_Donoso Cortes: Cassandra of the Age_ is an excellent biography of the nineteenth century Spanish political and theological thinker Donoso Cortes. Donoso Cortes is famous for his reactionary beliefs concerning the French Revolution and the subsequent ideologies inspired by it and as a political prophet of the coming crises of his age. From his beginnings as a moderate liberal intellectual and journalist in early nineteenth century Spain, Donoso turned to the traditions of the Catholic Church and came to regard his age as afflicted with a loss of center due to the denial of tradition and the established order. Like other Catholic traditionalist counter-revolutionaries such as Joseph de Maistre and Bonald of his time, Donoso believed his age was headed for disaster in its denial of God and his rightful place among men as well as that revealed tradition of God in society so that it could only be saved through outright divine intervention. Unlike the liberals of his time, Donoso understood man to be rooted in sin and capable of radical evil due to his fall from grace. For Donoso, humanity would be entirely irredeemable were it not for the constraints imposed upon him from revealed tradition and the saving grace of Christ. In fact, Donoso's prophecies concerning his age were so dark and pessimistic that many have failed to see any hope for mankind at all in them short of a direct divine intervention. Donoso served as both a journalist and friend to the Queen Maria Cristina of Spain as well as a diplomat to both Berlin and Prussia and later to France. He had various relationships with certain central political figures of his time including the emperor Napoleon III as well as the pope. Donoso predicted the coming bloodshed in Europe, the nationalist and socialist revolutions in the next century, as well as making predictions for an innate saving power residing in the people and traditions of Russia and its civilization. It is the importance of these darkened predictions to the modern age that have made Donoso a figure who was revived in more recent times by various conservative political writers, among them the jurist and Third Reich intellectual Carl Schmitt. Donoso's early writings were written from the perspective of a moderate liberal and emphasized the role of intellect in political affairs. Later Donoso would take a sharper turn towards reaction rejecting the ideals of the revolution, and in his most famous work _Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism_ would outline the major differences between these political ideologies. For Donoso, liberalism represented a sliding point between the traditional order which consisted of the Catholic Church and the monarchy and the extremes of socialism and nihlism. Donoso respected socialism for having its own "demonic theology" and admired (though he sharply criticized) the famous anarchist philosopher Joseph Proudhon. Donoso observed the move away from God through pantheism (represented by democracy which deified the masses) towards His outright denial in atheism and nihlism. Donoso remarked frequently about the dangers of excessive discussion and parliamentarianism and the loss of the role of authority. The author, R. A. Herrara, contends that Donoso served as a Cassandra for his age, a prophet whose dark interpretations were doomed to be ignored in his time, but whose revelations demonstrated profound truths. This book provides an excellent biography of a lonely figure who stood for tradition and the authority of Catholicism in a time of crisis - a Catholic traditionalist and a dark prophet for his time.

Of the many branches of philosophy, perhaps the most interesting to specialists and laymen alike is the philosophy of history, a subject that has been recently come to the fore of the academic world as those who believe history is coming to an end are still grappling with those who feel history is far from over.

Unfortunately, most books on the subject would frighten away even the most fervent scholar. Rare is the academic these days who can write for the educated public.

Yet, there are good introductions to the topic and this is one of them. A strong point in Herrera's favor is that this book pretends to be no more than an introduction, and, combined with its brevity, makes for excellent reading.

Herrera mixes chapters on the giants of the subject, such as Augustine, Hegel and Marx, with lesser known, but nevertheless influential thinkers as Joachim of Fiore and Vladimir Soloviev. At the same time the author also traces the underlying theme of the philosophy of history from that of Providence through Progress to the current anti-threads of Postmodernism.

The only fault in the book is the exclusion of twentieth century existentialist thinkers Jose Ortega y Gasset and Raymond Aron. This ends up leaving a noticeable void because the road from Progress ro Postmodernism travels through the thought of Ortega and Aron.

Aside from this, however, the book is a rewarding intoduction to a most fascinating subject and well worth the time and money.

This little book has the same problem as much of the materialcoming out of academia these days. All complexity and jargon, and noability to tell a story or relate the insights to the broader, contemporary flow of ideas at the time our subject lived. Where a simple word would suffice, Herrera uses arcane words that often leave you grabbing for a dictionary. More importantly, however, we get mostly opinions from the author, and after having slogged through 200 pages, know very little about Orestes Brownson, and his times. I learned more about Brownson's thinking from two short extracts of his writings from a primary source book on religion in America, then I did in this entire work. Instead of decent quotes from his writings, and other primary sources, we unfortunately are fed repetitive blather, and sketchy analysis about Orestes' often changed views, his contradictions (to wit the title), and the usual overly critical analysis from today's modern scholars. My copy of this rather expensive little book... is now being contributed to my local library. Otherwise, it would have ended up in the wastepaper basket. A much wiser investment would be to obtain a synopsis of Brownson's actual writings even if the cost was more than this overpraised book as contained in the other reviews.

Orestes Brownson was a writer, philosopher,and cultural critic. He was also an Catholic during a period in this country when it was not publically orthodox to be a Catholic. Never more than an intellectual gadfly to begin with, Brownson's intellectual star faded soon after his death and he entered a sort of intellectual purgatory, becoming the subject for obscure Ph.D theses and academic biographers in search of a subject no one else had tackled. Now Brownson is brought back to life in a rather charming portrait by, all of people, a fellow teaching alumni. Orestes Brownson had taught at Seton Hall University, in New Jersey, for a brief period of his life, as did his current biographer, Robert Herrera. Perhaps it's the Seton Hall connection that's responsible, but Herrera does a nice job of breathing life back into the old boy and letting us see him warts and all. Instead of conforming Brownson to his image, Herrera instread conforms to Brownson's image and what emerges is a full, rich portrait of both the man and his times, of the critic and the subject of his criticism. Another selling point for this book, besides its brevity (Why do academics feel they have to give us every nugget of their subject's life?), is its refusal to bend to the politically correct winds that currently constitue the Public Orthodoxy of our squalid intellectual times. If you love American intellectual history (and, no, that is not an oxymoron), you will love this charming little tome.

Orestes Brownson was one of the most original, and eccentric, American philosophers of the 19th century. It has been his unfortunate fate to slide into obscurity in the 20th century. Now he has been brought to vibrant life in sn excellent new study of his life and works by R.A. Herrera. The strength of this book lies in its interweaving of Brownson's life and thought, taking care not to tip the scales in favor of either. The importance of this method cannot be stressed enough because of the obscurity into which Brownson has fallen. Herrera is not out to rehabilitate Brownson; far from it. But he does provide an insightful new look at this iconoclastic thinker who was always swimming against the intellectual tides of his times. Highly recommended.