Best of
Politics

1821

St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence


Joseph de Maistre - 1821
    As the literary critic George Steiner has remarked, "the age of the Gulag and of Auschwitz, of famine and ubiquitous torture ... nuclear threat, the ecological laying waste of our planet, the leap of endemic, possibly pandemic, illness out of the very matrix of libertarian progress" is exactly what Joseph de Maistre foretold. In the Dialogues Maistre addressed a number of topics that are discussed briefly or not at all in his other works already available in English. These include an apologetic for traditional Christian beliefs about providence, reflections on the social role of the public executioner and the "divinity" of war, a critique of John Locke's sensationalist psychology, meditations on prayer and sacrifice, and a mini-course on "illuminism." The literary form is that of the "philosophical conversation" – one that allowed Maistre to be deliberately provocative and to indulge his taste for paradox, a "methodical extravagance" that he judged particularly appropriate for the eighteenth-century salon. Translator and editor Richard Lebrun provides a full scholarly edition of this classic work, complete with an introduction, chronology, critical bibliography, and generous explanatory notes. The Dialogues will be of interest to scholars of literary history as well as the history of ideas.

Tyranny Unmasked


John Taylor of Caroline - 1821
    Either constitutes a tyranny, because the acquisitions of both are losses of liberty and property to nations. -John Taylor, in "A General Discussion of Tyranny and the Choice Americans Face" A staunch defender of the rights of individuals and a stout watchdog against rising federal power during the early decades of nationhood of the United States, John Taylor explains, in plain but passionate language, the dangers of the governmental interference in the free exercise of commerce. Though written as a vehement response to a particular event-the proposal of a tariff to help expand industry-1821's Tyranny Unmasked remains a cogent argument today, in an era of powerful special interests lobbying for, and often receiving, preferential treatment from the U.S. federal government. Powerfully relevant, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the economic and cultural health of the nation. The scion of one of colonial Virginia's most respected families, JOHN TAYLOR (1753-1824) served as an officer in the Continental army and the Virginia militia during the American Revolution. A successful lawyer and gentleman farmer, he was an advocate of scientific farming, and was the first president of the Virginia Agricultural Society. He served in the Virginia state legislature in the 1780s and 1790s and as U.S. Senator for the state through much of the early 19th century.