe. My BUILDING BETTER THAN THEY KNEW TOUR continues next Thursday at the Rochester Institute of Technology . There Darwinian Larry Arnhart and I will speak on Darwin and the . . . . Continue Reading »

I will be tomorrow (Thursday) at Notre Dame. The time is 7:30 p.m. and the place is Debartolo 129. And I’ll be speaking in Dallas at the Adolphus Hotel on Saturday afternoon. (For more details, go to the ISI website). YOU are invited to both events free of charge. The topic in both cases will . . . . Continue Reading »

So I keep reading that America is exceptional. That’s not surprising. And that unexceptional fact is both good and bad. 1. Tocqueville finds both religious madness and an insane materialistic restlessness in America. The French have pretty much stayed with that criticism, still viewing us as . . . . Continue Reading »

That’s Countess Sophya’s (Mrs. Tolstoy’s) objection to the “Tolstoyan” movement that had grown up around her husband with his encouragement. In THE LAST STATION, we see that Sophya understands her husband’s great novels better than his ideological disciples. We . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Having nothing original to add, let me say a few thing about the excellent recent posts. I agree with Ivan the K that being a schoolmarmish professor is not a good look for the president. It allows the Republicans to seem more manly as naughty students who just won’t behave. 2. I agree . . . . Continue Reading »

 As you can see by reading THE REBEL YELL , I will be speaking on Alexis at UNLV tomorrow night. I won’t be going as far as Paul Cantor in saying that Tocqueville predicted Vegas, because he didn’t begin to appreciate the opulent and extravagant contribution our Italian and Jewish . . . . Continue Reading »

So I finaly saw CRAZY HEART. It’s supposed to remind you of TENDER MERCIES. There’s another old-guy, almost has-been brilliant country singer/songwriter turned around by a beautiful single mom with a father-starved little boy. Robert Duvall shows up in CRAZY HEART as the only real . . . . Continue Reading »

Thanks no doubt to all your prayers and crossed fingers, we got the grant from the Science of Virtues people at the University of Chicago. Turns out they weren’t offended by that misleading first sentence or my high-risk call not to use power point. It could be they were seduced by the . . . . Continue Reading »

My dissident appreciation of Socrates and a wonderful book on his virtues can be found here . . . . . Continue Reading »

Lots has been said in memory of McInerny, who, of course, died last Friday. He wrote well over 100 books of all kinds. He was a theologian, philosopher, novelist, poet, and then and now a saint. He showed that a talented and industrious man can both be endlessly profound and make a huge amount of . . . . Continue Reading »