Statecraft As Soulcraft

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Insights into What Makes Nations Great
Review:

Although George Will can be an extremist in some of his views, he has a good mind and is gifted as an author and orator. This is nowhere more evident than in this collection of 20th century essays, where he focuses on "statecraft as soulcraft." Thomas Jefferson understood that an educated citizenry was a Nation's best defense, and the Vietnamese have clearly demonstrated that a nation with a strong strategic culture can defeat the United States when it practices the American way of war (lots of technology, little public support for the war). Today we are beginning to understand that the moral aspects of national character are 3-5 times more important than the physical and economic and technical aspects. Michele Borba's new book, Building Moral Intelligence, together with George Will's dated but still powerfully relevant book, comprise the urgently needed elementary education for all adults who would be responsibile citizens--or leaders of citizens.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Insights into What Makes Nations Great
Review:

Although George Will can be an extremist in some of his views, he has a good mind and is gifted as an author and orator. This is nowhere more evident than in this collection of 20th century essays, where he focuses on "statecraft as soulcraft." Thomas Jefferson understood that an educated citizenry was a Nation's best defense, and the Vietnamese have clearly demonstrated that a nation with a strong strategic culture can defeat the United States when it practices the American way of war (lots of technology, little public support for the war). Today we are beginning to understand that the moral aspects of national character are 3-5 times more important than the physical and economic and technical aspects. Michele Borba's new book, Building Moral Intelligence, together with George Will's dated but still powerfully relevant book, comprise the urgently needed elementary education for all adults who would be responsibile citizens--or leaders of citizens.

Rating:
Summary: Will provides an intellectual history of modern conservatism
Review: In this volume, George Will examines the historical roots of conservatism as a way of governing. Drawing on examples from the direct ancestors of American Founding Fathers (the English), Will provides a compelling case for policies that are conservative in intent, as well as in effect. He also shows what strategy should be properly regarded as conservative.

Rating:
Summary: A Neoconservative's View of The State
Review: Will, a neoconservative often mistaken for a conservative of the old mold, presents his case for the Leviathan state. To Will, if government is good, then more government is better. He sees the state as the rightful architect of society, trusting politicians and bureaucrats to steer the proles along the path to greatness, meaning Empire. I regard neoconservatives as Judas goats; Will is a prime example. This is the man who, a few years ago, said that it is time America repealed "the embarrassing Second Amendment."

Rating:
Summary: A Neoconservative's View of The State
Review: Will, a neoconservative often mistaken for a conservative of the old mold, presents his case for the Leviathan state. To Will, if government is good, then more government is better. He sees the state as the rightful architect of society, trusting politicians and bureaucrats to steer the proles along the path to greatness, meaning Empire. I regard neoconservatives as Judas goats; Will is a prime example. This is the man who, a few years ago, said that it is time America repealed "the embarrassing Second Amendment."

Rating:
Summary: Moral Clarity for the Modern Conservative.
Review: You listened to the President emphasize at the RNC that Government should be a tool, a facilitator to help people better themselves. He didn't mention eliminating goverment. George Will wrote this book about 10 years ago, yet his message can be so pertinent to the modern conservative. There was a lot of discussion recently about how in 2008, different types of so-defined conservatives will be competing for the Republican mantle to carry in the upcoming decades. It raises the question: since the role of the conservative today is no longer to be anti-communist (since the end of the Cold War), nor to eliminate government, nor to even battle deficits, what is the conservative's ideology today? George Will already had the answers with his great foresight. The book really helps a self-defined conservative re-think why we identify with a conservative and what conservatism really is. He articulates concepts that can be difficult to otherwise sort through. Mr. Will in this book makes numerous references to philosophers/writers whom he apparently has been well-guided by such as Edmund Burke, Disraeli, Aristotle, etc.

George Will in this book challenges the notion that conservatism should be defined strictly around an economic principle (capitalism). He gives conservatism greater purpose than just facilitating economic fulfillment through limited government intervention in the market. He resoundingly sends his message in this book that the conservative's mindset shouldn't be to detest government but to improve it and structure it so it is better able to empower and encourage citizenry to uphold its moral responsibilities as well as its economic ones.

I would recommend this book to be included in curricula for graduate-level public-administration programs. In courses that put an emphasis on Hobbes, Machiavelli, Locke and Jeffersonian themes, this book would be an useful refutal to compliment such readings.