The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom

One day almost two years ago in October of 2022, I sat down in my reading chair in the small, old house I have lived in (at that point) for 23 years and opened a book I’d just received from Amazon called The Quest for Community by political philosopher Robert Nisbet. Published in 1953, it was the first of the 18 books Nesbit would write, and remains his masterpiece and the book for which he is best known. The book is a study of our shared, if not instinctive, drive to be with others and an indic...