In the 1950s and 1960s, Kirk wrote frequently for the New York Times. In the following excerpted article, “The Aim of the Conservative is to Keep the Best in Life,” (NYT, March 4, 1956, pg. SM6), the 38-year old Michiganian proclaimed his allegiance to the timeless principles of Socrates, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and C.S. Lewis. The [...]
In neither his private correspondence nor his books or articles did Dr. Kirk write much regarding the so-called Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. As some of his critics have gleefully noted, Russell Kirk seems to have simply let “McCarthyism” slide by, thus neither attempting to stop nor even to attenuate it. As one [...]
Russell Kirk Dear Readers of The Imaginative Conservative, As some of you know, I’ve been making my way through (and thoroughly enjoying) several of Kirk’s lesser known pieces from the 1940s and 1950s. Here are some excerpts from a speech Kirk gave in June 1954 to the national meeting of the Chi Omega [...]
by Anthony Williams Sarah Palin Much derision has been heaped on Governor Sarah Palin since she accepted John McCain’s invitation to run for vice president, from the right and the left, but I think both sides make too much of her mistakes and underestimate her strengths. I think both see that her public [...]
Essays by Birzer, Davis, Frohnen, Anger, Masty, Robison, Rogers, Elliott, and Willson. What an insane couple of years in terms of politics: recession, cash for clunkers, Bush stimuli packages, Obama stimuli packages, the Russians praising Stalin in their subways (and putting their nuke subs off of our east coast), the Chinese singing “hallelujah” to Mao, [...]
What a week. Thanksgiving. Korean peninsular envy. WikiLeaks. By now, as the world is well aware, the website WikiLeaks released to major news agencies—and, really, though the stunning levelling of the web to everyone—a portion of nearly 250,000 diplomatic communiqués it obtained through gray channels. The president and his secretary of state are nervously calling [...]
A vague conviction that something is very wrong with modern life now seems to be general among men of a reflective turn. Vitality seems to have trickled away from our society. The men of the future, we are coming to fear, will be something less than men. The excerpts below are taken from Russell Amos [...]
As I prepare to celebrate our New England holiday of Thanksgiving, I've been reading quite a bit of Russell Kirk's less-well known articles from the 1950s. One of my favorite has been one that appeared in the Georgia Review (1954). Here are few tidbits from it. Kirk spoke as poignantly to his audience fifty-six years [...]
As Cicero watched his own republic descend into chaos and madness, he recorded as quickly as he could the most important aspects of the Roman Republic, preserved if not in temporal reality, than in poetry, history, and memory. Famously, he wrote (quoted by our patron Winston Elliott often): Ancestral morality provided outstanding men, and great [...]
Today is special, of course: it’s the Feast of St. Cecilia, patroness of music. It’s also the birthday of a good friend. Happy Birthday, Laura! You are truly an amazing witness to your community. TSA As readers of the The Imaginative Conservative already know, the TSA is nasty, and it seems to be getting nastier [...]
Late Friday night, I returned from two days at Georgetown University, somewhat dazed by hard hours of travel, somewhat dazzled by a book I’m currently reading, and certainly hopeful for the future of American higher education and the role of Catholicism within it. Why hopeful? I rarely feel hope for the world beyond my family [...]
Yesterday, I was asked to comment on one of my favorite works in the western canon. For what it’s worth, here’s my description of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The Four Quartets—perhaps the single greatest work of art in the twentieth century, and maybe even of modernity, according to my admittedly not so humble opinion—concluded Eliot’s poetry career. If [...]
Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History, Howe’s comprehensive look at the so-called Jacksonian period in American history serves as one of the best books of its kind. Indeed, I consider this book one finest history books [...]
As I ponder the tackiness that was Sarah Palin’s ET interview last night, I can’t help wonder something I’ve been thinking about for years, beginning on the 150th Anniversary of the creation of the Republican party. Why doesn’t the Republican party appeal more to its institutional history? […]