Russell Kirk (1918-1994), historian of ideas, critic, essayist, editor and novelist, was the author of thirty-two books. Among them are The Conservative Mind , The Roots of American Order , America's British Culture , The Politic of Prudence , Eliot and His Age , Enemies of the Permanent Things , Edmund Burke , Redeeming the Time , John Randolph of Roanoke , and six works of fiction. His memoirs, The Sword of Imagination , were published posthumously. He received twelve honorary doctorates from American universities and many awards, including the Presidential Citizens Medal. The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, founded in 1995 and based in Mecosta, Michigan, continues his work to defend "the permanent things" today. Wilfred M. McClay is the G. T.

and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma. His book Land of Hope , a one-volume history of America, has drawn widespread acclaim; the Wall Street Journal 's Daniel Henninger calls it "the most balanced, nuanced history of the United States I have read in the past fifty years." McClay is also the author of The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America , which the Organization of American Historians honored as that year's best book in American intellectual history.