Douglas Wilson Books

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The period just before I came to awareness of the politcal world--and I came to some such awareness by 1936, when I was eight--has always fascinated me. I remember when I read Frederick Lewis Allen's classic, Only Yesterday (on May 21, 1946), how enthralled I was by the account of the years just before my ken. Much of the same fascination fuels my appreciation for this book, which considers the forces in the Democratic Party in the Twenties and early Thirties and the struggles between them. The author's thesis is that the Democratic Party was at least in the Conventions of the 1920's controlled by the conservative wing, and we know that some of those conservatives left the party in the New Deal days. I found the book full of interesting things, such as a clear explanation of why after the 103 ballots in 1924 the Houston convention in 1928 naminated Al Smith on the first ballot--a result which might mystify but which this book explains convincingly. Anyone who enjoys political history will be caught up by this carefully researched book--I was.

This is an excellent book that shares the Biblical problems with the PK movement, which should lead readers to ask questions about the inner workings of PK. Where there's smoke, there is fire.

Douglas Wilson writes as a well informed Christian rather than as an academic. As a result, his book is very readable. Three lessons may be learned from this excellent book:
That both the North and the South acted under grave misconceptions about the problem of slavery, and that both mistakenly looked for a political rather than a Christian solution;
That the major sins of the North were their assignment of slaves to an inferior species and their readiness to judge their brothers in the South; And,
That the sins of the South were connected with what they did and did not do for their slaves, rather than the institution of slavery itself.
Wilson's gripping book shows how these catastrophic errors were magnified into regional hatreds,resulting in the political solution that led to the slaughter of so many American men and boys. He makes the reader suspicious of quick political solutions of these kinds of problems, such as our current Mexican immigration issue and hopeful that this will not turn into a similar catastrophe.

These days, celebrity authors earn thousands of dollars for a speech, but back in the 1880s, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first American author known to receive payment for delivering a talk, was paid $5 and oats for his horse.

Now more than ever the words of Emerson--in fact, the very notion of Emerson--are of value & relevance. The range, intensity, deliberate inconsistencies, of what he asserts, often through analogy, metaphor and inference, matter, and can engage you or me, now, in the midst of corporate dysfunction, media manipulation and religious in(s)anity. Read Emerson. This gathers his thinking on society and solitute (of which we manage precious little).

Doug Wilson quotes some of the sanest and wisest men of previous centuries to help remind or awaken us to how foolish our own is. God fearing men will read this and obey God. The others will join in the insanity. What about you?

Even the most conservative authors who critique the public school system leave off with "reform" of the current system. In this book, Wilson shows that the societal ills which are so prevalent in the school system are merely the symptoms of a disease. The system does not need reform; the system needs abolition. Very thoughtful, and the answers to common objections toward the end are extremely good.

I had this book in a logic class when I was in school. I must say I'm really sorry to see it go out of print, because it's a good, concise introduction to deductive logic.

This book will introduce you to the basics of syllogisms (including how to analyze them, check for validity, and construct them) and formal and informal fallacies. It doesn't discuss symbolic logic much, but that isn't used as much in ordinary reasoning. This book covers all the basics for good deductive reasoning; you will learn both how to analyze arguments (how to identify bad arguments and tell exactly what's wrong with them) and construct good arguments of your own.

Logic is an absolutely critical skill for the Christian. It will help you in so many areas of your life, from critical thinking tasks to job tasks to Bible study to apologetics and just about everything else. Logic is one of the most useful skills I ever learned. I'm inclined to think it ought to be mandatory to graduate high school. If you home school, formal logic and reasoning absolutely ought to be part of your curriculum. I can't emphasize enough how critical it is for Christians to be able to reason well.

In any case, I highly recommend this book if you can find it. If you can't, get another logic book because this is such an important topic.

I'll admit, I'm a little biased toward the work of Douglas Wilson. I think he's done as much to forward the study of Lincoln's early life than almost anyone so I enjoy and appreciate all his projects. This book, obivously, grew from his study of William Herndon's informants. Wilson offers thoughtfull essays on a wide variety of subjects pertaining to the pre-presidential Lincoln. Some is completely new, some expands on some well-known material. In the end though, Wilson, presents his material in a very readable way that had me, anyway, looking at Lincoln from another perspective. That, to me, is what historical research should accomplish.

Douglas Botting has done a bang-up job here of covering one of the most wayward literary geniuses of our times. After completing this not quite 600 page magisterial opus you will have learnt everything you have ever wanted to know (and much you did not. Maxwell was not always a pleasant sort) about this rum, brilliant fellow named Gavin Maxwell, the winsome, lyrical writer of Ring of Bright Water and many other books you probably haven't heard of, but will want to read now. Really, as a point of departure, in summing up Maxwell's character, I can't do better than the quote from Dr. James McDougall cited early on here:

"Dr James MacDougall, an SOE medic who kept an eye on the psychiatric health of the instructors and trainee agents, believed that Gavin shared with Winston Churchill, the poet Robert Burns and many great artists a personality profile for which he employed the term `creative psychopath'......Overall, a creative psychopath's emotional make-up is more like that of a child than that of a mature adult; he is unable to sustain an emotion for any length of time, and though he is capable of deep feelings, they are fleeting and transitory. It follows that it is difficult for creative psychopaths to sustain mature relationships, and they tend not to get on well with people. It was Dr MacDougall's view that Gavin was emotionally retarded...." P.57

And yet, this evaluation was made during WWII when Maxwell was with the SOE (a sort of precursor to what we now call Special Forces) entrusted with training agents in the skills they would need before they were parachuted in behind enemy lines. Also, when one thinks over the great creative figures of history, especially writers of the past hundred years or so, it's well-nigh impossible to think of one who couldn't be diagnosed as a "creative psychopath." or as "emotionally retarded". Yet, even among these figures, Maxwell was a bit of an extreme.

Anyone who has read Ring of Bright Water will not be surprised to learn that, "It was poetry that was Gavin's first and last love, and he became excited by prose only when it came near to the domain of poetry, more especially the kind of poetry he most preferred - romantic, introspective, melancholy, nature mystical."p.148

Well, as I say, one will learn here all about Maxwell as the scion of aristocracy, his many near death adventures in obscure corners of the world, his love of nature, the ups and downs of his emotional life and the toll they took on those close to him, particularly the long-suffering Kathleen Raine, and his deep-rooted sexual ambiguity. ---And, of course, much about otters!

I can't convey all this in a review. All I can say is that it's a marvellous read and that Botting is a writer of the first water himself. ...Why am I the only one to pen a review of this exquisite book, which has been out for years, I wonder?

In the end, one is almost astonished that Gavin's life and this book DO end. One has become so used to accounts like that recorded here by Gavin's friend John Hillaby recounting a time when Gavin rang him up:

"He said he wanted to say goodbye. Why, I asked, was he going abroad? No, he said, his fortune teller had told him he was going to die in a racing crash and as he was racing his Bentley at Brooklands the next day he thought he would like to say goodbye to a few old friends. By this time I had got used to Gavin saying things totally beyond my comprehension, so I said, Oh yes, well, goodbye then."


Of course, he didn't die then. But he did eventually suffer the fate that is common to us all. Still, one can't help closing the covers and, half-smilingly, mutter something like: "Oh yes, well, goodbye then."

A wonderful read!