Democracy: How Direct?
Views from the Founding Era and the Polling Era
Edited by Elliot Abrams
Posted: Tuesday, October 1, 2002
For more than two hundred years Americans have been debating how direct a democracy they want. Advocates of a powerful role for direct voting -- in which public opinion dictates public policy -- fear elitism and the usurpation of democratic rule by politicians, bureaucrats, and the rich. Advocates of representative voting fear that emotion and factional interest will undermine stability and justice. Through representation, they believe, cool-headed deliberation within institutions will prevail over popular passion.  [Read More]

The Courage to Be Catholic
Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church
By George Weigel
Posted: Thursday, August 1, 2002
The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church was published in September 2002 by Basic Books and went into its eighth printing in January 2003.   [Read More]

The Truth of Catholicism
Ten Controversies Explored
By George Weigel
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
The Truth of Catholicism: Ten Controversies Explored is an explanation of the Catholic view of the world and the human condition for interested adults and college students.   [Read More]

The Influence of Faith
Religious Groups & U.S. Foreign Policy
Edited by Elliot Abrams
Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2001
Realists have long argued that the international system must be based on hard calculations of power and interest. But in recent years, religion’s role on the international scene has grown. The Influence of Faith examines the American reaction to the persecution of Christians and Jews overseas, as well as the role of faith-based groups such as missionary and relief organizations in the formulation and implementation of U.S. policy. The Influence of Faith considers these timely issues from diverse points of view, offering broad historical analysis as well as concrete examples taken from current affairs.  [Read More]

No Basis
What the Studies Don't Tell Us About Same Sex Parenting
By Robert Lerner, Althea Nagai
Posted: Thursday, January 25, 2001
It is routinely asserted in courts, journals and the media that it makes “no difference” whether a child has a mother and father, two fathers, or two mothers. Reference is often made to social-scientific studies that are claimed to have “demonstrated” this. An objective analysis, however, demonstrates that there is no basis for this assertion. Robert Lerner, Ph.D., and Althea Nagai, Ph.D. evaluated forty-nine empirical studies on same-sex (or homosexual) parenting.  [Read More]

Freedom of Expression in the Supreme Court
The Defining Cases
Edited by Terry Eastland
Posted: Wednesday, August 16, 2000
In Freedom of Expression in the Supreme Court: The Defining Cases, renowned constitutional scholar Terry Eastland has collected the U.S. Supreme Court’s most important First Amendment decisions from 1919 to the present. Complete with a comprehensive introduction, excerpts of public opinion from contemporary sources, and historical background for each case, this book is an incredible resource for Americans interested in the evolution of the Court’s understanding of the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and petition.  [Read More]

Witness to Hope
The Biography of Pope John Paul II
By George Weigel
Posted: Friday, October 1, 1999
Witness To Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel is as comprehensive a biography of its subject as can be hoped for while the Pope still lives. Weigel, a journalist who came to the Pope's attention after the publication of his book, The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism, wrote Witness To Hope with his subject's encouragement and assistance. Weigel had unprecedented access to the Pope's correspondence (with, among others, world leaders including Mikhail Gorbachev). He reports lengthy conversations with many members of the Pope's inner circle, and he occasionally reveals vivid details of the Pope's daily life (for example, at the beginning of each day, the Pope's adviser's hear moans and groaning from John Paul's solitary prayers in his private chapel).  [Read More]

The Desecularization of the World
Resurgent Religion and World Politics
Edited by George Weigel, Peter Berger
Posted: Friday, July 16, 1999
For two centuries theorists of "secularization" have been saying that religion must inevitably decline in the modern world. But much of the world today is as religious as ever. This volume challenges the belief that the modern world is increasingly secular; showing that while modernization does have secularizing effects, it also provokes a reaction that more often strengthens religion. Seven expert social observers examine several geopolitical regions and several religions--Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam--and explore the resurgence of religion in world affairs.  [Read More]

Secularism, Spirituality, and the Future of American Jewry
Edited by Elliot Abrams, David G. Dalin
Posted: Monday, February 1, 1999
Is the future of Judaism in America promising or is there reason for great pessimism? Dozens of scholars participated in an Ethics and Public Policy Center conference on September 6, 1997 to explore this question and we have distilled this fascinating discussion. Essays by Charles S. Liebman, Jonathan Woocher, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Clifford Librach, Dennis Prager, Robert M. Seltzer, David Singer, Neil Gillman, Jack Wertheimer, Barry Shrage, Adam Mintz, and Peter S. Knobel.  [Read More]

Is Drug Addiction a Brain Disease?
By Sally Satel, Frederick K. Goodwin
Posted: Thursday, October 1, 1998
Two psychiatrists oppose the current campaign to declare drug addiction a chronic, "no-fault" disease and argue that addiction is a modifiable behavioral phenomenon: between periods of heavy use, the drug or alcohol addict has a chance to change. They recommend the use of "enlightened coercion," such as compulsory residential treatment for criminal addicts and the use of public entitlements—e.g., welfare benefits—to modify behavior.  [Read More]