The title of R. R. Reno’s Return of the Strong Gods requires qualification. To begin with, most of what Reno tells us concerns not the gods’ return, but their expulsion. As for the gods themselves, they “are not golden idols or characters in ancient mythologies,” Reno writes. . . . . Continue Reading »
On this episode, R. R. Reno discusses the dogmas and assumptions of the postwar consensus, the rise of populism, and his new book, Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West. Continue Reading »
What, exactly, do you want?” Liberal critics put the question to the post-fusionist American right in various ways. At times they ask it earnestly, at times with a sneer, and not infrequently with undisguised contempt. It seems that no political argument can be properly digested unless it comes . . . . Continue Reading »
“I want to read something to you. I want you to really listen to this.” Rush Limbaugh opened his radio show on January 20, 2016, in the tone he normally reserves for breaking Clinton scandals. But his topic that afternoon was less sensational, and he would spend the next thirty minutes reading . . . . Continue Reading »
Christianity requires no specific political form. It has adapted to kingdoms, empires, and republics. But Christianity opposes any political project that pretends to a universal mission or dominion. In the Christian view, only the Church can overcome divisions and restore unity to the human . . . . Continue Reading »
The case for American nationalism is clear. The United States is the most diverse nation on earth. If we will not have a nation and its constitution, then we will have anarchy. If we will not have a nation and its constitution, we will have Hobbesian war, figuratively or literally. What, after all, . . . . Continue Reading »
Whether we really have been observing a resurgence of nationalism in Europe is not at all clear. “Nationalism” is a bad word in Europe, and it has been used—along with “populism,” another bad word—to describe the views of critics of the E.U. within the E.U. Enthusiasts for the . . . . Continue Reading »
Among conservatives today there is an emerging confidence about the nation. But it remains a timid confidence, expressed among fellow-travelers but not in the broader political culture. Awkwardness still prevails. We are living “after globalism,” yet we are embarrassed by our return to the . . . . Continue Reading »
America is a nation of immigrants. America has always been a nation of immigrants. Or so we are constantly told. Strange, then, that the phrase did not become common until John F. Kennedy published a book with that title in 1958. “All Americans have been immigrants or the descendants of . . . . Continue Reading »
My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search For Home by michael brendan dougherty sentinel, 223 pages, $24 Irish artists face a problem unknown to artists in, let us say, uninterrupted nations. It is possible for things, places, people to be “too Irish”—the gist of a note I . . . . Continue Reading »
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