We recently reached the 250th anniversary (a quarter-millennium) of the dominant nation and culture of our time – and of one of the greatest countries in world history. Yet just a few weeks later, you’d hardly know it. And only a month ago, everyone was talking – even here – about a film adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, a 3000-year-old foundation stone of our civilization. That, too, passed quickly and is unlikely to become a classic. The Church keeps better time – witness the recent Feast of the Assumption. But we need much greater attention to what’s important, deep, steady, and (relatively) lasting even in our passing world.
Now and then, we get it, for instance, Patrick J. Deneen’s new book American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals about Our Divided Souls. Many know Deneen as the author of Why Liberalism Failed and one of the brighter lights at Notre Dame. But he has had a long interest in the Odyssey and its connections to the American experience. And he deliberately timed the book to come out at this moment.
At first sight, connecting modern America to Bronze-Age Greece may seem a stretch. But in this brief, lively, and approachable treatment,
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