These essays were originally published in French in 1956. 

Translated by Brian Welter. 

Foreword by Dr. Marcos Pinho de Escobar

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Three attributes should be essential to anyone in public office: intelligence, integrity and dedication.  If it is not an easy task to identify one of these qualities in a politician, much more difficult it would be to find two, and highly improbable to have all three simultaneously. For the good fortune of Portugal and the Portuguese, António de Oliveira Salazar was endowed — and liberally endowed — with this “golden triad” which defines the authentic governor of the Polis. Not only intelligence, but superior intelligence; not just integrity, but absolute integrity; not merely dedication, but total dedication to public affairs.  In Salazar these three essential features were firmly anchored in a profound love of God and of Portugal.  And this is precisely what explains the core of his political thought, in which the Nation is the supreme value in the temporal order and the State is God’s Ministry on earth to procure the common good — the legitimate material well-being, the development of a virtuous life, the salvation of the soul, concepts which are obviously unintelligible to today’s materialistic, hedonistic and globalist frame of mind. 

In this book two philosophers and one historian take turns to explore particular aspects of Salazar´s personality, political thought and work. With erudition, finesse d´esprit and superb writing, Marcel De Corte, Pierre Gaxotte and Gustave Thibon will give the reader an invaluable insight into the complex and fascinating nature of the Portuguese leader.  — From the foreword

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About the Contributors

Marcel de Corte (1905–1994) was a Belgian Thomistic philosopher and a contemporary of Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson. He taught at the University of Liège from 1932 until his retirement in 1975. He was one of the main contributors to the magazine, Itinéraires, founded by Jean Madiran. He was the author of over twenty books with a particular interest on social change at the heart of modernity. Some of his books include: Philosophie des mœurs contemporaines (1944), Essai sur la fin d'une civilisation (1949), L'intelligence en péril de mort (1969), and his books on the four cardinal virtues in the light of St. Thomas Aquinas (1973–1982). There is little of his work which has been translated into English.

Pierre Gaxotte (1895–1982) was a French historian and journalist who early on was a secretary for Charles Maurras. He would subsequently abandon his political activism and become a columnist for Le Figaro. His many historical works include: La Révolution française (1928), La France de Louis XIV (1946), and Frédéric II, roi de Prusse (1967). He was a member of The French Academy.

Gustave Thibon (1903–2001), French Catholic philosopher, author of over twenty books and nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Some of his works include: Destin de l'Homme (1941), Diagnostics. Essai de Physiologie Sociale in 1942 (translated into English as What Ails Mankind? by Sheed & Ward in 1947) as well as publishing Simone Weil's work La Pesanteur et la Grâce in 1947.

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About the Translator

Brian Welter teaches advanced high school reading and writing. He is interested in French literature, medieval history and aesthetics. He has a BA in history and degrees in theology, including the DTh. He also has a graduate diploma in teaching English. In addition to French, he reads Italian, German, and Latin.

Size: 5.25 x 8

ISBN: 978-1-989905-66-1 | $8. 95 USD

84 pages