Routledge Republishes Dr. Cheek's First Book

Routledge Publishers, the world's leading academic publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences, has recently republished Political Philosophy and Cultural Renewal, edited by Dr. Lee Cheek, Professor of Political Science at East Georgia State College.  The book was co-edited with Kathy B. Cheek, a former instructor at Lee University and choreographer and teacher of dance, and M. Susan Power, Professor of Political Science at Arkansas State University.

Founded in 1836, Routledge has published many of the greatest thinkers and scholars of the last hundred years, including Adorno, Einstein, Russell, Popper, Wittgenstein, Jung, Bohm, Hayek, McLuhan, Marcuse and Sartre.

The book was originally published by Transaction Books at Rutgers University in 2001, but due to the continued scholarly interest in the tome, Routledge republished the volume in eBook and paper editions in late 2019.  According the Routledge, “We publish thousands of books and journals each year, serving scholars, instructors, and professional communities worldwide.  This book certainly deserves a wider audience.”

The book contains essays by one of America’s most prominent political scientists, Francis Graham Wilson, who was a central figure in the revival of interest in political philosophy and American political thought in the mid-twentieth century. While he is best known as a Catholic writer and political theorist, his most significant contribution is his original interpretation of the development of American politics. According to Dr. Cheek, “Central to his thought was a process of self-interpretation by the citizenry, a quest for ultimate meaning turning to a divine, transcendent, basis of history and shared experience. Although Wilson's writings were extensive and influential, they have not been readily available for decades.”

Political Philosophy and Cultural Renewal brings together a coherent and representative selection of his work, highlighting his concern for the common good and his belief in personal and societal restraint as an alternative to political partisanship and superficiality.  Dr. Cheek also noted that “Wilson's affirmation of a republican inheritance encourages contemporary students of politics to revisit the Founders' views of diffused political authority. His remarkable contribution to American political philosophy is a full-fledged theory of cultural renewal that has lost none of its relevance for contemporary political and social issues.”

Dr. H. Lee Cheek, Jr., is Professor of Political Science and the former Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at East Georgia State College.  Dr. Cheek also directs the College's Correll Scholars Program.  He received his bachelor's degree from Western Carolina University, his M.Div. from Duke University, his M.P.A. from Western Carolina University, and his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America.  As a senior minister in the United Methodist Church (Western North Carolina Conference) for thirty years, Cheek has served as a parish minister, visiting cleric, and U.S Army chaplain.

Previously, he was Dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of North Georgia (Gainesville State College), Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Athens State University in Alabama, and Vice-President for College Advancement and Professor of Political Science at Brewton-Parker College. Dr. Cheek taught at Brewton-Parker College from 1997-2000, and from 2005-2009. In 2000, 2006, and 2007, the student body of Brewton-Parker College selected Cheek as Professor of the Year; and, in 2008, the Jordon Excellence in Teaching Award was bestowed upon him by the College's faculty and administration. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Cheek served as Associate Professor of Political Science at Lee University. In 2002, Dr. Cheek was given Lee University’s Excellence in Scholarship award; and in 2004, he received Lee University's Excellence in Advising award. In 2008, Western Carolina University presented Dr. Cheek with the University's Distinguished Alumni Award for Academic and Professional Achievement.  Pi Gamma Mu, the International Honor Society in the Social Sciences, bestowed upon Dr. Cheek the society's Outstanding Alumni Award in 2017.

He has been a congressional aide and a political consultant. Dr. Cheek's other books include Calhoun and Popular Rule, published by the University of Missouri Press (2001; paper edition, 2004); Calhoun: Selected Speeches and Writings (Regnery, 2003); Order and Legitimacy (Transaction/Rutgers, 2004); an edition of Calhoun's A Disquisition on Government (St. Augustine's, 2007 and 2017); a critical edition of W. H. Mallock's The Limits of Pure Democracy (Transaction/Rutgers, 2007; Routledge, 2017); Confronting Modernity: Towards a Theology of Ministry in the Wesleyan Tradition (Wesley Studies Society, 2010); an edition of the classic study, A Theory of Public Opinion (Transaction/Rutgers, 2013; Routledge, 2017); Patrick-Henry Onslow Debate: Liberty and Republicanism in American Political Thought (Lexington, 2013); and, The Founding of the American Republic (Manchester University Press, 2020 [forthcoming]). He has also published dozens of scholarly articles in academic publications, and is a regular commentator on American politics and religion. Dr. Cheek’s current research includes completing an intellectual biography of Francis Graham Wilson (I.S.I. Books), and a book on Patrick Henry's constitutionalism and political theory. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Studies in Burke, Humanitas, The Political Science Reviewer, Anamnesis, VoegelinView, and The University Bookman, as a Senior Fellow of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, and as a Fellow of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters (elected). Cheek has been a Fellow of the Wilbur Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, the Center for Judicial Studies, and the Center for International Media Studies.

American Liberty Reconsidered

By Lee Cheek|July 3rd, 2019|As we celebrate American Independence, it is appropriate to reflect upon the foundations of our liberty that the American Founding—especially the Founders’ Declaration of Independence and Constitution—has encouraged. Neither the Declaration nor the American Constitution were accidents; both were rooted in an inherited worldview and an understanding of human nature that is of continuing importance to Americans today.

For the Founders, human nature was defined by its social character, grounded in community, and devoted to encouraging the unfolding of the moral life, so as to enlighten and develop civilization. With the insights of the classical world, Judaism, and Christianity under their proverbial belts, the Founders understood human life as essentially social. Moral and spiritual development required interaction and restraint that were most acutely experienced in one’s community and in society. In other words, the ethical life could not be sustained outside of a social framework. While not rejecting a role for self-interest within the community, the Founders recognized a tension between the need for some degree of societal unity and the needs of the individual. They suggested that the properly constituted society could assist in lessening selfishness associated with our “brute creation,” and encouraged attachment to the common good as an alternative. Authentic social life required self-denial in some form, regardless of the level of enmity among individuals and the groups that made up society, as humans were naturally drawn to each other.

The Founders also realized that humans were not perfect, so an element of restraint was necessary within society and politics. They rejected the radical individualism often associated with social contract thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. To envision humankind as naturally good was unacceptable. The Founders’ defense of an authentic, moral community was based upon acknowledging that the only natural state was the political and social one to which an actual person was born. Instead of being born free, humans were born subject to parental authority and the laws of the country of their birth.

If the country were to survive, the Founders believed a stable mode of popular rule—or citizen involvement—had to be established, and the community must be protected against efforts to incorporate its stake in society and politics into a political structure that would diminish the various communities’ and states’ most important qualities. The preserving and protecting of an organic, “republican” system of popular rule required accepting the natural diversity of the communities and states that formed the larger society and government, while enjoying the increased liberties that resulted from this dividing of political authority. Today, we call this division “federalism.”

Having a political system based on the relative autonomy of local communities and the division of political authority was a great accomplishment, but it needed an anchor. The Founders provided such a guide with the American Constitution. The Constitution is more than a written document; it is a collection of customs, charters, traditions, and habits of the American people. The aim of the Constitution was to provide for a high degree of political harmony, so that liberty might be maintained through the centuries.

We have been able to preserve social and political liberty because our Constitution provides explicit constraints upon the centralization of political power. As citizens, we are assured that the laws will not change from year to year. The Constitution allows Americans to find some comfort in the fact that if they accept certain restraints, they will experience a great deal of political liberty. Our Constitution divides political power between the national and state governments, as well as among the branches of the national government. This protects citizens, communities, and states from the arbitrary and unjust actions by individuals who have assumed temporary control of the government.

The American Constitution also makes those who govern accountable to those who elected them. On one hand, proposals to extend presidential powers are regularly presented, while on the other, congressional proposals to increase the size and scope of the federal government, like the return of a New (“Green”) Deal abound. Unfortunately, such ideas neglect the great accomplishment of American politics—the diffusion of political power and the limits upon the authority of government.

Our continued success is dependent upon a recovery of our appreciation of liberty, a return to the original division of government power as prescribed by the Constitution, and a renewal of personal responsibility for perpetuating the regime. Efforts at revolutionizing our understanding of liberty and political authority only undermine our political order. Our great country can survive, and prosper, if we can refrain from being distracted by our current privileges and circumstances, and remember our duties as American citizens.

New Edition of Dr. Cheek's Book Published

by Katelyn Moore | June 17, 2019

Last Edited: June 17, 2019 by Katelyn Moore

   With the increased debate and attention given to the role of populism in politics and society, and the rise of more authoritarian governments, as well as new arguments for reviving socialism, the traditional manner of thinking about politics has come under criticism.  East Georgia State College professor Dr. H. Lee Cheek, Jr. edited a classic study on these topics in 2007 entitled The Limits of Pure Democracy by the great English scholar of politics and religion, W.  H. Mallock. The book has been recently republished by Taylor and Francis Books, a leading international publisher. While originally published by Transactions Books at Rutgers University, the new edition contains a revised introduction and additional materials, and is now available as an ebook and in the Kindle format.
   According to Dr. Cheek, “The 1910s was a decade in which theories of socialism, pacifism, and collectivism flowered. Publicists and playwrights from Sidney Webb to George Bernard Shaw expressed not just belief in ‘utopianism’ but a vigorous assault on the existing political and economic order. Less well known is how a group of Tory thinkers laid the foundations of a conservative counter-attack expressed with equal literary and intellectual brilliance. Foremost among them was W. H. Mallock. In The Limits of Pure Democracy he argued that the pseudo-populist leaders of the political party system promise everything but deliver only the end of parties as such.”
   For Mallock, what starts with populism ends in dictatorship. The Russian Revolution was simply the historical outcome of utopian socialist visions that were more dedicated to destroying the present system of things than bringing about a revitalized future. Mallock’s book explains how the modern free market succeeds through competition in increasing output, broadening occupational opportunities, and multiplying the numbers of skilled professionals. In contrast, welfare schemes serve to deepen poverty by spreading wealth so evenly that incentives to work decline and personal savings are eliminated.
   These arguments have become commonplace again today. But at the time they served as an incendiary reminder that class warfare works in both directions. Mallock was a remarkably talented writer who made the case against exaggerated expectations, a nascent welfare system, and mass political parties led by oligarchs. But he also offered a case for increasing a regard for work, advancing the cause of education as a method of entering the modern world, and for retaining a sense of religious codes that define the West.
   W. H. Mallock was the author of many books, including Religion as a Credible Doctrine, The Reconstruction of Belief, The Individualist, The Heart of Life, and A Human Document.
   Because of the continued interest in Dr. Cheek’s edited volume, the Georgia Political Science Association will conduct a panel on the work and the book’s implications for politics in the “Age of Trump” at its annual meeting in November. The volume is also part of a long-term scholarly project by Dr. Cheek and Dr. Harry Vogel to critique utopian movements in society and politics around the world.