The Spirit of Petrarch v. that of Homi Bhabha

Here is the original Heather MacDonald piece that prompted Matt Blakenship’s Ricochet musing about whether you should let your child major in English, which I proceeded to riff on below.I highly recommended it. While I’m sure there’s something by Mr. Bhabha worth reading, he set . . . . Continue Reading »

Pedagogical Observations

There are so many reasons why not getting a Ph.D. in English is great advice.  My impression, though, is that “the market” in English (literature etc.) isn’t as bad as it is philosophy.  C.J. points to the reason:  There are fewer and fewer required courses the . . . . Continue Reading »

Don’t Major in English?

So says Matt Blakenship over at Ricochet, prompted in part by the removal of a Milton, Shakespeare, and Chaucer requirement at UCLA by idiotically ideologue English faculty raving on about “Empire” and such.My rule of thumb for many years has been: a desire for undergraduate major in . . . . Continue Reading »

Contemporary Political Philosophy

So here’s my weekly breakdown of readings for CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THOUGHT, which begins next week.  Thanks to Flagg Taylor for giving me a one-book resource (THE GREAT LIE—what a perfect collection!) on ideology and totalitarianism, which, in fact, I have never taught . . . . Continue Reading »

Tocqueville on Our Civilizing Churches

Here I defend the autonomy of our religious institutions against traditionalist establishmentarians.  My Tocquevillian observations include with a brief comment on the film Philomena.  If you read the book on which the film is based, you can see that the facts damn Irish clericalism well . . . . Continue Reading »