Category Archives: English

Conflict in the Academy: A Study in the Sociology of Intellectuals (2015)

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Luke Ford

Review: “In late 1980, an apparently minor dispute at Cambridge University became headline news. The question was whether or not the young lecturer Colin MacCabe – whose work was heavily influenced by recent developments in structuralist and post-structuralist theory – … Continue reading →

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Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Luke Ford

Here are some highlights from this 2012 book by David Hackett Fischer: * When one compares these many accounts, one notices that the same language of description tends to occur. Karl Popper described New Zealanders as “decent, friendly and well-disposed.” … Continue reading →

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Paul Johnson’s A History Of The English People

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Luke Ford

In his prologue to the 1980 edition, Johnson wrote: * A third objection to this book is that, in its exclusive preoccupation with the English, or rather with the peoples who have occupied the land we call England, it presupposes … Continue reading →

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Protecting the wisdom of the West (Classical Liberalism & Jewish Tradition)

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Luke Ford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Alexander_(professor) https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Liberalism-Jewish-Tradition-Alexander/dp/0765801531 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson https://www.telelib.com/authors/T/TennysonAlfred/verse/suppressedpoems/hersperides.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Trilling Bud: “Very many of the big names in American Literature have been Jewish for a generation now. Charles Feidelson, Leslie Feidler, Nina Baym, Sacvan Bercovitch, etc. Also during this generation (between 1960-2000), the study of … Continue reading →

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Watching The English By Kate Fox

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Luke Ford

Here are some highlights: Any discussion of English conversation, like any English conversation, must begin with The Weather. And in this spirit of observing traditional protocol, I shall, like every other writer on Englishness, quote Dr Johnson’s famous comment that … Continue reading →

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