As you might expect, I found Gallagher’s review insightful on a number of fronts:
A true traditionalism would not be represented by people who move to Dallas, buy a nice bungalow and invite friends over for tasty organic cooked food. It would be led by people who advocate returning to the place you were born, where your kith and kin also live, because that is really where you belong, the thing in which your very self is rooted.
I have said much the same myself here. Gallagher zeros in on what is the central problem of the deracinated American: how can one avoid becoming a consumer of tradition? It is a problem that requires a solution, or many solutions, not just throwing up one’s hands in despair. There are real traditions left in this country to be picked up and dusted off after much neglect; it is possible to begin new traditions.
