"The insistence on America's freedom from tradition is itself an American tradition. However, this new volume presents another view, one in which the American ordo is not as new as we suppose. Vital Remnants explores the origins of the American experience in ordered liberty and finds that the taproot of our constitutional order is sunk deep into the history of the West."--BOOK JACKET. "America's founding generation was learned in the history and literature of the West and steeped in the English tradition of liberty. Vital Remnants revisits for a new generation the sources of America's greatness and suggests means to restore our weakened foundations."--BOOK JACKET.