As the author of The Conservative Mind and other seminal books, Russell Kirk is usually thought of as one of the American conservative political movement’s most important progenitors. But as this collection demonstrates, Kirk was perhaps at his best as an essayist. This volume also confirms that Kirk’s was principally a literary and historical conservatism that refused to fit the irreducible complexity of human experience to the requirements of any ideological straitjacket. With The Essential Russell Kirk, literary critic George A. Panichas captures the breadth and depth of Kirk’s intellectual project by gathering together forty-four of the most masterful of Kirk’s essays, along with a unique chronology told in Kirk’s own words and a substantial introduction that articulates the deep humanism that animated Kirk’s philosophy. The result is a carefully assembled volume that gives us a fuller picture of an extraordinary man and writer, one whose labors had, and continue to have, remarkable repercussions on the American literary and political landscape.
The modern conservative intellectual movement began in 1953 with Russell Kirk’s groundbreaking book The Conservative Mind. Four years later, he published a pithy, wry, philosophical summary of what conservatism really means. Originally titled The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Conservatism, this little book was essentially a popular version of The Conservative Mind. Now, a century after its author’s birth, this neglected gem has been recovered. It remains what Kirk intended it to be: an accessible introduction to conservative ideas, especially for the young. With a new title and an introduction by the eminent intellectual historian Wilfred M. McClay, Russell Kirk’s Concise Guide to Conservatism arrives with uncanny timing. The movement that Kirk defined in 1953 is today so contested and fragmented that no one seems able to say with confidence what conservatism means. This book, as fresh and prophetic as the day it was published sixty years ago, is a reminder that no one can match Russell Kirk in engaging people’s minds and imaginations—an indispensable task in reviving our civilization.
The American Cause explains in simple yet eloquent language the bedrock principles upon which America's experiment in constitutional self-government is built. Russell Kirk intended "this little book" to be an assertion of the moral and social principles upholding our nation. Kirk's primer is an aid to reflection on those principles—political, economic, and religious—that have united Americans when faced with challenges and threats from the enemies of ordered freedom. In this new age of terrorism, Kirk's lucid and straightforward presentation of the articles of American belief is both necessary and welcome. Gleaves Whitney's newly edited version of Kirk's work, combined with his insightful commentary, make The American Cause a timely addition to the literature of liberty.
A founding father of the American conservative movement, Russell Kirk (1918–94) was also a renowned and bestselling writer of fiction. Kirk’s focus was the ghost story, or “ghostly tale” – a “decayed art” of which he considered himself a “last remaining master.” Old House of Fear, Kirk’s first novel, revealed this mastery at work. Its 1961 publication was a sensation, outselling all of Kirk’s other books combined, including The Conservative Mind, his iconic study of American conservative thought. A native of Michigan, Kirk set Old House of Fear in the haunted isles of the Outer Hebrides, drawing on his time in Scotland as the first American to earn a doctorate of letters from the University of St. Andrews. The story concerns Hugh Logan, an attorney sent by an aging American industrialist to Carnglass to purchase his ancestral island and its castle called the Old House of Fear. On the island, Logan meets Mary MacAskival, a red-haired ingénue and love interest, and the two face off against Dr. Edmund Jackman, a mystic who has the island under his own mysterious control. This new edition features an introduction by James Panero, Executive Editor of The New Criterion.
Twenty-two years to the day, a videotape of an unsolved 1989 murder arrives at the San Francisco Homicide Detail. So starts Counterfeit Road, second of the series and San Francisco homicide inspector Ben Raveneau’s toughest cold case. The victim, Alan Krueger, a former Secret Service agent, carried in his coat sixty-one hundred dollar bills. In 1989 the Secret Service inspected the bills and called them legitimate. They take another look now and say, counterfeit. But there's more. There's a link to the present the don't want to talk much about. Raveneau studies the videotape. He pores over the old case files. He hunts for the couple who reported Krueger's body and enlists the help of a retired homicide inspector. When a young man steps forward with yellowed photos the investigation moves to Hawaii. What made little sense, makes more as Raveneau turns misaligned pieces and realizes something darker is rapidly evolving. But who can he convince? If no one listens, can he, his partner, and one FBI agent stop the attack from happening?
John Marquez is back - but his mission is the same: shut down animal traffickers. Still attached to the California Fish & Game's Special Operations Unit, it's the open, unsolved investigations that now land on his desk. Then a tip call comes which reveals the location of a gun used to kill two young women camping along the Klamath River two years ago. At the same time, Marquez is on the hunt for a notorious animal trafficker known as Rider, who’s rumoured to have a hideout in mountainous northern California. The subsequent discovery of thousands of invasive northern pike triggers a cascade of clues and questions that draws Marquez away from his pursuit of Rider. Or do they? Is there a connection? When a Siskiyou County investigator and an ambitious sheriff question Marquez’s interest in the murders of the two women and his relentless presence in the remote northern county, the stakes rise ever higher – and the way forward is fraught with risk.
30th Anniversary Edition with a new introduction by Michael Federici! Throughout his career, whether as a man of letters, professor, soldier, journalist, novelist, or world traveler, Russell Kirk found himself in the thick of the intellectual controversies of his age. In The Politics of Prudence, his twenty-ninth book (and the last to be published during his lifetime), Kirk endeavors to defend a truly conservative "prudential politics," as opposed to the "ideological politics" now often advanced by self-identified conservatives and those with whom they are allied, including libertarians and neoconservatives. Kirk lays out, in separate chapters, ten principles, events, thinkers, and books that have defined and shaped the American conservative mind and heart. He also examines the difficulties posed for conservatives by increasing political and economic centralization, imprudent foreign policy, educational decline, and other symptoms of cultural decay.
The explosive new Ben Raveneau thriller|Bones in a backyard bomb shelter reactivate a San Francisco cold case and a painful connection for Raveneau after missing Ann Coryell’s desperate call for help a decade ago. But he sees something much darker in threats made by online followers of historian Coryell’s writings on genocide. Nothing pieces together, but all the pieces fit . . . Raveneau edges closer to a core group who are certain the time for retribution is now, but will he be able to stop them in time?|"Solid writing, a twisted, keep-?em-guessing plot, and a likable rogue hero drive this entertaining thriller
In this classic work, Russell Kirk describes the beliefs and institutions that have nurtured the American soul and commonwealth. His analytical narrative might be called "a tale of five cities": Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia. For an understanding of the significance of America at the dawn of a new century, Kirk's masterpiece on the history of American civilization is unsurpassable.
Former DEA agent John Marquez brings gritty investigative techniques and a clouded past to his role as head of a special operations unit of the California Department of Fish and Game. In the second thrilling case of this masterful series, Marquez and his team's cover is blown, leaving him caught between a ruthless band of bear poachers, a corrupt local game warden, and a county detective obsessed with a murderer-at-large. Meanwhile, Marquez's own fragile family is left wide open to mortal danger. Night Game hits hard and moves fast toward a finish that ricochets through wilderness, backwoods towns, and the darker recesses of greed.
It is an incontestable fact of history that the United States, although a multiethnic nation, derives its language, mores, political purposes, and institutions from Great Britain. The two nations share a common history, religious heritage, pattern of law and politics, and a body of great literature. Yet, America cannot be wholly confident that this heritage will endure forever. Declining standards in education and the strident claims of multiculturalists threaten to sever the vital Anglo-American link that ensures cultural order and continuity. In "America's British Culture", now in paperback, Russell Kirk offers a brilliant summary account and spirited defense of the culture that the people of the United States have inherited from Great Britain. Kirk discerns four essential areas of influence. The language and literature of England carried with it a tradition of liberty and order as well as certain assumptions about the human condition and ethical conduct. American common and positive law, being derived from English law, gives fuller protection to the individual than does the legal system of any other country. The American form of representative government is patterned on the English parliamentary system. Finally, there is the body of mores - moral habits, beliefs, conventions, customs - that compose an ethical heritage. Elegantly written and deeply learned, "America's British Culture" is an insightful inquiry into history and a plea for cultural renewal and continuity. Adam De Vore in "The Michigan Review" said of the book: "A compact but stimulating tract...a contribution to an over-due cultural renewal and reinvigoration...Kirk evinces an increasingly uncommon reverence for historical accuracy, academic integrity and the understanding of one's cultural heritage," and Merrie Cave in "The Salisbury Review" said of the author: "Russell Kirk has been one of the most important influences in the revival of American conservatism since the fifties. [Kirk] belongs to an
Named one of the top ten crime novels of 2005 by the American Library Association, Dead Game marks the return of "far and away the most inventive new detective hero" (Booklist). Ex-DEA agent John Marquez, now head of the undercover unit of the California Department of Fish and Game, is closing in on sturgeon poachers, whose highly profitable caviar trade is backed by the Russian mafia. When his key confidential informant disappears, Marquez follows the trail directly into the middle of a deadly FBI operation and a web of conflicting loyalties. Newly releasedin paperback, this fast-paced, compelling, and vivid ecothriller pushes the tough-but-sensitive Marquez to the limit.
Au cœur du quartier chinois de San Francisco, on retrouve le corps d’une jeune femme, morte étranglée, nue et entièrement ligotée. C’est sur le bureau de Ben Raveneau, un flic en fin de carrière, et de sa jeune équipière Elisabeth, qu’aboutit ce dossier en apparence anodin. Pourtant les étranges relations de la disparue avec des personnages puissants de la ville vont rapidement permettre de rapprocher ce crime d’un autre cas mystérieux où sont mêlés plusieurs officiers de police. Entre Bullitt et LA Confidential , Kirk Russell a réussi avec Raveneau un flic étrange au cœur d’une ville bien plus brutale qu’elle n’en a l’air. ".
In this, the liveliest and most accessible one-volume life of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk ingeniously combines into a living whole the private and the public Burke. He gives us a fresh assessment of the great statesman, who enjoys even greater influence today than in his own time. Russell Kirk was a leading figure in the post-World War II revival of American interest in Edmund Burke. Today, no one who takes seriously the problems of society dares remain indifferent to “the first conservative of our time of troubles.” In Russell Kirk’s words: “Burke’s ideas interest anyone nowadays, including men bitterly dissenting from his conclusions. If conservatives would know what they defend, Burke is their touchstone; and if radicals wish to test the temper of their opposition, they should turn to Burke.” Kirk lucidly unfolds Burke’s philosophy, showing how it revealed itself in concrete historical situations during the eighteenth century and how Burke, through his philosophy, “speaks to our age.” This volume makes vivid the four great struggles in the life of Burke: his efforts to reconcile England with the American colonies; his involvements in cutting down the domestic power of George III; his prosecution of Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India; and his resistance to Jacobinism, the French Revolution’s “armed doctrine.” In each of these great phases of his public life, Burke fought with passionate eloquence and relentless logic for justice and for the proper balance of order and freedom. With sure instinct born of his sympathy and understanding, Kirk gives us the incisive quotation, the illuminating highlight, the moving, all-too-human elements that bring Burke and his age to vivid life. Thanks to Russell Kirk’s skillful evocations, Edmund Burke in these pages becomes our contemporary. “Because corruption and fanaticism assail our era as sorely as they did Burke’s time, the resonance of Burke’s voice still is heard amidst the howl of our winds of abstract doctrine.”
Masters of crime fiction immediately hailed Shell Games, which introduced a dynamic new hero and an exciting new author. Michael Connelly: "You know when you read this one that you are on to something good. Kirk Russell comes out of the gate with a story brimming with fresh characters and artful prose." John Lescroart: "Excellent...a compelling plot, fully realized characters, white-knuckle suspense, and unusual yet accessible settings." Ridley Pearson: "...a wonderfully unpredictable plot that holds the reader hostage to the very last page." And Jan Burke: "...a great read...it's hard to believe it's a first novel." Hero John Marquez runs an undercover unit of the California Department of Fish and Game and is taking on international abalone poachers, when he discovers that he's not finished with the ghosts and threats from his past as a drug agent. A completely original and entertaining eco-thriller and crime novel, now in paperback.
A new crime series set in San Francisco launches with a late night phone call. The body of a young woman lies in a trash-strewn room of a derelict building in China Basin. With that, veteran San Francisco homicide inspector, Ben Raveneau, and his hard-charging new partner, Elizabeth la Rosa, catch their first case together. But they can’t identify the victim and they don’t know why she was there. A false confession misleads and the apparent suicide but possible murder of an SF homicide inspector on medical leave may tie in. When Raveneau and la Rosa finally catch a break they are led into the past and a long ago case. A woman famous for her charitable works moves into focus and the inspectors adjust yet again. Now they’re close but are racing against someone intent on stopping them.
Robert A. Taft has been neglected by some historians and political theorists and vilified by others. Vigorously and impartially written, this book analyzes the ideas and influence of a great U.S. senator of the twentieth century. Here readers will find a close and lively examination of Taft's convictions on freedom, justice, labor policy, social reform, foreign affairs, and the responsibilities of political parties.Respected for his intelligence and integrity, Robert Taft was considered the most remarkable public man of a turbulent political era. He was strong and candid, yet was repeatedly denied executive power. Despite this, he will undoubtedly be long remembered.Drawing on many contemporary sources, including the Taft Papers in the Library of Congress, Kirk and Mc- Clellan set Taft in historical perspective. Taft's enduring significance to a normative theory of politics is made clear in this careful study, which includes extensive quotations from his outstanding speeches and writings. Available in paperback for the first time, this edition includes a new introduction by Jeffrey Nelson, who has been closely associated with Russell Kirk.
Fourth novel in the highly-acclaimed John Marquez crime series - Eighteen years ago, Special Agent John Marquez was forced to watch as his informant, Billy Takado, was gunned down, the victim of a set-up by criminal mastermind Emrahain Stoval. In the fallout from the affair, Marquez lost his job. Now, working for California's Department of Fish and Games, John is contacted by a former colleague. Ted Desault is determined to take Stoval down, but to do that, he needs Marquez's help . . .
For many years, the evolution of safety improvements in motorsports was the result of a combination of science and perceived safe practices. Most safety developments were not based on rigorous laboratory testing, but rather on intuition and a “let’s try it and see what happens” approach. During the last few decades, motorsports has benefited from the organized research efforts made possible by academia, manufacturers, and sanctioning bodies, leading to present-day motorsports safety methodologies based on solid data and testing. This compendium, edited by some of the foremost racing safety experts, comprises selected technical papers that document the development and implementation of key motorsports safety technologies now in use. It is intended to provide racing professionals and enthusiasts with a concise overview of the significant engineering developments in motorsports driver safety that has occurred during the past two decades. The 13 papers chosen for this compendium, published between 1990 and 2013, reflect landmark safety studies and developments of that time. Eleven of the papers were published by SAE International and two were presented at the Stapp Car Crash Conference. The papers cover the following topics: • Crash testing simulations • Human crash injury and survival • Reducing driver injury in severe crashes • Head and neck restraints, including the HANS device • Race car seats • Restraint systems • Track safety and barrier systems The final paper is a study on the detailed performance of restraint systems and seats in examples of severe stock car crashes. The paper represents a succinct example of modern crash investigation of racing crashes with crash recording data, detailed injury analysis, and protective system performance. The progress in motorsports safety, as described in this compendium, has been dramatically effective in reducing driver injuries at the top levels of motorsports. Unfortunately, this is not true at the lower levels, where drivers continue to suffer preventable injuries and fatalities.
Born in Vermont while Thomas Jefferson was president, and dying in Detroit while Rutherford B. Hayes was president, Orestes Brownson knew practicially everybody and wrote about practically everything in the nineteenth century. Called by some a "Marxist before Marx," he travelled from various forms of radicalism and religion to political conservatism and religious orthodoxy. His socialist roots made him a formidable adversary to Marxist thought in his maturity. In his first principles, Brownson came to stand at the opposite pole from Ralph Waldo Emerson; among his friends was John C. Calhoun. He set himself against both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, arguing that authority and liberty both are necessary for a commonwealth. Brownson maintained that pure democracy and social equality are death to civilization and liberty; that the moral principles taught by the Church deny the rectitude of leveling egalitarianism; and that those who would preserve the justice and freedom of the American Republic must resist the degradation of the democratic dogma. With force and penetrating intellect, Brownson reminded Americans that they must respect the wisdom of traditional values. By calling for restraints on American materialism and individualism, he did not make himself popular in his time. But as Russell Kirk makes clear in his new introduction, Brownson's ideas ' have had continuing influence, just as his thought has reentered American political discourse. Publication of his essays as part of the Library of Conservative Thought is particularly timely.
The world is on edge, threat chatter is way up, and enemies are on the move in Kirk Russell's powerful third installment in the Paul Grale thriller series. FBI bomb tech Paul Grale isn't a computer expert, but he knows trouble when he sees it. Independence Base, a new top-secret military facility north of Las Vegas, houses a breakthrough artificial intelligence that has US enemies worried and on the move. Threat chatter is already way up when a known terrorist bomber--and Grale's archnemesis--slips past border security. Then two of Independence Base's star computer coders go missing. Were they kidnapped as part of a terror plot? Or did they quit in protest, taking their vast knowledge of the potentially dangerous AI code with them? Special Agent Grale still grapples with the injuries sustained clearing IEDs in Iraq years ago. He's managed the pain with exercise and over-the-counter drugs for years, but it's getting worse. People at the office are beginning to talk. When he's accused by a crooked pharmacist of illicit use of painkillers, he finds himself isolated and facing an uncertain future. Possibly, the end of his career. But first, Grale must push through the pain long enough to thwart an attack . . . as a terror team waits for the right moment to strike. No Hesitation, the latest book in the Paul Grale thriller series, is a slow burn of page-turning action until its explosive conclusion.
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