About Lee Cheek

H. Lee Cheek, Jr., Ph.D., is Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative and Professor of Political Science and the former Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at East Georgia State College. He received his bachelor's degree from Western Carolina University, his M.Div. from Duke University, his M.P.A. from Western Carolina University, and his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America. He previously served as Dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of North Georgia; as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Athens State University in Alabama; and Vice-President for College Advancement and Professor of Political Science at Brewton-Parker College in Mt. Vernon, Georgia.  Dr. Cheek taught at Brewton-Parker College from 1997-2000, and from 2005-2009. He is also a United Methodist minister and former U.S. Army chaplain. His books include Calhoun and Popular Rule and Confronting Modernity, among others.

M.E. Bradford and the Founding

By |2023-05-07T23:55:59-05:00May 7th, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Lee Cheek, Leo Strauss, M. E. Bradford, Sean Busick, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

M.E. (“Mel”) Bradford’s interest in the Founding follows naturally from his Agrarianism. He believed that, unlike the French and Russian Revolutions, America’s was a conservative revolution. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were conservative documents. According to Bradford, the American colonies revolted to preserve self-government, not to embark upon a progressive path toward [...]

Liberty & Republicanism: The Patrick Henry/Onslow Debate

By |2023-03-22T18:13:47-05:00March 22nd, 2023|Categories: John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Lee Cheek, Republicanism, Sean Busick, Timeless Essays|

The fiercely contested, yet inconclusive election of 1824 set the stage for one of the great debates of American political history. “Mr. Onslow, the ablest among Speakers of the House of Commons, used to say ‘It was a maxim he had often heard when he was a young man, from old and experienced members, that [...]

Four Book Recommendations for the Close of the Year

By |2020-11-23T17:09:59-06:00November 23rd, 2020|Categories: Books, Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives, Lee Cheek, Politics, Senior Contributors|

While 2021 will doubtless be an improvement over 2020, some grounding in the fundamental nature of the political order will prove useful. We can dispense with the contemporary political studies for a moment and perhaps consider the higher potentialities of politics. Here are a few books worth reading and giving as gifts: […]

American Liberty Reconsidered

By |2020-06-26T15:43:29-05:00July 3rd, 2019|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Independence Day, Lee Cheek, Liberty, Senior Contributors|

The continued success of our nation is dependent upon a recovery of our appreciation of liberty, a return to the original division of government power as prescribed by the Constitution, and a renewal of personal responsibility for perpetuating the regime. As we celebrate American Independence, it is appropriate to reflect upon the foundations of our [...]

Bradley Birzer and the Russell Kirk Revival

By |2021-04-29T12:47:40-05:00August 24th, 2018|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Russell Kirk|

While explicating Russell Kirk, Dr. Birzer is drawing attention to a larger conservative intellectual tradition and inviting a reconsideration of what that tradition has to offer. Dr. Birzer is here not merely an erudite and perceptive historian but also a thinker in his own right... Russell Kirk: American Conservative by Bradley Birzer (574 pages, University Press [...]

Donald Davidson Revisited

By |2018-05-24T12:23:11-05:00May 24th, 2018|Categories: Culture, History, Lee Cheek, Philosophy, South|

Though he passed away in 1968, Donald Davidson’s efforts and criticisms continue to deserve much attention, since the South has become more decadent in its disregard for the past since his death… Mel Bradford has argued that no individual has exerted more influence upon the development of a profession of letters this century in the [...]

The Return of Liberal Theory

By |2017-07-06T00:24:43-05:00July 5th, 2017|Categories: Books, Lee Cheek, Liberal, Liberalism, Politics, Senior Contributors|

Contemporary liberalism provides solutions that only exacerbate current domestic and international tensions… The Cultural Defense of Nations: A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights by Liav Orgad (Oxford University Press, 2016) Liberal constitutional and political theory has increasingly defended the status of often newly created or invented minorities, defined more expansively with each new theoretical formulation, as [...]

Christmas Reading to Prepare for the Political Year Ahead

By |2016-12-20T15:34:14-06:00December 20th, 2016|Categories: Books, Christmas, Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives, Lee Cheek, Senior Contributors|

Here, dear readers, are four books to prepare you for the political season that lies ahead of us in 2017.... 1) Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law (Harvard University Press, 2016) The final work by my friend and mentor, the late and great George Carey, and also by one of the best scholars of [...]

Agrarianism and Cultural Renewal

By |2016-06-11T09:19:43-05:00May 15th, 2016|Categories: Agrarianism, Culture, Featured, Lee Cheek, Southern Agrarians, Timeless Essays|

Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Lee Cheek as he examines the importance of agrarianism in American life and the necessity of restoring its place within our culture. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher Among the contributions to I’ll Take My Stand, Allen Tate’s “Remarks on the Southern Religion” [...]

Edmund Burke, Rightly Understood

By |2016-04-14T23:43:05-05:00March 22nd, 2016|Categories: Books, Edmund Burke, Featured, Ian Crowe, Lee Cheek|

Patriotism and Public Spirit: Edmund Burke and the Role of the Critic in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain, by Ian Crowe (Stanford University Press, 2012) Ian Crowe’s recent, pioneering study of political philosopher Edmund Burke is a cause for celebration. It advances scholarly knowledge of Burke and the intellectual milieu that was so important to his development as a [...]

Should Yale Erase the Name of John C. Calhoun?

By |2022-08-15T14:58:35-05:00January 24th, 2016|Categories: American Founding, Culture, History, John C. Calhoun, Lee Cheek|

The misguided effort to have Yale University rename Calhoun College is a sign that we contemporary Americans have a tendency to forget who we are, and to engage in what has become known as political correctness. The advocates of political correctness want to corrupt history for temporary political gain, and their efforts are, sadly, a [...]

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