In times of crisis, we are forced to reexamine our ways and ponder our future. It is in this framework that we need to consider our present economic plight and the charting of our path forward.
In his penetrating analysis of contemporary society, author John Horvat focuses on the present crisis with great insight and clarity. He claims modern economy has become cold, impersonal, and out of balance.
Gone are the human elements of honor and trust so essential to our daily lives. Society has discarded the natural restraining influence of the human institutions and values that should temper our economic activities.
Return to Order is a clarion call that invites us to reconnect with those institutions and values by applying the timeless principles of an organic Christian order.
Horvat presents a refreshing picture of this order, so wonderfully adapted to our human nature. He describes the calming influence of those natural regulating institutions—such as custom, family, community, the Christian State, and the Church.
A return to order is not only possible but crucial. Horvat shows us how to make it happen.
Based on nearly twenty years of ground-breaking research, this book is being recognized as one of the most important and influential on the subject to be published in the past ten years. Its original insight into both the present crisis and remedies for the future thrust Return to Order into the center of the raging debate over how to restore America to prominence as a proud and great nation.
Read this dramatic approach to restore America and join the debate about America’s RETURN TO ORDER.
FREE Kindle Copy of Return to Order
Endorsements
“Return to Order provides an interesting analysis of how the United States has departed from the spiritual, cultural, and economic precepts that supported the founding and the early history of our republic. It also sets forth valuable recommendations for restoring our society to its foundation of ordered liberty and traditional values.”
— The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Former Attorney General of the United States
“This is a timely and important book as our nation faces one of the most critical challenges in its history. Overcoming the economic disaster America is facing cannot be solved simply through economic policy. Americans and their leaders must put in place policy that will restore values, work ethics, and, as the author points out so well, honor. As a career military officer, honor was the most important attribute to me and my fellow soldiers. Restoring honor to our economic landscape will put the nation on the path to recovery.”
— Lt. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon USA (Ret.)
Former Commanding General, United States Army Pacific
“By calling the reader to embrace the cardinal virtues of temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude, Return to Order suggests a practical pathway to avoid the economic and spiritual crises that are looming before us and, by means of religious conversion, reestablish a right order for human flourishing. I hope that this work will receive the attention it so deserves.”
— The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt
Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
“John Horvat succinctly describes the condition, history, diagnosis and prognosis of our current economic crisis. The economic chaos or peril is only symptomatic of the bigger and more crucial issue of a CULTURAL CRISIS. His terminology of FRENETIC INTEMPERANCE is brilliant. This is not an apologia to retreat from the world nor is it an attempt to turn back the clock, so to speak. It is a coherent explanation of the sitz-im-leben we find ourselves. Only an ORGANIC CHRISTIAN SOCIETY can save Europe and America from the same oblivion that doomed the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. Western Civilization is rooted in the JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN ethos. No philosophical or economic theory can provide what an organic Christian society alone creates and supports. Not Socialism, not Communism, not Fascism and not unbridled, unrestricted and unlimited Consumeristic Capitalism. Horvat, like Fr. Sirico, shows that a Free Market makes sense and conforms to the Natural Moral Law but must also be constrained and governed by it as well. I highly recommend this book.”
— Rev. Dr. John Trigilio
Author and President, Confraternity of Catholic Clergy
“Return to Order is a refreshing breath of air in a time of economic and political distress. It reminds us of those basic and foundational institutions and practices that helped shape the generations of our fathers and mothers. And, it reminds us that we can be successful and solve the issues America is currently facing without terse political discourse, but with a strong Church, strong family and strong community. Horvat’s Return to Order is much like his book jacket illustration, a beacon on a hill enlightening the way for readers in a time of American uncertainty.”
Congressman Lou Barletta,
U.S. House of Representatives, serving Pennsylvania’s 11th District.
“I am so impressed at how deeply Return to Order plumbs the American soul, and with 36 years of experience in the financial industry, I do appreciate how much our collective journey as a nation interfaces with our economic cycles. Horvat’s fabulous analysis of our present crisis can and should be a most important instrument in reshaping the educational foundations of our youth, preparing them for leadership in the foremost country of the Western Hemisphere.”
— David S. Miller
Senior Vice President, Operations Manager, US Bank
“In his penetrating analysis of contemporary society, author John Horvat focuses on our cultural and economic crises with insight and clarity.”
— Legatus Magazine
— Joseph M. Scheidler
National Director, Pro-Life Action League
“In an intellectually compelling and practical way, Return to Order reminds us that economy and religion are deeply connected, and that, with the family at the center, we can hope to be freed from the frenzy in which our society finds itself. I highly recommend this book.”
— Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
President, National Pro-life Religious Council
“The central theme of frenetic intemperance is original, interesting, and compelling. The diagnosis of contemporary social maladies must focus on moral failings, and Return to Order rightly does so. Its insightful thesis deserves wide circulation and consideration.”
— Kevin E. Schmiesing, Ph.D.
Research Fellow at Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
Book Review Editor for the Journal of Markets & Morality
“Return to Order is a clear, engaging read that, by delineating some fundamentals of the natural order, will empower you to spot many of today’s disorders—even some you may have unconsciously bought into. Such was my experience… I was enlightened…. We are moving forward in time to a society more like times long past. Just as the sexual revolution gradually is making clearer the truth and wisdom of the Church on matters socio-sexual so too the greed and envy revolution of the marketplace will drive mankind back to the truth and wisdom of the Church on the political economy. The needs of the global village economy (freedom, flexibility within a just order) provide many opportunities for resurrecting many good norms of order that flourished in the Middle Ages. It is an intriguing prospect. The book is interesting, clear and enlightening.”
— Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow and Director, Marriage & Religion Research Institute
“Like the true cultural conservative he is, John Horvat takes on the idols of technological, economic, and political power. These powers exacerbate the human tendency toward frenetic intemperance. Return to Order demonstrates that we must be ever vigilant about the institutions we create lest they lose their moral compass.”
— Richard Stivers
Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Illinois State University
“John Horvat has put together a compendium of good thinking about a lot of diverse subjects and integrated them into a coherent outline of a worldview. His integrated understanding of diverse human phenomena would be eagerly and widely accepted in the Europe of the Middle Ages. More recently he would likely fall into the company of such traditional conservative scholars as Russell Kirk or Richard Weaver. This is a perceptive and exciting book explaining how these traditional understandings and principles can form the bedrock of our personal and corporate philosophy today.”
— G. Daniel Harden, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Education, Washburn University
Chairman, Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission
“An ambitious book that calls for a major shift in the attitudes of those of us who live in a fast-paced world. Horvat calls for an order that combines the virtues of tested traditions with the creative potential of the free economy: a combination of a structured order based on traditional values and the spontaneous order of economic systems based on private property. He uses the term “frenetic intemperance” to describe the type of life which does not leave room for family, creative leisure, and prayer. A call for more balance in our economies and our lives.”
— Dr. Alejandro Chafuen
President of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation
“Poetically written, John Horvat II’s Return to Order elevates the argument about what is truly important. It’s rare that a book of this depth is also such a pleasure to read. Mr. Horvat’s critique of contemporary America’s “frenetic intemperance” rings true, laying bare modern man’s confusion and anomie amid plenty. An erudite cultural sculptor, Mr. Horvat chisels away materialism’s false promises and points toward God as the source of the higher revelation that makes beauty, heroism, nobility, sacrifice and true vocation discoverable and meaningful.”
— Robert Knight
columnist and author of several books, including
The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture
and The Truth About Marriage
“John Horvat sounds a clarion call for a return to fiscal and moral sanity. A must read!”
— Col. Bud Day
Medal of Honor and POW
“If our nation ever needed to return to traditional values, it is now. We are committing suicide; but each of our problems has at its roots a moral solution found in the tenets of the Christian tradition that is at the foundation of our being. Return to Order does a great job of highlighting the source and solution to our impending demise.”
— Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady
Medal of Honor recipient
“Saint Benedict’s definition of peace, “Peace is the tranquility of order,” in his Rule is as valid today as it was in the Fifth Century when he wrote it. The restoration of economic and social peace in our disordered society is something for which all men of good will yearn. John Horvat has given us in his excellent book, Return to Order, a catechism of principles to guide all our efforts to restore economic and social peace to America.”
— Most Rev. Rene H. Gracida
Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi
“The economy is finally getting the attention it deserves, and Return to Order is doing its part to help put us back on the right track. This excellent work is an in-depth study of the history and cause of our present-day economic and spiritual crisis, and it gives us a well-reasoned solution to our plight as well. I am pleased to recommend it.”
— Most Rev. James. C. Timlin
Bishop Emeritus of Scranton
“I am convinced…that answers for the most vexing challenges are found in human solutions. In other words, character, sound decision-making, and selfless service to great causes cure many ailments. Horvat’s thesis that frenetic intemperance has driven many, if not all, of today’s economic problems bears close consideration….This book should be read and its recommendations followed by those who know a Return to Order in the 21st Century is sorely needed.”
— Lt. Col. Joseph J. Thomas (USMC-ret.), Ph.D.
USNA Class of ’61 Chair
Distinguished Professor of Leadership Education, United States Naval Academy
“Return to Order is beautiful in its simplicity yet profound in its intellectual depth.”
Jamie Johnson,
State Central Committeeman of Republican Party of Iowa
“In this very well-documented and argued work, John Horvat, ingeniously demonstrates how the four cardinal virtues are the basis of a free and prosperous society. This is a work that should be on every economics and social science bookshelf. It touches on the very basis of the problems in our modern economy and society. I highly recommend this enjoyable book.”
— Prof. Harry C. Veryser
Author and Former Director of Graduate Studies in Economics, University of Detroit Mercy
“This book proposes a revitalization of long standing Christian practices as an antidote to current economic discontinuities. Using practical minded recommendations to resolve massively complex societal issues, Return to Order is a proposal that should be welcomed by those looking for a path to economic recovery and a tempering of future disruptions.”
— John B. Powers
President, Chicago Daily Observer
“A fabulous study! God granted us freedom and property to earn our sustenance. Socialism replaces individual initiative with rigid regulation and no one’s happy.”
— Malcolm Morris
Chairman, Stewart Title Guaranty Company
“Return to Order is original and penetrating in its understanding of the current economic crisis, and sublime and refreshing in its grasp of the solution: organic Christian society. John Horvat has given us a much needed analysis of what went wrong with modern society and an inspired vision for where America needs to go. Inside the chaos of our days, the book is a welcome beacon that helps us get our bearings and set us on the path to true order. It defines real leadership and calls all to virtue and trust in Providence. It is my fervent hope that this book will get the attention it deserves and that it will help bring about God’s highest designs for the American people at this crossroads in history.”
— H.I.R.H. Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza
Prince Imperial of Brazil
“Return to Order touches on matters that apply not only to America but everywhere. Modern economy is in trouble and this book zeroes in on the problem of frenetic intemperance in an original and convincing manner. Best of all, author John Horvat offers organic Catholic solutions that are both so needed and so refreshing. I hope this book gets wide circulation and recommend it to all those who want real answers to vital questions.”
— H.H. Duke Paul of Oldenburg
Director, Brussels Office of Federation Pro Europa Christiana
“Horvat’s book is a thorough analysis…and points to the way out. This is very valuable in times when people are provided with false analyses and false solutions.”
— Tadeusz Radlinski
Founder of MRM (vessel design and construction), Gdansk, Poland
“We have abandoned morality in the economic life, together with beauty and the Christian spirit. In Return to Order, John Horvat argues that the return to Christian values and their observance, both by entrepreneurs and government leaders, is the best protection against the present, constantly recurring crises.”
— Paweł Toboła-Pertkiewicz
President, Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research & Education
“Return to Order is a very timely and valuable publication. The author Mr. Horvat does an excellent job in excavating the underlying root of the recurrent economic crises. It is the loss of the golden mean of virtuousness, the consequence of replacing prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance as the guiding principles of economic activity with the principle of income maximization. As a result of having abandoned the ethical anchor modern man fluctuates restless between the extremes, the business cycle being but the most prominent example of ‘frenetic intemperance.’ Anyone who considers the ongoing public debate as superficial — most reform proposals indeed merely want to cure the symptoms, yet do not address the underlying causes — should study Mr. Horvat’s Return to Order. It is to be hoped that this book reaches a large reading public and will have an impact on public policy, theoretical debates and personal decisions alike.”
— Gregor Hochreiter
Director, Institute of Applied Economics and Western Christian Philosophy
Vienna, Austria
“No one can doubt that our country cannot continue on its present course and that the causes for our demise need to be seriously examined. Mr. Horvat has tackled this challenge by analyzing the cultural, moral and structural issues inherent in our 21st century economy. All too often people react by going to extremes within the current system: one calling for more government intervention and the other for exaggerated individualism. Both ignore the underlying moral problem. Mr. Horvat has produced a balanced and scholarly work—Return to Order—in which he not only dissects brilliantly the wide spectrum of causes of our crisis but provides concrete recommendations to return us to both a prosperous society as well as one that respects the dignity of all the participants.”
— R. Scott Turicchi
President, j2 Global, Inc.
“This book offers a plan for how to begin to restructure America as the Christian society it once was. By understanding where America has been and how it got to this point in history, Christians everywhere will begin to understand what they must do to rise up against the culture that is leading our country to ruin.”
— Barbara Brabec
Book Editor and Author
“This is a remarkable and much needed book that focuses on the phenomenon of “frenetic intemperance” displayed in the souls of modern Americans. Lack of the cardinal virtue of temperance constitutes a disorder in the soul that is reflected in the various disorders and imbalances seen in the Republic itself. Enslavement to the disordered passion of “frenetic intemperance” that seeks to throw off all moral restraints has resulted, in effect, in “Two Americas” (one adhering to the remnants of the Judæo-Christian and classical political philosophy of the Nation’s Founders; the other in profound Crisis subject to the pathologies of extreme individualism, materialism, moral relativism, Socialism, and even to a Nihilism declaring human life without meaning). The worlds of politics, government, the economy, finance, technology, culture, law, and the academy have all been adversely affect by the rejection of a transcendent spiritual order and its Natural Law positing restraints on human behavior. The Brave New Secular World being erected in the name of ‘freedom” has been corrupting our institutions and human relationships.
The author has written a work unabashedly calling for an organic Catholic state and society or, at least, the permeation of our present troubled society with Christian principles that will address the disruptions in the body politic which threaten human dignity. An interesting feature of this volume is the author’s taking the best in contemporary scholarship to buttress his evaluation of our contemporary scene as well as noting those aspects and components of Medieval Society from which “post-moderns” can well learn and re-establish.
Our author has been clearly influenced by the writings of the Brazilian thinker Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and the Pope most quoted in the documents of Vatican II (Pope Pius XII). The wisdom of the Aristotelian-Thomistic “philosophia perennis” is evident in his pages.”
— James Likoudis
president emeritus, Catholics United for the Faith (CUF)
Titles and affiliation of the above individuals with businesses. institutions or organizations
are for identification purposes only.
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