About Bradley J. Birzer

Bradley J. Birzer is the co-founder of, and Senior Contributor at, The Imaginative Conservative. He is the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in History at Hillsdale College and Fellow of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Dr. Birzer is author of In Defense of Andrew Jackson, Russell Kirk: American Conservative, American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll, Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth, co-editor of The American Democrat and Other Political Writings by James Fenimore Cooper, and co-author of The American West.

American History on the Banks of the Potomac

By |2024-03-13T16:45:58-05:00March 13th, 2024|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, History, Timeless Essays|

Across the mighty Potomac sits the capital of our once noble and humane republic, founded upon the idea that all men are created equal, endowed with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What do the women and men who occupy the innumerable office buildings on either of the Potomac think about [...]

Sir Martin Gilbert and the Inklings

By |2024-02-23T18:05:16-06:00February 23rd, 2024|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christianity, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford University, Timeless Essays|

Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, knew J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Inklings personally. At one memorable lunch, Sir Martin gave me his impressions of these great men and of the Oxford of their day. During my time at Hillsdale College—having arrived in the fall of 1999—the college hired a number [...]

St. Augustine and J.R.R. Tolkien

By |2024-02-15T20:13:18-06:00February 15th, 2024|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Myth, Senior Contributors, St. Augustine, StAR, Timeless Essays|

As did St. Augustine as the barbarians tore through Rome’s gate on August 24, 410, at midnight, J.R.R. Tolkien looked out over a ruined world: a world on one side controlled by ideologues, and, consequently, a world of the Gulag, the Holocaust camps, the Killing fields, and total war; on the other: a world of [...]

The Truth About Ronald Reagan

By |2024-02-05T18:33:55-06:00February 5th, 2024|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, History, Ronald Reagan, Timeless Essays|

Nearly three decades after the Reagan administration ended, several views of the fortieth president—all conflicting—have taken hold in the American popular mind. One is that Reagan was an “amiable dunce,” who was “sleepwalking through history.” Luck and circumstances made him a successful president, but he should be remembered today only as an oaf, simply being in [...]

James Otis, Then and Now

By |2024-02-05T18:35:10-06:00February 4th, 2024|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, History, Politics, Rights, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

Going back to the first principles of the Founding, one finds that the Founders talked unceasingly about rights. Rights language became a critical part of the cultural landscape when James Otis delivered his oration on the nature of rights, the common law, and the natural law. Feel free to call me a conservative (I won’t [...]

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth

By |2024-01-02T19:03:13-06:00January 2nd, 2024|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Imagination, J.R.R. Tolkien, Myth, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

Myth, J.R.R. Tolkien thought, can convey the sort of profound truth that is intransigent to description or analysis in terms of facts and figures. But, Tolkien admitted, myth can be dangerous if it remains pagan. Therefore, one must sanctify it. To enter faerie—that is, a sacramental and liturgical understanding of creation—is to open oneself to [...]

Oh, White Lady: Faith as a Struggle

By |2023-12-07T18:13:14-06:00December 7th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, Christianity, Essential, Mother of God, Timeless Essays|

The Mother of my Lord has never appeared to me and offered me a helmet of faith or a sword of unity, or divine or mundane origins. But, I have seen Mary many times, and, most likely, you have as well. Faith has always been a struggle for me. Indeed, throughout my forty-six years of [...]

The Power of Ideology: Christopher Dawson on the Modern Age

By |2023-11-28T19:58:56-06:00November 28th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christian Humanism, Christianity, Christopher Dawson, History, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

Since the Renaissance, Christopher Dawson feared, Western culture and society had embraced an arrogant form of humanism, one that places too much emphasis on the goodness of the human person. With the loss of the Medieval beliefs in the Economy of Grace and the Great Chain of Being, culture had adopted two radically dangerous institutions: [...]

Remember, Remember, the 9th of November

By |2023-11-08T17:45:55-06:00November 8th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Communism, Foreign Affairs, Freedom, History, Politics, Timeless Essays|

Socialism did not kill merely the body—it sought to extinguish the soul and all belief in anything transcendent in the human person. As we celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is time to remember and reclaim man’s oldest faith, a faith in one Almighty God who make each of us [...]

The Painful Beauty of the American West

By |2023-11-09T20:11:30-06:00November 7th, 2023|Categories: American West, Bradley J. Birzer, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

For me, the Teton Range of the American West will always be the best America has to offer: huge spaces, demanding spires, and painful beauty. This past summer, I had the high privilege of traveling into the great American West several times. Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Frankly, there’s nothing quite like massive, wide-open [...]

Books That Make Us Human

By |2023-11-02T19:32:17-05:00November 2nd, 2023|Categories: Books, Books that Make Us Human, Bradley J. Birzer, Literature, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

When Winston Elliott created The Imaginative Conservative, he did so with the mission of addressing things that matter across time and for all of humanity—not just the political and economic problems and follies of the moment. In this, Winston wisely followed one of Russell Kirk’s most important ideas—that culture, theology, and literature count far more [...]

The Awful Humanity of Russell Kirk

By |2023-10-18T19:55:19-05:00October 18th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Probably the thing that has most impressed me about Russell Kirk is his dedication to the dignity of the human person. He wrote: “The enlightened conservative does not believe that the end or aim of life is competition; or success; or enjoyment; or longevity; or power; or possessions. He believes, instead, that the object of [...]

Romano Guardini and the Personality of Man

By |2023-12-10T16:53:26-06:00October 14th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Communio, Conservatism, Featured, Romano Guardini|

The profound Germano-Italian philosopher and theologian Romano Guardini (1885-1968) remains one of the most unsung heroes of twentieth-century conservatism. His reputation revived a bit during the all-too brief pontificate of Benedict XVI as so much of Ratzinger’s thought came from Guardini, directly and indirectly. But, he and his work should stand much higher than they [...]

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