Encounter Books

08/17/2022

Why Call It Liberal Education?

Enjoy this excerpt from chapter 1 of our latest release, The Death of Learning: How American Education Has Failed Our Students and What to Do About It by John Agresto.

"Why do we say liberal education or the liberal arts? Why not call it conservative education, since it is an education that 'con­serves' so much of the world’s knowledge? Or, better yet, why not just drop all politically freighted terminology?

"The truth is that the word 'liberal,' properly understood, is essential to understanding what this type of education stands for and involves."

Keep reading:

https://www.realclearbooks.com/articles/2022/08/16/why_call_it_liberal_education_848361.html

Why do we say liberal education or the liberal arts? Why not call it conservative education, since it is an education that “con­serves” so much of the world’s knowledge? Or, bett

08/09/2022

Opinion | Three New Books Challenge Preconceived Notions of Race

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Jason Riley highlights The State of Black America, one of our summer releases.

The book has been largely ignored by the press, who "give the impression that black thinking on social policy is near-monolithic."

This collection of essays bring together, instead, a company of scholars revealing multiple sides to issues on race that have been tearing apart our nation. They offer voices of candor, reason, and thoughtfulness.

Read Riley's article below, and get your copy of The State of Black America on our website:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/three-new-books-challenge-preconceived-notions-of-race-black-inequality-progressives-left-views-narrative-11658870936

Far-left activists, scholars and journalists dominate the debate with views most black Americans reject.

07/01/2022

“It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776…and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern.

"But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”

–Calvin Coolidge, on the 150th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence

Read The 1776 Report by Larry P. Arnn, Carol Swain, and Matthew Spalding: https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/the-1776-report-paperback/

06/13/2022

Understand how inflation works—and what can be done about it—in this concise and comprehensive guide from Steve Forbes, Nathan Lewis, and Elizabeth Ames.

Get your copy at our website:
https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/inflation/

06/08/2022

"Would a serious country so completely lose perspective on its own past that it would entertain the idea that the nation was founded on slavery, rather than on the ideals that have made it a beacon to the rest of the world?

"We need to become a serious country again. And to do that, we need to believe in ourselves again, believe in the reason we have been placed here, as a land of hope for a world that needs hope more than ever."

—Wilfred McClay, author of Land of Hope, quoted in The Wall Street Journal from his remarks at the 2022 Bradley Prizes

https://www.wsj.com/articles/notable-quotable-a-serious-country-past-history-america-nation-perspective-11654205018?st=c46foah8vd6xrji&reflink=article_copyURL_share

06/07/2022

How should "America first" foreign policy work for us today?

Leaning on John Quincy Adams's insights, Angelo M. Codevilla charts a clear course out of our past eleven decades of foreign policy disasters in his final work, America's Rise and Fall among Nations: Lessons in Statecraft from John Quincy Adams.

Available at our website:

https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/americas-rise-fall-among-nations/

06/03/2022

“If journalism is the first draft of history, then history, Thomas Carlyle wrote, is 'a kind of distilled newspapers.' The British writer David Pryce-Jones has distilled five decades of journalism into an elegant, personal and fearless tableau of the late 20th century.”

For The Wall Street Journal, Dominic Green reviews the latest release from our imprint Criterion Books — Openings & Outings: An Anthology by David Pryce-Jones.

Read the review here:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/openings-outings-review-one-mans-modern-europe-11653516234

06/02/2022

Now available: the latest from Daniel J. Mahoney — The Statesman as Thinker: Portraits of Greatness, Courage, and Moderation.

Through vignettes of Churchill, Lincoln, Havel, DeGaulle, Burke, and Tocqueville, learn how the recovery of statesmanship today can revive our politically-impoverished society.

Get your copy:
https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/the-statesman-as-thinker/

05/26/2022

In a nation that is tearing itself apart over race, trying to speak honestly about the state of black America is a perilous task.

Candor and thoughtfulness are often drowned by hysteria, expediency, and sentimentalism.

The State of Black America seeks to restore these sorely needed virtues to the present discourse, assembling a company of scholars who confront our nation’s troubled racial history even as they bear witness to the promise the American heritage contains for blacks.

Get The State of Black America: Progress, Pitfalls, and the Promise of the Republic at our website — available now:
https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/state-black-america/

04/29/2022

The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State

The United States in Crisis by Edward J. Erler is the first release in a new Encounter imprint with the Claremont Institute.

The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State examines how citizenship based on shared principles—not birthplace—safeguards a free society.

Get your copy below — and keep an eye out for the next book in our Claremont series coming out this fall:

https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/united-states-crisis/

The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State argues that to preserve our freedom Americans must mount a defense of the nation state against the progressive forces who advocate for global government.

04/19/2022

Steve Forbes: The Fed ‘does not know how to fight inflation’

OUT TODAY: Inflation: What It Is, Why It's Bad, and How to Fix It by Steve Forbes, Nathan Lewis, and Elizabeth Ames

Get a preview of this new title—already hitting the Best Seller charts on Amazon—in this morning's interview on America's Newsroom with Steve Forbes.

To stop inflation, the Fed needs to let the markets regulate interest rates. Learn more:
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6304398903001#sp=show-clips

Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes breaks down inflation, the role of the Federal Reserve and steps to reduce the threat of recession on ‘America’s Newsroom.’

04/12/2022

Happy PUB DAY to Visible Hand: A Wealth of Notions on the Miracle of the Market by Matthew Hennessey

Economics is far from the dismal science. It’s the sparkling art of decision-making. No homework necessary.

https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/visible-hand/

03/23/2022

Steven F. Hayward's new biography is ON SALE now.

M. Stanton Evans was the unsung hero behind the modern conservative movement.

Learn how he (and his humor) shaped our political landscape over the last half century:
https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/m-stanton-evans/

03/17/2022

Should children be taught that America is a four-hundred-year-old system of racist oppression?

Or should they learn that what has always made America exceptional is our pursuit of liberty and justice for all?

1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project by Peter Wood

bit.ly/3KSGYGv

03/15/2022

Book Review: 'The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America'

"In 'The Soul of Politics,' the reader is shown how one should think. This isn’t to say that one should be a Straussian, a Jaffaite, or even a conservative. However, it’s to say that study, reflection, debate, and the humility to adjust beliefs and ideas when necessary are required to be a good thinker."

Dustin Bass, in his review of The Soul of Politics, presents Harry Jaffa, a model of critical-mindedness to a culture starved of thought:

https://bit.ly/3tWa7tH

This is a book worth reading. There is a fight for America going on, and those interested in fighting for her, must first fight the battle for their own mind.

03/10/2022

Opinion | The Woman Who Invented Women’s History

With her immense 1853 book, “Woman’s Record,” Sarah Josepha Hale invented women's history long before the emergence of women's studies.

Meet this unsung American hero in this op-ed by Melanie Kirkpatrick at the Wall Street Journal:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/invented-womens-history-sarah-josepha-hale-book-editor-month-feminism-stay-at-home-11646688823

Sarah Josepha Hale championed both equality of the sexes and motherhood.

03/09/2022

Happy PUB WEEK to The Credentialed Court: Inside the Cloistered, Elite World of American Justice.

Author Benjamin Barton, Law Professor at University of Tennessee, shows how the makeup of the Court has changed dramatically since its beginning—while becoming more diverse on the surface, it has become far less diverse in thought. He features vignettes on the personal backgrounds of each Justice, from John Jay to Amy Coney Barrett.

Enjoy a preview of the book in this excerpt featured at our website, where you can also get your copy of The Credentialed Court.

https://www.encounterbooks.com/features/keystone-supreme-court/

03/04/2022

What is Russia to Us?

"You will see in this excerpt, originally drafted in 2019, Angelo’s characteristic incisiveness and perspicacity on the most serious matters of foreign relations. He, as ever, skewers implicitly and explicitly the bipartisan delusions and unseriousness of our ruling class."

The late Angelo Codevilla made a final contribution to our understanding of America's place in the world: America's Rise and Fall among Nations, available 5/17.

This early excerpt gives us his prescient guidance on American foreign policy towards Russia.

https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-russia-to-us/

Understanding our longstanding confusion

03/03/2022

Meet the 19th-Century Heroine Who Transformed the Role of the American Woman

"Lady Editor is not just a valuable biography of Sarah Hale; it is also a history of a growing new nation where men and women both had to carve out their places in society. It will be educational for many of us, who are not historians or women’s studies professors, to see how one woman navigated the reluctance and reality of the world around her."

Learn about Sarah Josepha Hale and the making of the modern American woman:

https://booktrib.com/2022/03/02/meet-the-19th-century-heroine-who-transformed-the-role-of-the-american-woman/

Back when men ran everything and women couldn’t vote, Sarah Josepha Hale was a formidable influence in U.S. history, responsible for a remarkable list of contributions that ranged from persuading President Lincoln to proclaim Thanksgiving a national holiday (in the middle of the Civil War, no less...

03/01/2022

How Does Putin Prevail?

How does Putin prevail?

Douglas Schoen has written several titles in Encounter's backlsit detailing the dictator's threat to the West and to liberal democracy.

In this excerpt from his 2017 'Putin on the March,' Schoen describes some of the warning signs that led to the current crisis in Ukraine.

https://www.encounterbooks.com/features/how-does-putin-prevail/

An Excerpt from 'Putin on the March'

01/17/2022

A Return to the United States

Read an excerpt from 'I, Citizen: A Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance.'

"The Founders recognized freedom and virtue as counterbalancing forces in a healthy community. Freedom without virtue leads to license and ruin. It will manifest itself in what we see today, unfortunately, in parts of our country where norms and values have broken down, yielding consequences like neglected children, decaying buildings, and no trust among neighbors. Virtue without freedom likewise leads to the same sorry state. Absent freedoms like private property and free enterprise, communities remain desperately poor. They become subservient, and the state must step in to make their denizens behave. Good behavior that’s forced rather than chosen ceases to be virtue.

"Understanding these twin pillars of self-governance reveals the ultimate threat our unchecked federal behemoth poses. It undermines productive, cooperative endeavors in our communities."

Continue reading at our website: https://www.encounterbooks.com/features/necessity-citizen-action/

An excerpt from 'I, Citizen'

12/07/2021

I, Citizen: A Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance

The real threat to our union isn’t Red vs Blue America—it’s the quiet collusion within our nation’s political class to take away that most American of freedoms: our right to self-governance.

Released today, 'I, Citizen: A Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance' outlines steps citizens can take to reclaim that right from political elites.

Learn more and get your copy:
https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/i-citizen/

This is a story of hope, but also of peril. It began when our nation’s polarized political class started conscripting everyday citizens into their culture war. From their commanding heights in political parties, media, academia, and government, these partisans have attacked one another for years, ...

11/15/2021

Can the Media Regain Our Trust? - Encounter Books

Can the media regain our trust?

Author Batya Ungar-Sargon tackles this question in her recent interview with Tucker Carlson. They talk about her new book, 'Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy.'

Click the link below to watch the full interview on our website.

https://www.encounterbooks.com/features/can-media-regain-trust/

Tucker Carlson welcomed Batya Ungar-Sargon on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss the failures of today’s mainstream media and the possibility of its redemption. This is the topic of Ungar-Sargon’s new book, Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy.

10/20/2021

“I write here from the perspective of a farmer whose social world has changed so radically, so quickly that it no longer exists.”

Victor Davis Hanson gives his frank and personal account of California's immigration tragedy in this paperback edition of 'Mexifornia: State of Becoming', updated for 2021 with a new preface.

You can get your copy for 30% off by using code HANSON at checkout: https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/mexifornia/.

09/20/2021

We are pleased to introduce the latest edition of the Encounter Top Ten, reflecting customer favorites in the past month. We are always delighted to learn which books you’ve been reading in our library, and we are pleased to offer 20% off these titles.

Click the link below to see the full list—including titles by Charles Murray, Ryan T. Anderson, and Thomas Sowell—and use code TOP10 at checkout to apply the discount.

https://www.encounterbooks.com/top-ten/

06/30/2021

A Dubious Expediency - Encounter Books

At this late date, getting back on the right road—away from group preferences and from the cultural changes they have wreaked on campus—won’t be easy. Yet, as the essays in this volume demonstrate, it needs to be done—sooner better than later.

Is higher education on the right road? The authors of these eight essays are hardly the first to think not. In 1976, in the now-famous Bakke case, the California Supreme Court had to decide whether what some view as the “good kind” of race discrimination—preferential treatment for minorities i...

06/29/2021

America Transformed - Encounter Books

“It’s a fascinating and essential book for understanding so many of our current political predicaments.” ―Mollie Hemingway, co-author of the national bestseller Justice on Trial and Senior Editor at The Federalist

The America of the modern administrative state is not the America of the original Constitution. This transformation comes not only from the ordinary course of historical change and development, but also from a radical, new philosophy of government that was imported into the American political tradit...

06/28/2021

Facing Reality - Encounter Books

Two truths drive the problems in policing, education, and the workplace that are now ascribed to systemic racism. Facing Reality lays out the evidence clinically and in detail, without apologies or animus.

The charges of systemic racism and White privilege that are tearing the country apart float free of reality. Two known truths, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be acknowledged and incorporated into the ways we approach public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians...

06/27/2021

Checking Progressive Privilege - Encounter Books

Progressive privilege isn’t just unfair to conservatives; it has warped our entire political environment and made our country more divided. https://buff.ly/3cJ8dVx

Progressives have taught us that it doesn’t take overt discrimination to make society unfair. Privilege afforded to different groups—such as whites, males, and heterosexuals—can infect our cultural institutions, creating unfair burdens for other groups. But one form of privilege has been overl...

06/26/2021

The Cunning of Freedom - Encounter Books

The Cunning of Freedom explains how we have been witnessing the advent of a new form of despotism, much of it being the effect of liberalism’s dominant position.

This book has two currents. The first is an analysis of the three concepts of freedom that are called, respectively, negative, positive, and inner. Negative freedom is defined as an absence of coercion, positive freedom as an ability to rule oneself and others, inner freedom as being oneself; that i...

06/25/2021

The Cunning of Freedom - Encounter Books

We have been witnessing the advent of a new form of despotism, much of it being the effect of liberalism’s dominant position. https://buff.ly/3iECSal

This book has two currents. The first is an analysis of the three concepts of freedom that are called, respectively, negative, positive, and inner. Negative freedom is defined as an absence of coercion, positive freedom as an ability to rule oneself and others, inner freedom as being oneself; that i...

06/24/2021

Religious Liberty in Crisis - Encounter Books

“After 400 years as America’s ‘first liberty,’ freedom of religion and conscience is under unprecedented assault, and Ken Starr’s overview is essential for all who would make their stand with a depth of understanding as well as courage.” —Os Guinness https://buff.ly/3gscleO

What was unfathomable in the first two decades of the twenty-first century has become a reality. Religious liberty, both in the United States and across the world, is in crisis. Though this crisis was not created by a global pandemic, it has been exposed by it. Simply put, the government is far more...