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The Lehrman American Studies Center, a part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, is dedicated to improving American universities' transmission of the political, economic, and moral principles that sustain a free and humane society. Read more about what we do and how you can help.
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Literature
Books (Go back)
- After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory by Alasdair MacIntyre
- The Confessions by Saint Augustine
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Aeneid
by Vergil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
Vergil's epic classic tells the tale of Aeneas, a Trojan prince,and his flight from his ruined homeland. Buffeted by the fates, Aeneas must remain faithful to the gods and to his people in order to lead them to Italy and…
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J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth
by Bradley J. Birzer
Peter Jackson’s film version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the accompanying proliferation of Rings-related paraphernalia, has once again brought the work of J. R. R. Tolkien to a popular audience. There are, however, few full and accessible…
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Doomed Bourgeois In Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman
by Mark C. Henrie
Critics have praised the films of writer/director Whit Stillman for their exceptionally intelligent portrayal of the lives and loves of the "urban haute bourgeoisie." His three comedies of manners-"Metropolitan," "Barcelona," and "The Last Days of Disco"-sparkle with urbane and ironic…
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Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights is one of the classic novels of nineteenth century romanticism. As a major work of modern literature it retains its controversial status. What was Emily Brontë's intention? Were her intentions iconoclastic? Were they feminist? Were they Christian or…
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Shakespeare as Political Thinker
by John E. Alvis and Thomas G. West
The essays contained in this book proceed from the common conviction that Shakespeare's poetry conveys a wisdom about politics commensurate with his artistry. Such well-known thinkers as Allan Bloom, Harry Jaffa, and Robert B. Heilman discuss Shakespeare's understanding of politics…
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Why literature matters: Permanence and the Politics of Reputation
by Glenn C. Arbery
"We live in a time of unparalleled confusion about the role and importance of literary texts. Deconstructionist literary theory has undermined the notion that there is any genuine, lasting meaning to be found in poems and novels, and an increasingly…
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Christ and Apollo: The Dimensions of the Literary Imagination
by Glenn C. Arbery and William Lynch
Christ and Apollo, originally published in 1960, is a classic of literary criticism, a book that Commonwealth once predicted "may well change the course of literary studies." It did not do that, of course. Its literary, philosophical, and theological presuppositions…
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The Trial of Man: Christianity and Judgement in the World of Shakespeare
by Craig A. Bernthal
Shakespeare often used trials or other scenes in which his characters are subjected to some sort of judgment-especially divine judgment-to convey the meaning of his plays. In The Trial of Man: Christianity and Judgment in the World of Shakespeare, Craig…
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The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay
by Scott F. Crider
A frivolous argument or inflated claim is often dismissed with the reply, "That's just rhetoric!" But as Scott Crider explains in The Office of Assertion, the classical tradition of rhetoric is both a productive and a liberal art. The…
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The Soul and Barbed Wire: An Introduction to Solzhenitsyn
by Edward E. Ericson and Alexis Klimoff
Authored by two eminent Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn scholars, The Soul and Barbed Wire is the first and only book to offer both a detailed biography and a comprehensive appraisal of the literary achievement of the Nobel prize-winning author who became…
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Ironies of Faith: The Laughter at the Heart of Christian Literature
by Anthony Esolen
In Ironies of Faith, celebrated Dante scholar and translator Anthony Esolen provides a profound meditation upon the use and place of irony in Christian art and in the Christian life. Beginning with an extended analysis of irony as an essentially…
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The Sword of Imagination
by Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk (1918-1994) was an active participant in the intellectual, social, and political contests in our era. This memoir, written dispassionately in the third person, is a lively account of the literary and political controversies of more than half a…
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Eliot and His Age: T. S. Eliot's Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century
by Russell Kirk
Though much has been written about T. S. Eliot since it was first published, Eliot and His Age remains the best introduction to the poet's life, ideas, and literary works. It is the essential starting place for anyone who would…
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Permanent Things: Toward the Recovery of a More Human Scale at the End of the Twentieth Century
by Michael H. Macdonald and Andrew A. Tadie
The essays gathered in Permanent Things remind us that some of the twentieth century's most imaginative minds - G. K. Chesterton, T.S. Elliot, C.S Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, and Evelyn Waugh - were profoundly at odds with the secularist spirit of…
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Dickens and the Social Order
by Myron Magnet
In this groundbreaking study, which focuses on Dickens's early novels Nicholas Nickleby and Barnaby Rudge, City Journal editor Myron Magnet argues that the liberal reformism for which Dickens is so well known rested on a surprisingly traditional view of society.…
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The Inner Vision: Liberty and Literature
by Edward B. McLean
The concepts of liberty and responsibility have been dealt with extensively from the perspectives of economics, political theory, philosophy, and religion. But a special kind of insight into man's exercise of liberty and acceptance of responsibility is possible through the…
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The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West's Classic Literature
by Anthony O'Hear
The Odyssey, Paradise Lost, The Canterbury Tales: great literature can be read by anyone, with a little help. The eminent British philosopher Anthony O'Hear leads the way with this captivating journey through two-and-a-half millennia of books as powerful, thrilling…
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Restoring The Meaning of Conservatism: Writings from Modern Age
by George A. Panichas
Restoring the Meaning of Conservatism collects those writings of eminent literary scholar and critic George A. Panichas which appeared in the quarterly Modern Age between 1965 and 2005. Panichas became the editor of Modern Age, founded by Russell Kirk in…
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The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays
by George A. Panichas
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…
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The Critical Legacy of Irving Babbitt
by George A. Panichas
The Critical Legacy of Irving Babbitt is an unsurpassed appreciation of a major American critic and diagnostician of the modern social order. Panichas reveals Babbitt's criticism to be uncompromising and controversial, impelled by moral concerns and imperatives-the ultimate problems of…
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Henry Paolucci: Selected Writings on Literature and the Arts; Science and Astronomy; Law, Government, and Political Philosophy
by Henry Paolucci
During his lifetime, Henry Paolucci taught and wrote in several academic disciplines. The variety of subject presented in this volume bears testimony to Professor Paolucci's wide range of interests and provides an impressive sampling of Professor Paolucci's comprehensive approach to…
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Unafraid of Virginia Woolf: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell
by Joseph Pearce
Roy Campbell (1902–57) led an unquiet life marked by numerous affairs (both real and imagined), brawls (he once attacked Stephen Spender on stage during a poetry recital), and curious stunts (with the help of Dylan Thomas, he once ate a…
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A Few Reasonable Words: Selected Writings
by Henry Regnery
An award-winning collection of writings by one of America's most important publishers of the seminal works of modern conservatism, Henry Regnery. Regnery published most of the seminal works of modern conservatism, and here proves himself to rank among the most…
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The Writer's Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing
by Gregory L. Roper
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…
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Political Apocalypse: A Study of Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor
by Ellis Sandoz
Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of the great literary figures. He has often been regarded as a prophet foretelling the rise of totalitarian socialism in Russia. But his political vision had deep spiritual roots. His recognition that atheistic materialism had gripped…
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Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most influential and controversial novels of the nineteenth century; it is also one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. It has been vivisected critically by latter-day Victor Frankensteins who have transformed the meanings…
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The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947-2005
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This reader, compiled by renowned Solzhenitsyn scholars Edward E. Ericson, Jr., and Daniel J. Mahoney in collaboration with the Solzhenitsyn family, provides in one volume a rich and representative selection of Solzhenitsyn's voluminous works. Reproduced in their entirety are early…
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Robert Frost: The Poet as Philosopher
by Peter J. Stanlis
Robert Frost is by far the most celebrated major American poet of the twentieth century. In part, this is because his poetry seems, on the surface, to be so accessible, even homey. But Frost was not just a powerful writer…
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Essays of Four Decades
by Allen Tate
ISI Books is proud to reintroduce this classic collection of nearly fifty essays by one of the century's most acclaimed poets and literary critics. More than three decades after its original publication, Tate's masterpiece speaks poignantly to the concerns of…
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The Literary Book of Economics: Including Readings from Literature and Drama on Economic Concepts, Issues, and Themes
by Michael Watts
The Literary Book of Economics is one of the most innovative approaches to economic education and literacy ever published. As empirical research has demonstrated, economics is taught more effectively when integrated into other fields, and is perhaps particularly effective when…
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At War with the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education
by R. V. Young
R. V. Young examines the dominant trends in literary theory of the past thirty years, chronicling their effect on the teaching of literature and the imparting of a liberal education. It seeks to transcend the politicization of literature wrought by…
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A Student's Guide to Literature
by R. V. Young
A Student's Guide to Literature takes up these questions: In a time of mass culture and pulp fiction, can great literature still be discerned, much less defended? Why is literature so compelling? What should we read? Literary scholar R. V.…