Against the Barbarians, and Other Reflections on Familiar Themes

Book excerpt: This book may be hazardous to the ideologies of the 'politically correct' writes Walter Sullivan of M.E. Bradford's new book. Those who are not familiar with Bradford's work should welcome these essays on subjects as varied as the ongoing battle over the literary canon or popular stereotypes of the framers of the Constitution. A grave disease now infects the standard approaches to most of the subjects confronted here, writes Bradford. An attitude including scientism, positivism, meliorism, and irreligion - is now established among us as an orhtodoxy. Here Bradford challenges the new orthodoxy, attacking what he sees as oversimplification by its modernist proponents.