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{Bookshelf Recommendation}
Vital Remnants: America’s Founding and the Western Tradition Edited by Gary L. Gregg, II (ISI Books, 1999)
Recommended by Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, Hillsdale College
Book review originally printed online by The Imaginative Conservative (reprinted in part here with permission)
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| Dr. Bradley J. Birzer |
Dr. Gregg sets the tone perfectly on pages xii-xiii:We are a nation of the West because our Founders were men of the West. They received the language of the English countryside, the literature of the Latin poet, the rule of prescriptive common law, and the religion of the Cross. In their schools, in their fields, in their meeting houses, and by the hearth, they were part of the great Western tradition. In the fervor of revolution and founding, they could have abandoned their Western past; they could have severed the great links connecting their world to their heritage. They could have become radicals of the form that would later strike at the very heart of France. But, America’s Founders were conservative revolutionaries, not radical social tinkerers, and it was in the spirit of preservation that they worked their revolution.
Even at age 30, Dr. Gregg could not only think, but he could also write! One must wonder if there was a little bit of J.R.R. Tolkien’s spirit residing in Dr. Gregg. To be certain, Dr. Gregg has fully captured the spirit of Russell Kirk, and his introduction remains an essay in the craft.
Read more at The Imaginative Conservative.
Dr. Bradley J. Birzer is a Professor of History at Hillsdale College and the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies. He also serves as a McConnell Center Fellow. Views expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of the McConnell Center.
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