Fall books for conservatives

Human Events, Nov 17, 2003 by Rubin, Jeff

Mrs. Santorum-at-home mother of six, and wife of Sen. Rick Santorum (R.-Pa.)-provides no fewer than 164 selections that teach good manners in the home...in speech...at meals...in personal hygiene and dress...towards the elderly, sick and disabled...in public and in other people's homes...with friends, schoolmates and teachers...at play and in sports...in correspondence...at church, weddings and funerals...towards animals...in citizenship...and more. Mrs. Santorum writes that this anthology "grew out of the frustration of not being able to find a book on manners that instructs through stories rather than by rules of dos and don'ts."

Each of her selections has been tried and tested on her own children-and each is introduced and concluded by her own thoughtful commentary. Authors include Hans Christian Anderson, Robert Louis Stevenson, George MacDonald, Aesop, Mother Goose, Beatrix Potter, Mark Twain, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Geoffrey Chaucer, Homer, A. A. Milne, William Blake, L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis and Max Lucado, to name only a few. "Karen Suntorum touches a raw nerve," comments Charles Colson. "The moral decay in American life has led to the coarsening of America.... Through stories, poems, fables and myths, here is a great resource to restore manners."

Classics

Orestes Brownson's 1865 book, The American Republic (Regnery), ranks with The Federalist Papers and Alexis de Tocqueville's classic Democracy in America as an indispensable analysis of the America experiment in republican self-government. Reproduced here for the first time in a manner worthy of its importance, replete with its first comprehensive index, this neglected American classic, written from a strongly Roman Catholic viewpoint, is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the "constitution, tendencies and destiny," to quote the book's subtitle, of the American regime.

With philosophical rigor combined with linguisitic beauty and lucidity, Brownson (1803-1876) maintained that divine providence had bestowed upon every nation a constitution suited to each, and that it was only in careful conformity to this providential constitution that political actors should behave.

The American Republic both illustrated the contours of that divine constitution that Brownson contended formed the backbone of the American political experipolitical experience, and warned against dangerous ideas that threatened to undermine it. With power and clarity, Brownson discussed the origin of governments; just constitutions and legitimate sovereignty; the role of Providence in the life of nations; the exact nature of states' rights under the Constitution; the rule of law and personal liberty; religious freedom and the political order; and more. The American Republic is a great intellectual achievement and a landmark contribution to American political theory.

The following titles reviewed in this issue of HUMAN EVENTS are available from www.HEBookservice.com at discounted rates to HE readers.

Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite