This essay takes us back to the foundational ideas of the Greeks and Romans—to the ancient principles of arete and virtus—that once served as a guiding light for our nation's founders.

To understand the modern crisis of the American "body politic," we must first grasp the classical meaning of wisdom, justice, temperance, and duty that shaped our republic.

A retired scholar returns to the Great Books to probe how a nation frayed by cynicism, self-interest, and political violence might reclaim civic virtue—and whether we can still “disagree better” enough to keep the republic.