Great statesmen and gentlemen, men of honor and rank, seem to be phenomena of a bygone Aristocratic era. Aristocracies, which emphasize rank, and value difference, quality, beauty, rootedness, continuity, stand in direct contrast to democracies, which value equality, autonomy, novelty, standardization, quantity, utility and mobility. Is there any place for aristocratic values and virtues in the modern democratic social and political order? This volume consists of essays by political theori...

ABRAHAM LINCOLN LOOKS DOWN ON US in magisterial dominion from his throne in Washington's biggest monument—the American demigod. There is some justice in the symbol, because it was Lincoln who, with rivers of blood, destroyed the old Constitutional Union and founded the American nation that we know. As M.E. Bradford writes: "The truth about the life and death of Lincoln seems to matter very little when it is confronted by the myth." Even though, he adds, there is "God's plenty of evidence" ...