The Declaration of Independence, intended as an expression of the common opinion, is truly a text of "right opinion," a benign practical text which also has a peculiarly sound relation to the realm of thought. Section I: The Legacy of the Declaration When American schoolchildren first discover that they have a place in the world they [...]
“The city comes into being for the sake of life, and the city exists for the sake of the good life,” (Aristotle, Politics I.2, 1252b27–30). In this quotation from Aristotle’s Politics, he sets out the two reasons any city or nation is founded. The first is a practical reason: “for the sake of life”—i.e., so [...]
For Calvin Coolidge, the Declaration of Independence is “a great spiritual document," which possesses a “finality” that “is exceedingly restful": “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.” This week, [...]
C.S. Lewis believed that every nation possesses what he called a “haunting,” a “Logres,” which baptizes it with a unique inner life. What, or where, is America’s Logres? Who is the mythological hero that could guide the American identity the way Arthur guided Britain and inspired generations of English poets and artists? During my undergraduate [...]
Historians past and present have offered many guides to the Founding era, but what make Bradley Birzer's account so delightful are his wholehearted patriotism and the fairness with which he tells the story. In this telling, we hear the dramatic, symphonic nature of one of the most exciting political times ever recorded in the course [...]
Historical consciousness is to civilized society what memory is to individual identity. Without memory there are no workable rules of conduct, no standard of justice, no basis for restraining passions, no sense of the connection between an action and its consequences. A culture without memory will necessarily be barbarous. I am delighted to be with [...]
The Americans of the Revolution wrote about the new man who leaves behind his old prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the mode of life he embraces, and whose labors would change the world. But, one must ask, to what extent was this true? Just exactly how new was the American of 1775? In [...]
What is the duty of government? What are the rights of man in a civilized society? What is the purpose of law? Mortimer Adler, scholar of, and advocate for, the Great Books, attempts to answer these questions and more in the following interview. Interposed with scenes of discussion from a seminar conducted at St. John's [...]
In the last resort, according to Friedrich Hayek, the conservative position rests on the belief that in any society there are recognizably superior persons whose inherited standards and values and position ought to be protected, and who thus should have a greater influence on public affairs than others. The chief evil is unlimited government.... Nobody [...]
Abraham Lincoln did all that he could to preserve constitutional rule by trying to teach his fellow citizens what it means to be an American. The paradox of Abraham Lincoln’s appearance in the United States’ sectional conflict becomes manifest if one considers a passage written by James Madison in Federalist No. 10. In that paper, [...]
In his new book, Michael Lucchese shows us that Russell Kirk believed that America—in world history and in God’s providence—served as a Platonic anamnesis, a thing that forces us to remember what is eternal, good, true, and beautiful, through right reason in the very womb of time itself. Russell Kirk on America: How to Understand [...]
American culture has an opportunity now for renewal through its people of faith. We are being called to care for one another with love. We are being called to live out our virtue in service. The American soul has withered, and awaits an infusion of the lifeblood of love. Whether or not we respond may [...]
We have increasingly placed our faith in the power of government to provide solutions for human misery. What was once a strong level of responsibility and autonomy at the city, county, and state level has shifted toward a massive concentration at the federal level. When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in the 1830s, he marveled [...]
Because it is based on natural laws and timeless truths, the republic can be ignored, it can be mocked, and it can be forgotten, but it can never be fully undone. All it takes is an anamnesis, something to rouse us from our slumbers and reassert its many truths and goodnesses and beauties. Long live [...]