What did James Madison mean by “cool” (in reference to politics) and why is our political discourse so “hot” today?  Prof. Wolfe takes up the substance of Federalist 10, the so-called "liberalism wars," and the nature of America’s founding. Along the way, he offers commentary on Leo Strauss, Alasdair MacIntyre, Natural Law, integralism, and classical liberalism. And at the end he offers his own diagnosis on America’s future.

Links of Potential Interest:

Christopher James Wolfe, “Reilly and the Republic in 2020: Why Isn’t It “Cool” Anymore?,” Catholic Social Science Review: Volume 26.

Federalist 10

John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition

Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed

Robert Reilly, America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding

Andrew Sullivan, "Democracies End When They are Too Democratic," New York Magazine, 2016 (Here Sullivan applies Plato's political analysis to the American political landscape.)

Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History

Alasdair MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals.

What is Integralism?  (In Three Sentences)

Adrian Vermeule, "Beyond Originalism," The Atlantic

Catholic Southwest: A Journal of History and Culture