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.
