Professor Edward Younkins collects essays under five headings--the theory of democratic capitalism; free persons and the common good; religion and morality; the responsibilities of the corporation; the global arena--and concludes with the autobiographical essay "Controversial Engagements."

Younkins located these articles in well-known journals such as the Public Interest and First Things, in lesser-known journals such as Worldview, Public Opinion, Economic Affairs (London), the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, and the Dravo Review and previously unpublished material.

He has included substantial essays such as "The Communitarian Individual in America," "The Silent Artillery of Communism," "The Evangelical Basis of a Social Market Economy," "The Future of Civil Society," "The Jewish and Christian Foundation of Human Dignity," "Economics as Humanism," and "The International Vocation of American Business." He also retrieved two unpublished pieces, one of which offers a new definition of social justice to overcome the powerful objections of Friedrich Hayek.

Much of the periodical literature in which Novak has developed the idea of democratic capitalism over the years appears in this collection, in addition, Younkins appends a valuable bibliography listing further articles. The collection displays the development of Novak's thought on democratic capitalism from its embryonic beginnings through its later unfolding.

Michael Novak holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at AEI, where he is also the director of social and political studies. He is the author of more than twenty five books on philosophy, religion, politics, economics, and culture. Edward W. Younkins is professor in the Department of Business and Technology at Wheeling Jesuit University and the founder of the University's degree program in political and economic philosophy.