“Why Did We Destroy Europe?” It’s an arresting title, chosen by Michael Polanyi for a 1970 essay that looks back on the conflagrations that consumed Europe between 1914 and 1945. (The essay can be found in Society, Economics & Philosophy, a posthumous volume of selected papers by . . . . Continue Reading »
In the annals of quixotic American presidential runs, the candidacy of Cornel West—the seventy-year-old academic, social critic, and activist—for the 2024 election is among the more fantastic. Though Americans have shown a willingness to vote for politically inexperienced candidates so . . . . Continue Reading »
Many sense that the West needs to reconsider its philosophical foundations. Reflexive appeals to old pieties no longer persuade. But those who look to modern philosophy for answers run into a problem best articulated by Leo Strauss: “Only a great thinker could help us in our intellectual plight. . . . . Continue Reading »
On this episode, Mark T. Mitchell joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Plutocratic Socialism: The Future of Private Property and the Fate of the Middle Class. Continue Reading »
In 1941, after fleeing Hitler, the Austrian Jewish writer Stefan Zweig wrote a book called Brazil, Land of the Future. The title became a cliché, tiresome to many Brazilians. On an official visit in 2011, President Obama declared: “This is a country of the future no more. The people of . . . . Continue Reading »
History, to the modern mind, has a goal and follows the path of progress, so that new becomes identified with better. It was on this basis that, a century ago in Russia, communist belief seized the moment. Typically for the progressive tradition, the word “new” acquired a magical . . . . Continue Reading »
David Horowitz joins the podcast to discuss his recent book The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America. Continue Reading »
Socialist thought seems more fascinating when perceived from a secure and prosperous distance. Continue Reading »
The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality by bhaskar sunkara basic, 288 pages, $28 In the spring of 2019, even the staid old AFL-CIO began to dabble in guillotine imagery. The occasion was a dispute between Delta and the International Association of . . . . Continue Reading »
Workers’ Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain edited by michael rosen princeton, 328 pages, $19.95 When I was a girl, I had a picture book, The Day the Fairies Went on Strike. This 1981 confection by Linda Briskin and Maureen FitzGerald, with . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
