The Summer issue of the Claremont Review of Books is in the mail and online for subscribers (subscribe here). We have picked four pieces to preview for readers, beginning this morning and continuing through Thursday. As usual, the new issue is great.
Our friends at the Claremont Institute — of which the CRB is the flagship publication — have made a special contribution to the study of American politics. Their mission from the outset has been to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life. These principles are expressed most eloquently in the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” To recover the founding principles in our political life means recovering a limited and accountable government that respects private property, promotes stable family life, and maintains a strong national defense. After toiling in the vineyards more than 30 years, their time seems to have come around.
The Claremont crew and the CRB have deepened our understanding of American politics in several ways, none more important than by their study of the Progressives, whose legacy is playing itself out in the Obama administration. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness compiles some of the highlights of the CRB’s past 10 years. Jonah Goldberg brings his accustomed flair and insight to his review of the book. He explicates and credits the “indispensable contribution” of the CRB to the understanding of our politics, and the author of Liberal Fascism knows whereof he speaks.
A case in point illustrating the Claremont Institute’s contribution to the understanding of our politics is CRB editor Charles Kesler’s forthcoming I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of American Liberalism. The new issue of the CRB publishes a tantalizing excerpt: “The crisis of liberalism.” Please check it out.
STEVE adds: I’ll have an extended review/essay about Kesler’s I Am the Change in the next issue of the CRB this fall. Something to look forward to!
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