Editor’s Note: We invite you to join Thomas Jefferson (portrayed by Bill Barker) as he explores the remarkable history of the early American Republic and the principles that undergird it. From Jamestown to Plymouth, from the American Revolution to the Louisiana Purchase, the promise of free enterprise has driven the course of human history on [...]
Join The Imaginative Conservative's Winston Elliott as he talks with Christopher Nelson, president of St. John's College, about his service at St John’s, and about the unique kind of liberal arts education offered there. President Nelson discusses the mission of St. John's College, the role of the Great Books in their classes, and explains the [...]
Founded in 1696, St. John’s College has a unique history as one of America’s first, and leading, liberal arts institutions. St. John’s (campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe) explores the great books of Western Civilization through seminar discussions. As Christopher Nelson (President, St. John’s College, Annapolis) has said: “Our books and our program demand more of us [...]
The Imaginative Conservative’s co-founder and editor-at-large, Bradley J. Birzer, has received another award for his outstanding, new biography of seminal conservative thinker, Russell Kirk. Following on the heels of The Imaginative Conservative’s own 2015 Book of the Year Award, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has announced that Dr. Birzer has won the 2016 Henry and Anne [...]
The Imaginative Conservative is pleased to announce its 2015 Book of the Year: Bradley J. Birzer's Russell Kirk: American Conservative. This is the first in what will be an annual recognition given by the editors of The Imaginative Conservative to the book published during the calendar year that best enhances our understanding of conservatism. As Robert Stacey said in his review in [...]
Today we celebrate the five-year anniversary of The Imaginative Conservative. While it is true that we first published on July 10, 2010, the seeds of our efforts were planted much earlier. Friendships of decades, books inherited from the past, and lives spent in pursuit of eternal truths are the foundations of The Imaginative Conservative community. Among our writers many share friendships which help us to [...]
Thucydides' account of the twenty-seven-year war between Athens and Sparta is filled with timeless questions about human conflict: When are aggression and vengeance justified? Can peace ever truly be secured by war? How does war affect the integrity of language and character? What is the role of chance in war? Is war ever truly inevitable? Additionally, the participants [...]
Historian Jack Rakove talks about James Madison’s role in the creation of the Constitution and his arguments in support of the new frame of government in the Federalist papers. St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, hosted this event as part of its “Great Issues Forum.” Mr. Rakove is introduced by the President of St. John’s College, Christopher [...]
We highly recommend this marvelous pilot episode for The Cosmopolitans, a new series by our friend Whit Stillman. Please watch this witty comedy and take the survey at Amazonoriginals.com so that they will support a complete series. Smart, clever, fun and beautiful cinematography. Well done Mr. Stillman! Read Richard Brody’s review in The New Yorker and essays [...]
Brief reflections on Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World In this sublime work Henri Nouwen offers to readers: “The greatest gift my friendship can give to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn’t that what friendship is [...]
It is with sadness that we learned of the death yesterday of a great man, Stratford Caldecott, a Senior Contributor to The Imaginative Conservative. Stratford graced our pages with some sixty-six essays, on such wonderful and varied topics as: the nature of the human soul; the essence of beauty; the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien; the philosophy of G.K. Chesterton; Prince Charles as [...]
Bradley J. Birzer has been appointed the second Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, the University of Colorado Boulder announced today. Dr. Birzer, a professor of history and the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies at Hillsdale College in Michigan, will begin his one-year appointment beginning in fall 2014. “Dr. Birzer brings impressive [...]
The Imaginative Conservative is pleased to announce that Stephen Klugewicz has joined its staff as Editor. Dr. Klugewicz previously served as president of Franklin’s Opus, as headmaster of Regina Luminis Academy, as director of education at the National Constitution Center, and as executive director of the Collegiate Network. He is the co-editor of History, on Proper Principles: Essays in [...]
The Common Mind by Andre Gushurst-Moore A hallmark of the current age is the ease with which it embraces any number of rival moral narratives in the name of “open-mindedness” or “diversity.” Indeed, the thousand and one “isms” that are impossibly espoused serve only to erode further even the very concept of a common culture. [...]