Encounter Books

Encounter Books Independent publisher of serious non-fiction. Encounter magazine in another life. Promoting intellige Kingsley Amis, W. H. Melvin J. It was true.

Encounter Books draws its name from Encounter magazine, an Anglo-American literary journal founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and journalist Irving Kristol. Encounter was a liberal, anti-Soviet monthly dedicated to two things: “a love of liberty and a respect for that part of human endeavour that goes by the name of culture.”

The magazine seemed to have come “out of nowhere”—with an immediat

e impact. Auden, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, Robert Conquest, Philip Larkin, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Lionel Trilling, Richard Wilbur, and Edmund Wilson—to name just a few—all wrote for Encounter. Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford debated in its pages. Even Virginia Woolf appeared there, posthumously of course. Lasky, who succeeded Irving Kristol as editor in 1958, cultivated dissident writers from across the Soviet Bloc. Joseph Brodsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Arthur Koestler, Leszek Kołakowski, and Václav Havel all made their mark in Encounter. For a time, it was probably the finest magazine going—on either side of the Atlantic. IN 1967, Ramparts, a San Francisco-based New Left magazine, published an exposé on the CIA’s infiltration of the National Student Association. As an aside, the piece implied that the CIA also supported The Congress for Cultural Freedom—Encounter’s parent foundation. Fearing that Soviet propaganda was winning over Europe’s intelligentsia, the CIA had secretly funded Encounter—and many other publications—to promote a classically liberal, anti-totalitarian standpoint in Europe. Although the revelation was a scandal in the intellectual world and several prominent writers defected, Encounter continued to publish through the end of the Cold War, not closing its doors until 1991. Did the Cultural Cold War have an impact? Former-Ramparts editor Peter Collier described the CIA’s involvement with Encounter as “part of a shadow boxing match of containment with the Soviets that allowed us to get through the most dangerous period of the Cold War without having to throw thermonuclear punches.”

Franklin Foer called it “the best money that the CIA ever spent.”

IN 1998, three decades after his magazine broke the CIA story, a more politically mature Peter Collier revived the Encounter name, founding Encounter Books on the maxim that the printed word can drive intelligent debate and influence the world in a positive way. Now edited by Roger Kimball, Encounter Books continues to advance its love of liberty and the cultural achievements of the West against a rising tide of collectivist sentiment and the soft totalitarianism of intellectual conformity.

In this excerpt from Another Sort of Mathematics, author J. Jacob Tawney explains how we can better inspire a love of ma...
07/18/2025

In this excerpt from Another Sort of Mathematics, author J. Jacob Tawney explains how we can better inspire a love of mathematics and makes the case for all of us to engage in the discipline so we can better understand the “true, the good, and the beautiful.”

Pre-order Another Sort of Mathematics, and save 25% with code CHOOSETOWONDER at checkout. https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/another-sort-mathematics/

Another Sort of Mathematics is a tour through some of the best that has been thought and written about the mysteries of shapes and numbers, including proofs of some of the most beautiful theorems as well as explorations of some of the most famous unsolved problems. The book begins, however, with a d...

What is the “totalitarian impulse?”Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Daniel J. Mahoney discusses his latest book, The Pe...
07/17/2025

What is the “totalitarian impulse?”

Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Daniel J. Mahoney discusses his latest book, The Persistence of the Ideological Lie, and how the progressive crusade makes victims of us all.

The Persistence of the Ideological Lie is available now: encounterbooks.com/books/persistence-ideological-lie

There is a sickness inside our hearts. It aches for something brighter, better, a more resplendent mode of being. God, perhaps. Or temporary deliverance from the pain of being alive, and of knowing we

“Containing a total of 23 superb essays — examining a wide-ranging analysis of topics such as human dignity, common good...
07/11/2025

“Containing a total of 23 superb essays — examining a wide-ranging analysis of topics such as human dignity, common good, natural law, personhood, civic virtue, free market morality, and free speech in universities — George’s book is indeed an intellectual feast to be savored.”

National Catholic Register reviews Robert P. George's Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth.

Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth is out now. Use code AGEOFFEELING at checkout and save 25%: encounterbooks.com/books/seeking-truth-speaking-truth/

Book Review: The professor of jurisprudence argues a healthy society must be grounded in five things...

Now available: Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth by Robert P. George argues that we are in an “Age of Feeling,” where mor...
07/08/2025

Now available: Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth by Robert P. George argues that we are in an “Age of Feeling,” where morality is largely dictated by emotions rather than objective truths.

This collection of essays realigns our understanding of human dignity, the definition of marriage, the philosophy of law, constitutional law, the nature of civil liberties, free markets, and more, rooted in reason and sound logic.

Purchase Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth and use code AGEOFFEELING at checkout to save 25%.
https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/seeking-truth-speaking-truth/

This Independence Day, we celebrate the foundational ideals of our great nation. These books reaffirm the principles tha...
07/04/2025

This Independence Day, we celebrate the foundational ideals of our great nation. These books reaffirm the principles that must remain vital for us to all thrive as Americans.

1620 by National Association of Scholars’s Peter W. Wood: encounterbooks.com/books/1620

The 1776 Report by Larry P. Arnn, Matthew Spalding, and Carol M. Swain, PhD.: encounterbooks.com/books/the-1776-report-hardcover

America and the Art of the Possible by Chris Buskirk: encounterbooks.com/books/america-and-the-art-of-the-possible

07/03/2025

The Preventive State by Alan Dershowitz provides a non-partisan perspective on one of the most important debates in governance: What limits should we place on government power in its duty to protect its citizens?

Get the book: encounterbooks.com/books/the-preventive-state/

Watch the full podcast: https://youtu.be/csmEsxTOguk?si=51RYr6Y38iSB56aN

How did Lincoln's most important speeches influence America's ideals and our expectations of statesmanship? Read an exce...
06/25/2025

How did Lincoln's most important speeches influence America's ideals and our expectations of statesmanship?

Read an excerpt adapted from Prophetic Statesmanship by Claremont Institute senior fellow Edward J. Erler.

Save 25% on Prophetic Statesmanship with code AHOUSEDIVIDED at checkout: encounterbooks.com/books/prophetic-statesmanship

In Prophetic Statesmanship: Harry Jaffa, Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Address, Edward J. Erler endeavors to show how the scholarship of Harry Jaffa demonstrated the necessity for a particular kind of statesmanship in a regime dedicated to the principles of natural right—one that might prese...

"Lincoln warned of future dangers that would confront the nation. These would be internal dangers, principally those ste...
06/18/2025

"Lincoln warned of future dangers that would confront the nation. These would be internal dangers, principally those stemming from mob rule, or more precisely the 'spirit of mob rule.'"

Read an excerpt from Claremont Institute senior fellow Edward J. Erler's Prophetic Statesmanship and save 25% with the code AHOUSEDIVIDED.

The American Founding held out the prospect that genuine aristocracy could replace the pseudo-aristocracies of the past.

Prophetic Statesmanship by Claremont Institute senior fellow Edward J. Erler is both a retrospective and a conclusion to...
06/16/2025

Prophetic Statesmanship by Claremont Institute senior fellow Edward J. Erler is both a retrospective and a conclusion to the great life’s work of historian and political philosopher Harry V. Jaffa.

This book examines Jaffa’s revolutionary and evolving views on Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, and the conflict between theology and politics.

Save 25% on Prophetic Statesmanship. Use code AHOUSEDIVIDED at checkout. https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/prophetic-statesmanship/

“For Lincoln and the founders, any government that is not based on the consent of the governed is slavery. The American ...
06/10/2025

“For Lincoln and the founders, any government that is not based on the consent of the governed is slavery. The American founding presented the question of whether natural right could become political right.”

Read our newest feature, adapted from Prophetic Statesmanship by Edward J. Erler, senior fellow at the Claremont Institute.

Prophetic Statesmanship details the life and work of renowned Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa and is an essential read for anyone interested in the past and future of American political thought.

Save 25% with code AHOUSEDIVIDED at checkout: encounterbooks.com/books/prophetic-statesmanship

In Prophetic Statesmanship: Harry Jaffa, Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Address, Edward J. Erler endeavors to show how the scholarship of Harry Jaffa demonstrated the necessity for a particular kind of statesmanship in a regime dedicated to the principles of natural right—one that might prese...

“The U.S.-China relationship is not going to get better in the short run.” Dennis Unkovic, author of The Fragility of Ch...
06/09/2025

“The U.S.-China relationship is not going to get better in the short run.” Dennis Unkovic, author of The Fragility of China, explains how tensions between the two countries may cause shockwaves for global trade.

The Fragility of China reveals the vulnerabilities in China’s grand plan to become the world’s greatest military and economic power. Will China ultimately succeed? encounterbooks.com/books/the-fragility-of-china/

Dennis Unkovic, Meyer Unkovic and Scott, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss why the trade war with China won't be ending anytime soon.

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