Positive News
I came across a couple of items that qualify as good news.
The first item is Robert Tracinski's article The Lessons of the Cartoon Jihad is featured at the top of the Friday, March 3 edition of RealClearPolitics.com. This is an excellent article which criticises both right and left for their inadequate response to this controversy.
The second item is a hopeful sign that another important book by a prominent Objectivist may be published by a distinguished publisher. One of my daily pastimes is to check the resume of John Lewis, Assistant Professor of History at Ashland University. I check the resume because he has a section in which he notes the publication status of the books he has written. Specifically, I was very interested in seeing his Nothing Less than Victory published as it includes the details of his argument against the indequacy of the present war effort with some comparison to a number of historical wars. Over the last few months the listing on the website has mostly been "in progress", which I surmise means that no publisher is looking at it. There was a brief time a while ago when it was listed as "under press review" -- presumably that means that some unidentified publisher was reviewing the book. However, after a week or so of this status, the page was updated back to "in progress." Now however the listing has not only returned to "under press review" but has in fact been updated as follows: "under review, Princeton University Press." This is certainly a very positive and hopeful sign. I certainly hope Prof. Lewis gets the publishing contract. That the book may be published by Princeton University Press will likely ensure that it gets the exposure, publicity and reviews that it deserves.
3 comments:
If you haven't, I'd strongly encourage you to pick up John Lewis' Defensor Patriae lectures from the Ayn Rand Bookstore. In each lecture, he examines a case where a strong offense was employed or avoided, and examines the results. I believe these represent four chapters of his upcoming book.
My favorites by far were the strategies of Cipione Africanus and General Sherman. Both employed a strong offense aimed at breaking the enemies' will, and both triumphed with insanely limited resources.
I'm eager for John Lewis' new book myself, and I'm a bit surprised to see him at a teachers' college. I can only hope he's helping turn out teachers who lecture half as well as he does. I hadn't developed a significant interest in history prior to hearing him speak.
I would love hear Lewis's Defensor Patriae. Unfortunately the $80 price tag makes it somewhat difficult to afford at the moment. I did attend his talk in Irvine on The Failure of Homeland Defense and was impressed. That's why I'm waiting for the book.
I didn't know Ashland University was a "teacher's college". What makes you say that?
I thought I'd seen mention of the teachers' college on John Lewis' ClassicalIdeals website. If that's incorrect - and it seems to be, as I can't find mention at current - then I'm relying on a faulty memory.
The Failure of Homeland Defense looks promising from the description, but potentially overlaps much of Defensor Patriae. Still, at the lesser price it could be worth a risk. Thanks for the pointer!
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