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.