Most Americans would probably be surprised to hear that, in 1959, James Burnham, a leading political thinker questioned whether Congress would survive, and whether the Executive Branch of the American government would become a dictatorship. In the last decade, members of Congress have impeached a president, rejected or refused to consider presidential nominees, and appear in the media criticizing the chief executive. Congress does not exactly appear to be at risk of expiring. Regardless of how we perceive Congress today, more than forty years after Congress and the American Tradition was written, Burnham's questions, arguments, and political analysis still have much to tell us about freedom and political order. Burnham originally intended Congress and the American Tradition as a response to liberal critics of Senator McCarthy's investigations of communist influence in the United States. He developed it into a detailed analysis of the history and functioning of Congress, its changing relationship with the Executive Branch, and the danger of despotism, even in a democratic society. The book is organized into three distinct parts. "The American System of Government," analyzes the concept of government, ideology and tradition, power, and the place and function of Congress within the American government. "The Present Position of Congress," explores its law-making power, Congressional commissions, treaties, investigatory power, and proposals for Congressional reform. "The Future of Congress," discusses democracy and liberty, and ultimately asks, "Can Congress Survive?" Michael Henry's new introduction sheds much insight into Burnham's writings and worldview, combining biography and penetrating scholarly analysis. He makes it clear why this work is of continuing importance to political theoreticians, historians, philosophers, and those interested in American government. James Burnham (1905-1987) began his career as a professor of philosophy at New York University. He co-founded, with William F. Buckley, Jr., The National Review. His books include The Managerial Revolution, The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, and Suicide of the West. Michael Henry received his advanced degree in political theory. He has been teaching philosophy at St. John's University in New York since 1977.

Most Americans would probably be surprised to hear that, in 1959, James Burnham, a leading political thinker questioned whether Congress would survive, and whether the Executive Branch of the American government would become a dictatorship. In the last decade, members of Congress have impeached a president, rejected or refused to consider presidential nominees, and appear in the media criticizing the chief executive. Congress does not exactly appear to be at risk of expiring. Regardless of how we perceive Congress today, more than forty years after "Congress and the American Tradition" was written, Burnham's questions, arguments, and political analysis still have much to tell us about freedom and political order.
Burnham originally intended "Congress and the American Tradition" as a response to liberal critics of Senator McCarthy's investigations of communist influence in the United States. He developed it into a detailed analysis of the history and functioning of Congress, its changing relationship with the Executive Branch, and the danger of despotism, even in a democratic society.
The book is organized into three distinct parts. "The American System of Government," analyzes the concept of government, ideology and tradition, power, and the place and function of Congress within the American government. "The Present Position of Congress," explores its law-making power, Congressional commissions, treaties, investigatory power, and proposals for Congressional reform. "The Future of Congress," discusses democracy and liberty, and ultimately asks, "Can Congress Survive?" Michael Henry's new introduction sheds much insight into Burnham's writings and worldview, combining biography and penetrating scholarly analysis. He makes it clear why this work is of continuing importance to political theoreticians, historians, philosophers, and those interested in American government.
James Burnham (1905-1987) began his career as a professor of philosophy at New York University. He co-founded, with William F. Buckley, Jr., "The National Review." His books include "The Managerial Revolution, The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom," and "Suicide of the West."
Michael Henry received his advanced degree in political theory. He has been teaching philosophy at St. John's University in New York since 1977.

Tales from Booger Branch is a book for anyone who loves being in the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and camping. It is an enjoyable, hilarious accumulation of life experiences that will make you laugh and long for a simpler time that once was the norm. Those not accustomed to life in the wilderness will certainly appreciate the fact that author James Burnham and friends are still alive and well. One can only wonder how so many things can go wrong on so many excursions for Burnham due to weather, carelessness, the absence of knowledge, or just pure bad luck, yet he still experiences the times of his life. The reader of this book will find that for Burnham, fun comes in the form of sadness, physical pain, feeling miserable, friendships, and the occasional reward in the form of an elk, frog legs, a catfish, a fox, etc. Anyone reading this book can surely appreciate and identify with sharing unique experiences with friends and family - maybe not quite as many or as exciting as James Burnham, but then again you're not from Booger Branch.

"The Puzzle Palace - An Inside View of Decline in Our Schools" is a revealing look at the decline of public education in Louisiana. Student test scores have steadily declined over the years corresponding with an increasing number of high school dropouts in many areas in Louisiana. This has resulted in the closing of public schools that have not met established academic standards. There has been a corresponding increase in home schooling along with an increase in attendance at private schools, private Christian schools, and Charter schools. The responsibility for this trend has been targeted at the local schools and more specifically, the classroom teacher. This book shows that the factors contributing to the above trends are much more complex than previously thought and have progressed over a period of time. It also shows that policy makers and/or lawmakers make educationally unsound decisions and then require the local schools to implement them; hence "The Puzzle Palace," There is an underlying negative spiritual element that cannot be denied that is also part of the overall problem picture. The stories in this book have been based on actual events but job descriptions and most details have been changed. The opinions expressed are the author's and are based on thirty one years of experience in the school system. In the end, Burnham places the ultimate blame not completely upon 'The Puzzle Palace' itself, but upon mankind's eternal enemy who has absolute disregard for the sacred creation of man, himself. For Burnham, if those who have been granted ultimate responsibility for the education system would understand one of his modes of operation, "to destroy a people or a nation" by way of, "the parallel decline of the schools," perhaps 'The Puzzle Palace' would find more appropriate ways of policy implementation thus reversing educational decline rather than promoting its proliferation. Hope exists, if the Palace would listen to the masses.

This is a new release of the original 1959 edition.

This is a new release of the original 1959 edition.

2011 Reprint of 1959 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The central place of Congress in the American political tradition, the decline of its power and prestige during the 20th century, and the possibilities of restoring its influence constitute the themes of this classic work on American politics. Burnham believes that if congress would cease to be an actively functioning political institution, then political liberty in the United States would come to an end. Burnham is best know as the author of "The Managerial Revolution."

This anthology is a small sampling of the work of those socialists who tried to think through what was happening in the "post-capitalist: societies; beginning with Stalin's Russia and the fascist states. The analysis was extended to include the new states that arose in the post WWII era, particularly Mao's China and Tito's Yugoslavia. Perhaps of more contemporary importance is the attempt to understand what was happening to modern capitalism. Of particular interest is the discussion of the "Permanent Arms Economy" and its effect on capitalism.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

...a challenging and scholarly contribution to the growing literature on Congress....Burnham presents an historically demonstrable thesis that the long-run trends are working against the legislative and on the side of the chief executive. --The Journal of Politics

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS BY JAMES BUNHAM AND PHILIP WHEELWRIGHT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON SQUARE COLLEGE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1932, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS PART ONE METHOD CHAPTER I THE TASK OF PHILOSOPHY 3 1. Is Philosophy Possible 2. The Philosophic Attitude. 3. Philosophic Technique. 4. Philosophical Criticism. y CHAPTER II MEANING 26 1. The Meaning Situation. 2. The Thinking Process. 3. Further Remarks about Meaning. 4. The Mental Aspect of Meaning What is an Idea 5. The Objectification of Meaning. CHAPTER III LOGICAL MEANING 68 1 . The Two Uses of Language. 2. Terms. 3. Definition. 4. Ambiguity. 5. Propositions. CHAPTER IV LOGICAL STRUCTURE 102 1. Relations. 2. Relations between Propositions. 3. A Few Devices. 4. Toward Complications. iv CONTENTS 5. The Dilemma. 6. The Counter-dilemma. 7. Rebuttal and Reductio ad Absurdum. CHAPTER V FACTUAL REASONING . 129 2. Generalization. 3. Causal Analysis. 4. Physical Determinism. 5. Functional Correlation. 6. Statistical Generalization. 7. The Later Stages of Scientific Reasoning. CHAPTER VI DIALECTICAL METHOD 168 1. Realms of Discourse. 2. Dialectical Method. 3. Metaphysics.. xX 4. Fallacies of Metaphysical Reasoning. PART TWO PROBLEMS CHAPTER VII THE WORLD OF PHYSICS 201 1. The Common-Sense World. 2. Classical Physics. 3. Contemporary Physics. 4. The Problem of Reality. CHAPTER VIII THE WORLD OF LIVING THINGS 254 1. Biology and the Physical Sciences. 2. Is Biology a Science 3. Evolution, CONTENTS v CHAPTER IX THE SELF 300 1. Historical Preliminary. 2. The Cartesian Dualism. 3. Man a Machine. 4. Subjectivism. 5.Toward Sanity, CHAPTER X MORAL VALUES 348 1 . The Moral Realm of Discourse. 2. Moral Values and Cognate Realms of Fact. 3. Postulates of the Moral Realm. 4. Problems of the Moral Realm. CHAPTER XI RELIGION 385 1. What a Philosophy of Religion Can Do. 2. Religious and Scientific World-Views. 3. Current Attempts at Compromise. 4. The Nature of Beliefw-5. The Attributes of Divinity. CHAPTER XII THE ESTHETIC EXPERIENCE 417 1 . Reductions of the Esthetic Experience. 2. The Autonomy of the Esthetic Experience. 3. The Importance of the Esthetic Experience. CHAPTER XIII THE PHILOSOPHIC ATTITUDE 446 INDEX 459 PART ONE METHOD CHAPTER I THE TASK OF PHILOSOPHY I throw my dog a piece of meat he tenses certain muscles, relaxes others, flexes his hind legs, throws his head back, suddenly opens and shuts his jaws just in time to catch the meat cleanly, takes a quick bite or two, swallows, and looks very much satisfied. I sit in an Italian church, and watch a young girl praying before the high altar, her head bowed, her hands clasped. I listen to a friend of mine telling with regret how his young son, in spite of punishments, every day leaves school at recess to take a walk in the neighboring country. I stand in an Athens twilight beside a peasant from a mountain district who has for the past half hour silently been watching the Parthenon blacken in the sunset. My eyes follow casually drops of water melting from an icicle attached to the eaves of a high roof. The icicle breaks off, and with it smaller pieces of ice and snow. They fall with increasing speed, at first together then the heavier pieces of ice outdistance the rest, and are shattered against the ground some moments before the smallerparticles of snow finish their drop. In a half directed chain of reflections I begin to consider this lag in the time at which the snow reached the ground. The ice is heavier, but I know that this is no part of the explanation and I remember my surprise when I first learned that there was nothing in the nature of heavy bodies that made them drop faster than light bodies...

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS BY JAMES BUNHAM AND PHILIP WHEELWRIGHT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON SQUARE COLLEGE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1932, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS PART ONE METHOD CHAPTER I THE TASK OF PHILOSOPHY 3 1. Is Philosophy Possible 2. The Philosophic Attitude. 3. Philosophic Technique. 4. Philosophical Criticism. y CHAPTER II MEANING 26 1. The Meaning Situation. 2. The Thinking Process. 3. Further Remarks about Meaning. 4. The Mental Aspect of Meaning What is an Idea 5. The Objectification of Meaning. CHAPTER III LOGICAL MEANING 68 1 . The Two Uses of Language. 2. Terms. 3. Definition. 4. Ambiguity. 5. Propositions. CHAPTER IV LOGICAL STRUCTURE 102 1. Relations. 2. Relations between Propositions. 3. A Few Devices. 4. Toward Complications. iv CONTENTS 5. The Dilemma. 6. The Counter-dilemma. 7. Rebuttal and Reductio ad Absurdum. CHAPTER V FACTUAL REASONING . 129 2. Generalization. 3. Causal Analysis. 4. Physical Determinism. 5. Functional Correlation. 6. Statistical Generalization. 7. The Later Stages of Scientific Reasoning. CHAPTER VI DIALECTICAL METHOD 168 1. Realms of Discourse. 2. Dialectical Method. 3. Metaphysics.. xX 4. Fallacies of Metaphysical Reasoning. PART TWO PROBLEMS CHAPTER VII THE WORLD OF PHYSICS 201 1. The Common-Sense World. 2. Classical Physics. 3. Contemporary Physics. 4. The Problem of Reality. CHAPTER VIII THE WORLD OF LIVING THINGS 254 1. Biology and the Physical Sciences. 2. Is Biology a Science 3. Evolution, CONTENTS v CHAPTER IX THE SELF 300 1. Historical Preliminary. 2. The Cartesian Dualism. 3. Man a Machine. 4. Subjectivism. 5.Toward Sanity, CHAPTER X MORAL VALUES 348 1 . The Moral Realm of Discourse. 2. Moral Values and Cognate Realms of Fact. 3. Postulates of the Moral Realm. 4. Problems of the Moral Realm. CHAPTER XI RELIGION 385 1. What a Philosophy of Religion Can Do. 2. Religious and Scientific World-Views. 3. Current Attempts at Compromise. 4. The Nature of Beliefw-5. The Attributes of Divinity. CHAPTER XII THE ESTHETIC EXPERIENCE 417 1 . Reductions of the Esthetic Experience. 2. The Autonomy of the Esthetic Experience. 3. The Importance of the Esthetic Experience. CHAPTER XIII THE PHILOSOPHIC ATTITUDE 446 INDEX 459 PART ONE METHOD CHAPTER I THE TASK OF PHILOSOPHY I throw my dog a piece of meat he tenses certain muscles, relaxes others, flexes his hind legs, throws his head back, suddenly opens and shuts his jaws just in time to catch the meat cleanly, takes a quick bite or two, swallows, and looks very much satisfied. I sit in an Italian church, and watch a young girl praying before the high altar, her head bowed, her hands clasped. I listen to a friend of mine telling with regret how his young son, in spite of punishments, every day leaves school at recess to take a walk in the neighboring country. I stand in an Athens twilight beside a peasant from a mountain district who has for the past half hour silently been watching the Parthenon blacken in the sunset. My eyes follow casually drops of water melting from an icicle attached to the eaves of a high roof. The icicle breaks off, and with it smaller pieces of ice and snow. They fall with increasing speed, at first together then the heavier pieces of ice outdistance the rest, and are shattered against the ground some moments before the smallerparticles of snow finish their drop. In a half directed chain of reflections I begin to consider this lag in the time at which the snow reached the ground. The ice is heavier, but I know that this is no part of the explanation and I remember my surprise when I first learned that there was nothing in the nature of heavy bodies that made them drop faster than light bodies...

...a challenging and scholarly contribution to the growing literature on Congress....Burnham presents an historically demonstrable thesis that the long-run trends are working against the legislative and on the side of the chief executive. --The Journal of Politics

James Burnham's 1964 classic, Suicide of the West, remains a startling account on the nature of the modern era. It offers a profound, in depth analysis of what is happening in the world today by putting into focus the intangible, often vague doctrine of American liberalism. It parallels the loosely defined liberal ideology rampant in American government and institutions, with the flow, ebb, growth, climax and the eventual decline and death of both ancient and modern civilizations. Its author maintains that western suicidal tendencies lie not so much in the lack of resources or military power, but through an erosion of intellectual, moral, and spiritual factors abundant in modern western society and the mainstay of liberal psychology. Devastating in its relentless dissection of the liberal syndrome, this book will lead many liberals to painful self-examination, buttress the thinking conservative's viewpoint, and incite others, no doubt, to infuriation. None can ignore it.