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René Girard (1923–2015) was one of the most influential interdisciplinary thinkers of the 20th century. His mimetic theory—which argues that human desire is fundamentally imitative and that rivalry and conflict arise from this imitation—cuts across philosophy, anthropology, history, literary criticism, theology, and more. To manage the destructive potential of mimetic rivalry, societies resort to violence, often in the form of what he called the scapegoat mechanism. The implications of his theory for today’s world are profound. This volume brings together essays that place Girard in conversation with other major thinkers, including Dietrich von Hildebrand, Luigi Giussani, and Marshall McLuhan, while exploring his insights on technology, education, and race. Though Girard spent most of his career as a professor at Stanford, his influence extends beyond academia. His thought has shaped Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who recognized the impact of mimetic dynamics on innova­tion, competition, and value creation. Many of the essays in Be Not Conformed originated from the NOVITĀTE Con­ference at The Catholic University of America held in November 2023 to mark the centennial of Girard’s birth. The book’s subtitle—René Girard at the Nexus of Athens, Jerusalem, and Silicon Valley—reflects his synthesis of classical philosophy, theological depth, and modern technological discourse. Bishop Robert Barron has called Girard a potential future “father of the Church,” underscoring the lasting significance of his work. This volume of­fers an exploration of Girard’s legacy, revealing why his ideas remain essential for understanding today’s cultural and intellectual landscape. You will find in the pages of Be Not Conformed a glimpse of the width, breadth, depth, and grandeur of this singular thinker.

An insightful biography of an unassuming literary scholar—and spy—who transformed postwar American culture.

Although his impact on twentieth-century American cultural life was profound, few people know the story of Norman Holmes Pearson. Pearson’s life embodied the Cold War alliances among US artists, scholars, and the national-security state that coalesced after World War II. As a Yale professor and editor, he helped legitimize the study of American culture and shaped the public’s understanding of literary modernism—significantly, the work of women poets such as Hilda Doolittle and Gertrude Stein. At the same time, as a spy, recruiter, and cultural diplomat, he connected the academy, the State Department, and even the CIA.

In Code Name Puritan, Greg Barnhisel maps Pearson’s life, from his childhood injury that led to a visible, permanent disability to his wartime counterespionage work neutralizing the Nazis’ spy network to his powerful role in the cultural and political heyday sometimes called the American Century. Written with clarity and informed by meticulous research, Barnhisel’s revelatory portrait of Pearson details how his unique experiences shaped his beliefs about the American character, from the Puritans onward.