Even as historians credit Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II with hastening the end of the Cold War, they have failed to recognize the depth or significance of the bond that developed between the two leaders.

Acclaimed scholar and bestselling author Paul Kengor changes that.

In this fascinating book, he reveals a singular bond--which included a spiritual connection between the Catholic pope and the Protestant president--that drove the two men to confront what they knew to be the great evil of the twentieth century: Soviet communism.

Reagan and John Paul II almost didn't have the opportunity to forge this relationship: just six weeks apart in the spring of 1981, they took bullets from would-be assassins. But their strikingly similar near-death experiences brought them close together--to Moscow's dismay.Based on Kengor's tireless archival digging and his unique access to Reagan insiders, A Pope and a President is full of revelations. It takes you inside private meetings between Reagan and John Paul II and into the Oval Office, the Vatican, the CIA, the Kremlin, and many points beyond.

Nancy Reagan called John Paul II her husband's closest friend; Reagan himself told Polish visitors that the pope was his best friend. When you read this book, you will understand why. As kindred spirits, Ronald Reagan and John Paul II united in pursuit of a supreme objective--and in doing so they changed history.

Do good and evil exist? Absolutely.

In this bracing book, the eminent Dutch philosopher Andreas Kinneging turns fashionable thinking on its head, revealing how good and evil are objective, universal, and unchanging--and how they must be rediscovered in our age.

In mapping the geography of good and evil, Kinneging reclaims, and reintroduces us to, the great tradition of ancient and Christian thought. Traditional wisdom enables us to address the eternal questions of good and evil that confront us in both public and private life. Though it is common to accept uncritically the blessings of modernity and its intellectual sources, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Kinneging shows that traditional thinking is richer and more realistic. Indeed, we see how, in more than a few respects, the Enlightenment and Romanticism brought not progress but deterioration. Kinneging skillfully reformulates and defends the insights of traditional thinking for today's readers, demonstrating how an objective morality is to be understood and how we can know what morality demands of us.

At a time when the traditional virtues have practically disappeared from our language (that is, all but one--tolerance), he lays out the foundations of virtue and vice. Ultimately, Kinneging reveals the lasting significance of these seemingly archaic notions--to our own lives, to our families, to our culture, and to civilization.

This profound, award-winning work establishes Andreas Kinneging as one of our wisest moral philosophers.

Scott F. Crider addresses the intelligent university student with respect and humor. A short but serious book of rhetoric, it is informed by both the ancient rhetorical tradition and recent discoveries concerning the writing process. Though practical, it is not simply a how-to manual; though philosophical, it never loses sight of writing itself. Crider combines practical guidance about how to improve an academic essay with reflection on the purpose - educational, political, and philosophical - of such improvement.

In this wise and witty book, acclaimed author James Schall illuminates a fundamental truth that will shock ceaselessly busy and ambitious Americans: human affairs are unserious.

Following Plato, Schall shows why singing, dancing, playing, contemplating, and other useless human activities are not merely forms of escape but also indications of the freedom in and for which men and women were created. The joy that accompanies leisure, festivity, and conviviality, he demonstrates, gives us a glimpse of the eternal. On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs offers a vital message that is truly countercultural.

A stupendous compilation of the best things said by and to Americans . . . [I] open it every night at random and always find something valuable. --Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

Indispensable . . . Should become The Book of Virtues for patriots. --Mona Charen, nationally syndicated columnist

Concerned about rising cynicism and apathy, more and more Americans lament the decline in patriotic feeling and civic engagement. Fortunately, this wonderfully rich anthology is here to help all Americans realize more deeply--and appreciate more fully--who they are as citizens of the United States.At once inspiring and thought provoking, What So Proudly We Hail explores American identity, character, and civic life using the soul-shaping power of story, speech, and song. Editors Amy Kass, Leon Kass, and Diana Schaub--acclaimed scholars who among them have more than a century of teaching experience--have assembled dozens of selections by our country's greatest writers and leaders, from Mark Twain to John Updike, from George Washington to Theodore Roosevelt, from Willa Cather to Flannery O'Connor, from Benjamin Franklin to Martin Luther King Jr., from Francis Scott Key to Irving Berlin.Featuring the editors' insightful and instructive commentary, What So Proudly We Hail illuminates our national identity, the American creed, the American character, and the virtues and aspirations of active citizenship. This marvelous book will spark much-needed discussion and reflection in living rooms, classrooms, and reading groups everywhere.

If anyone was ever a socialist, it was Jesus.--Kelley Rose, Democratic Socialists of America

Economist and historian Lawrence W. Reed has been hearing people say Jesus was a socialist for fifty years. And it has always bothered him. Now he is doing something about it. His new book demolishes the claim that Jesus was a socialist.

Jesus called on earthly governments to redistribute wealth? Or centrally plan the economy? Or even impose a welfare state? Hardly. Point by point, Reed answers the claims of socialists and progressives who try to enlist Jesus in their causes. As he reveals, nothing in the New Testament supports their contentions.

Was Jesus a Socialist? could not be more timely. Socialism has made a shocking comeback in America. Poll after poll shows that young Americans have a positive image of socialism. In fact, more than half say they would rather live in a socialist country than in a capitalist one. And as socialism has come back into vogue, more and more of its advocates have tried to convince us that Jesus was a socialist. This rhetoric has had an impact.

According to a 2016 poll by the Barna Group, Americans think socialism aligns better with Jesus's teachings than capitalism does. When respondents were asked which of that year's presidential candidates aligned closest to Jesus's teachings, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist came out on top. Sure enough, the same candidate earned more primary votes from under-thirty voters than did the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees combined. And in a 2019 survey, more than 70 percent of millennials said they were likely to vote for a socialist.

Was Jesus a Socialist? expands on the immensely popular video of the same name that Reed recorded for Prager University in July 2019. That video has attracted more than four million views online. Ultimately, Reed shows the foolishness of trying to enlist Jesus in any political cause today. He writes: While I don't believe it is valid to claim that Jesus was a socialist, I also don't think it is valid to argue that he was a capitalist. Neither was he a Republican or a Democrat. These are modern-day terms, and to apply any of them to Jesus is to limit him to but a fraction of who he was and what he taught.

Two monumental works on the nature of the modern age by Romano Guardini, one of the most important Catholic figures of the 20th century.

This expanded edition of The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation includes its sequel, Power and Responsibility: A Course of Action for the New Age. In both, Guardini analyzes modern man's conception of himself in the world, and examines the nature and use of power. It is the principle of individual responsibility that weaves both works into a seamless, comprehensive, and compelling moral statement. Guardini tirelessly argues that human beings are responsible moral agents, possessed of free will, and answerable to God and their fellow man.

On The End of the Modern World: This book will cauterize the spirit of any man who reads it; it will burn away that sentimentality with which so many today view the advent of the new order, imagining - as they do - that a fully technologized universe can retain every significant cultural and traditional value sustained by the past. - Frederick D. Wilhelmsen, founding editor of Triumph magazine and professor at the University of DallasOn Power and Responsibility: If the characteristic of Hellenic civilization is to be summed up in the word logos, the characteristic of our own is more exactly summed up in the word power. The fact itself is a challenge to the wisdom of man. One is grateful that Romano Guardini has taken up the challenge... I highly recommend the book to all who are wise enough to know today's need to wisdom. That is, I recommend the book to every thoughtful mind. - John Courtney Murray, S.J., architect of the Vatican II Declaration on Religious Liberty and author of We Hold These Truths

Welcome to Life Under Compulsion

How do you raise a child who can sit with a good book and read? Who is moved by beauty? Who doesn't have to buy the latest this or that vanity? Who is not bound to the instant urge, wherever it may be found?

As a parent, you've probably asked these questions. And now Anthony Esolen provides the answers in this wise new book, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child.

Although freedom has become a byword of our age, Esolen reveals that our children are anything but free. In fact, they are becoming slaves to compulsions. Some compulsions come from without: government mandates that determine what children are taught, how they are taught, and even what they can eat in school. Others come from within: the itches that must be scratched, the passions by which children (like the rest of us) can be mastered.

Common Core, smartphones, video games, sex ed, travel teams, Twitter, politicians, popular music, advertising, a world with more genders than there are flavors of ice cream--these and many other aspects of contemporary life come under Esolen's sweeping gaze in Life Under Compulsion.

This elegantly written book restores lost wisdom about education, parenting, literature, music, art, philosophy, and leisure. Esolen shows why the common understanding of freedom--as a permission slip to do as you please--is narrow, misleading . . . and dangerous. He draws on great thinkers of the Western tradition, from Aristotle and Cicero to Dante and Shakespeare to John Adams and C. S. Lewis, to remind us what human freedom truly means.

Life Under Compulsion also restates the importance of concepts so often dismissed today: truth, beauty, goodness, love, faith, and virtue. But above all else, it reminds us of a fundamental truth: that a child is a human being.

Countercultural in the best sense of the term, Life Under Compulsion is an indispensable guide for any parent who wants to help a child remove the shackles and enjoy a truly free, and full, life.

Papal Economics corrects the record about one of the most important--but least -understood--authorities on capitalism and democracy: the Catholic Church.

Maciej Zieba, OP--a leading interpreter of the thought of Pope John Paul II--takes readers on an enlightening tour through the Catholic Church's social teaching on economics and governance. Examining papal pronouncements from the late nineteenth century to the present, Zieba shows that the Church displays a profound understanding of democracy and support for free markets. But this praise is not unquali-fied--a major reason why secular commentators of all stripes misinterpret Catholic social teaching.

Updated with a brand-new afterword explaining the controversial economic teachings of Pope Francis, Papal -Economics is the essential book for understanding the proper path forward.

Frustrated with the continuing educational crisis of our time, concerned parents, teachers, and students sense that true reform requires more than innovative classroom technology, standardized tests, or skills training. An older tradition--the Great Tradition--of education in the West is waiting to be heard.

Since antiquity, the Great Tradition has defined education first and foremost as the hard work of rightly ordering the human soul, helping it to love what it ought to love, and helping it to know itself and its maker. In the classical and Christian tradition, the formation of the soul in wisdom, virtue, and eloquence took precedence over all else, including instrumental training aimed at the inculcation of useful knowledge.

Edited by historian Richard Gamble, this anthology reconstructs a centuries-long conversation about the goals, conditions, and ultimate value of true education. Spanning more than two millennia, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary writers, it includes substantial excerpts from more than sixty seminal writings on education. Represented here are the wisdom and insight of such figures as Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, Basil, Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Erasmus, Edmund Burke, John Henry Newman, Thomas Arnold, Albert Jay Nock, Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, and Eric Voegelin.

In an unbroken chain of giving and receiving, The Great Tradition embraced the accumulated wisdom of the past and understood education as the initiation of students into a body of truth. This unique collection is designed to help parents, students, and teachers reconnect with this noble legacy, to articulate a coherent defense of the liberal arts tradition, and to do battle with the modern utilitarians and vocationalists who dominate educational theory and practice.

The Writer's Workshop takes an approach to teaching writing that is new only because it is so old.

Today, rhetoric and composition typically proceed by ignoring what was done for 2,500 years in Western education. Gregory Roper, on the other hand, helps students learn to write in the way the great writers of the past themselves learned: by carefully imitating masters of the craft, including Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Charles Dickens, Sojourner Truth, James Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway. By living in their workshops and apprenticing to these and other masters, apprentice writers--like apprentice musicians, painters, and blacksmiths of the past--will rapidly improve the complexity of their art and discover their own native voices.

Interspersed into chapters full of sound practical advice and challenging assignments are reflections on Great Ideas from Realism and Impressionism to Nominalism and Modern Science. Perfect for the college or even high school writing classroom--as well as a marvelous book for homeschoolers and others who would like to improve their own writing--The Writer's Workshop is a fine practical guide, and Dr. Roper a friendly yet demanding teacher-mentor.

One of the leading thinkers to emerge in the postwar conservative intellectual revival was the sociologist Robert Nisbet. His book The Quest for Community, published in 1953, stands as one of the most persuasive accounts of the dilemmas confronting modern society. Nearly a half century before Robert Putnam documented the atomization of society in Bowling Alone, Nisbet argued that the rise of the powerful modern state had eroded the sources of community--the family, the neighborhood, the church, the guild. Alienation and loneliness inevitably resulted. But as the traditional ties that bind fell away, the human impulse toward community led people to turn even more to the government itself, allowing statism--even totalitarianism--to flourish.

This edition of Nisbet's magnum opus features a brilliant introduction by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and three critical essays. Published at a time when our communal life has only grown weaker and when many Americans display cultish enthusiasm for a charismatic president, this new edition of The Quest for Community shows that Nisbet's insights are as relevant today as ever.

In Climbing Parnassus, winner of the 2005 Paideia Prize, Tracy Lee Simmons presents a defense and vindication of the formative power of Greek and Latin. He also shows how these languages have played a crucial role in the development of authentic Humanism, the foundation of the West's cultural order and America's understanding of itself as a union of citizens. Simmons's persuasive witness to the unique, now all-but-forgotten advantages of study in and of the classical languages constitutes a bracing reminder of the genuine aims of a truly liberal education.

Finally the Truth about the Rise of the West Modernity developed only in the West--in Europe and North America. Nowhere else did science and democracy arise; nowhere else was slavery outlawed. Only Westerners invented chimneys, musical scores, telescopes, eyeglasses, pianos, electric lights, aspirin, and soap. The question is, Why? Unfortunately, that question has become so politically incorrect that most scholars avoid it. But acclaimed author Rodney Stark provides the answers in this sweeping new look at Western civilization.How the West Won demonstrates the primacy of uniquely Western ideas--among them the belief in free will, the commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, the notion that the universe functions according to rational rules that can be dis-covered, and the emphasis on human freedom and secure property rights. Taking readers on a thrilling journey from ancient Greece to the present, Stark challenges much of the received wisdom about Western history. Stark also debunks absurd fabrications that have flourished in the past few decades: that the Greeks stole their culture from Africa; that the West's discoveries were copied from the Chinese and Muslims; that Europe became rich by plundering the non-Western world. At the same time, he reveals the woeful inadequacy of recent attempts to attribute the rise of the West to purely material causes--favorable climates, abundant natural resources, guns and steel.How the West Won displays Rodney Stark's gifts for lively narrative history and making the latest scholarship accessible to all readers. This bold, insightful book will force you to rethink your understanding of the West and the birth of modernity--and to recognize that Western civilization really has set itself apart from other cultures.

In this startling, intensively researched book, bestselling historian Paul Kengor shines light on a deeply troubling aspect of American history: the prominent role of the dupe. From the Bolshevik Revolution through the Cold War and right up to the present, many progressives have unwittingly aided some of America's most dangerous opponents.

Based on never-before-published FBI files, Soviet archives, and other primary sources, Dupes exposes the legions of liberals who have furthered the objectives of America's adversaries. Kengor shows not only how such dupes contributed to history's most destructive ideology--Communism, which claimed at least 100 million lives--but also why they are so relevant to today's politics.

Dupes reveals: - Shocking reports on how Senator Ted Kennedy secretly approached the Soviet leadership to undermine not one but two American presidents - Stunning new evidence that Frank Marshall Davis--mentor to a young Barack Obama--had extensive Communist ties and demonized Democrats - Jimmy Carter's woeful record dealing with America's two chief foes of the past century, Communism and Islamism - Today's dupes, including the congressmen whose overseas anti-American propaganda trip was allegedly financed by foreign intelligence - How '60s Marxist radicals--Tom Hayden, Mark Rudd, Jane Fonda, Jeff Jones, Bill Ayers, and more--have suddenly reemerged as progressives for Obama - How Franklin Roosevelt was duped by Uncle Joe Stalin--and by a top adviser who may have been a Soviet agent--despite clear warnings from fellow Democrats - How John Kerry's accusations that American soldiers committed war crimes in Vietnam may have been the product of Soviet disinformation - The many Hollywood stars who were duped, including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, Gene Kelly--and even Ronald Reagan - Soviet records that demonstrate beyond doubt the Communists' expansionist aims and their targeting of American liberals, especially academics and the Religious Left - How liberals still defend the same Communists who trashed Democratic icons like Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK--and still attack the anti-Communists who tried to spare them from manipulation - Details on many other dupes (and dupers), including Arthur Miller, Dr. Benjamin Spock, John Dewey, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Lillian Hellman, Howard Zinn, Walter Cronkite, and Helen Thomas - A new chapter on the War on Terror. Packed with stunning revelations, Dupes shows in frightening detail how U.S. adversaries exploit the American home front. Now with an updated introduction to the paperback edition.

The Anti-Federalist Luther Martin of Maryland is known to us--if he is known at all--as the wild man of the Constitutional Convention: a verbose, frequently drunken radical who annoyed the hell out of James Madison, George Washington, Gouverneur Morris, and the other giants responsible for the creation of the Constitution in Philadelphia that summer of 1787. In Bill Kauffman's rollicking account of his turbulent life and times, Martin is still something of a fitfully charming reprobate, but he is also a prophetic voice, warning his heedless contemporaries and his amnesiac posterity that the Constitution, whatever its devisers' intentions, would come to be used as a blueprint for centralized government and a militaristic foreign policy. In Martin's view, the Constitution was the tool of a counterrevolution aimed at reducing the states to ciphers and at fortifying a national government whose powers to tax and coerce would be frightening. Martin delivered the most forceful and sustained attack on the Constitution ever levied--a critique that modern readers might find jarringly relevant. And Martin's post-convention career, though clouded by drink and scandal, found him as defense counsel in two of the great trials of the age: the Senate trial of the impeached Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase and the treason trial of his friend Aaron Burr. Kauffman's Luther Martin is a brilliant and passionate polemicist, a stubborn and admirable defender of a decentralized republic who fights for the principles of 1776 all the way to the last ditch and last drop. In remembering this forgotten founder, we remember also the principles that once animated many of the earliest--and many later--American patriots.

Next only to Continental army commander General George Washington, Nathanael Greene was the most important American general of the War for Independence. Self-taught but extraordinarily capable, Greene won few battles. But his campaign that won the South for the revolutionary cause was the most brilliant and daring of the entire war.In Rise and Fight Again, award-winning military historian Spencer Tucker tells the story of Greene's rise from relative obscurity to military prominence at the tender age of thirty-two. He reveals Greene to have been a strict disciplinarian who insisted on rigorous training but was also deeply concerned for the welfare of his men. Tucker also shows that Greene was by nature a problem-solver who recognized talent and knew how to harness it effectively. Indeed, although Greene was the youngest general in his army, Washington assigned him the herculean task of serving as its quartermaster general. Greene proved so effective in this demanding assignment that in October 1780 he was given command of the Southern Department. Taking charge of a sharply depleted, dispirited force lacking all manner of military equipment and even clothing, Greene refused to be drawn into pitched battles save on favorable terms. He rebuilt the Southern army in less than a year and adopted daring tactics that defied conventional military wisdom but recaptured from British control most of the Carolinas and Georgia.Greene has rarely been accorded his earned place in the history of the American founding, in part because of his early death in 1786, when he was just forty-three. But with Tucker's brief but masterful biography, Greene finally gets his due.

Assaults on religious liberty and traditional morality are growing fiercer. Here, at last, is the counterattack.

This revised and updated paperback edition of the acclaimed Conscience and Its Enemies showcases the talents that have made Robert P. George one of America's most influential thinkers. Here George explodes the myth that the secular elite represents the voice of reason. In fact, it is on the elite side of the cultural divide where the prevailing views are little more than articles of faith.

Conscience and Its Enemies reveals the bankruptcy of these too often smugly held orthodoxies while presenting powerfully reasoned arguments for classical virtues.In defending what James Madison called the sacred rights of conscience--rights for which government shows frightening contempt--George grapples with today's most controversial issues: same-sex marriage, abortion, transgenderism, genetic manipulation, euthanasia and assisted suicide, religion in politics, judicial activism, and more. His brilliantly argued essays rely not on theological claims or religious authority but on established scientific facts and a philosophical tradition that extends back to Plato and Aristotle.

Conscience and Its Enemies sets forth powerful arguments that secular liberals are unaccustomed to hearing--and that embattled defenders of traditional morality so often fail to marshal.

We need these stories. We need to read them to our children and our grandchildren.
--Dennis Prager

We learn by stories, and this powerful, well-written book gives us forty superb ones. They couldn't be more timely in an age that is experiencing too much bluster, blather, exhibitionism, and ignorance.
--Steve Forbes

What makes someone a hero?

Is it fame, power, money, creative talent, athletic ability, good looks?

Despite what our culture typically celebrates, none of those things makes a hero.

No, heroism springs from character, the critical element that defines a person. The good news is that character is something every one of us can mold; it is simply the sum of the choices we make as we face new challenges and opportunities.

And here's even better news: this lively, accessible book gives you real, flesh-and-blood models of character, courage, and conviction--men and women you won't just admire but also can emulate.

Author Lawrence W. Reed ranges far and wide in Real Heroes--from major historical figures to remarkable people you've never heard of; from the distant past to the present; from the United States, to Europe, to Asia; from statesmen to scientists, athletes to inventors, entrepreneurs to theologians, writers to teachers. Reed's heroes include:

• The nineteenth-century American educator who was vilified and threatened for daring to teach black girls
• The unsung British activist who fought for decades to end slavery
• The courageous Cambodian who alerted the world to Pol Pot's killing fields
• The Polish soldier who volunteered to go to the notorious concentration camp Auschwitz to expose Nazi brutality and defend the liberty of his people

Concise and compelling, Real Heroes highlights memorable quotations from each hero and features a bulleted summary of lessons at the end of each profile.

We desperately need more heroes today. America is a country with a proud history of heroes, but now it seems we've forgotten more of them than we're producing.

It's time to change that. And Real Heroes is here to help.

The debate over the size and scope of the federal government has raged since the New Deal. So why have opponents of big government so rarely made political headway?

Because they fail to address the fundamental issue.

Patrick M. Garry changes that in this short, powerful book. Garry, a law professor and political commentator, debunks the myth that only government can help the average American survive and prosper in today's world.

The truth, he reveals, is that big government often hurts the very people it purports to help: the poor, the working class, and the middle class. And the problem is worse than that. He shows that big government actually props up the rich, the powerful, and the politically connected.

Garry demonstrates that opponents of big government rely on arguments that are true but fail to address the heart of the issue. Yes, massive government programs are wasteful and impose huge economic costs on America, and yes, many of them violate constitutional provisions. But in focusing on economic and constitutional arguments, proponents of limited government cede the moral high ground to progressives.

The truth is that those who claim to speak for the little guy actually push for policies that harm the most vulnerable in society. And it is just as true that proponents of limited government don't ignore the working and middle classes but in fact are trying to free those individuals from a government that acts against their interests.

In just one hundred pages, The False Promise of Big Government lays out everything you need to know about why big government fails and how to overcome it at last.