A Political Companion to Walker Percy

"Walker Percy is an important writer who is not easily pigeonholed, and he offers an interesting and unique perspective on being human and living in America in his fiction and essays." -- Steven D. Ealy, Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund, Inc. "Peter Lawler and Brian Smith have assembled a first-rate collection of essays that wonderfully illumine Walker Percy's art as well as the political and philosophical thought that informs it. In these pages, one confronts an intrepid critic of the illusions of modernity, from the abstractions of the Cartesian mind to the rampant scientism that today threatens the integrity of the soul. But one also witnesses on every page Percy's humanity, his confidence in the ability of language to give us access to truth, and his refusal to succumb to anything resembling nihilism and despair. The volume is particularly impressive in drawing out the multiple ways that Percy's thought can help save American liberty from self-destruction." -- Daniel J. Mahoney, Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship, Assumption College "A splendid set of essays inspired by the audacious thought that American public discourse can be enriched by reflection on the novels of Walker Percy, chronicler of the hopes and fears, the disorders and longings of one of the strangest creatures ever to find itself lost in the cosmos, the ordinary American citizen. If the essays do not quite make the case that Percy contains the key to reforming the political order, they succeed in demonstrating that Percy is an indispensable aid in showing us how to endure political disorder with wisdom and wit."" -- Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University

Peter Augustine Lawler is Dana Professor of Government at Berry College. He is the author of numerous books, including Modern and American Dignity: Who We Are as Persons, and What That Means for Our Future. Brian A. Smith is assistant professor of political science at Montclair State University.