Edmund Burke & the American Revolution: The Whole Story

By |2019-07-20T01:25:00-05:00April 10th, 2016|Categories: American Founding, Bruce Frohnen, Edmund Burke, Featured, Republicanism, Revolution|

You would not know it from the discussion on campus or in our high schools, but the best analysis of the American War for Independence was provided while it was still unfolding. The character of the Americans, the designs of the British Parliament, and the policies that brought these two into conflict were brilliantly analyzed [...]

The Jeffersonian Conservative Tradition

By |2020-11-18T11:22:56-06:00November 9th, 2015|Categories: Clyde Wilson, Featured, History, Republicanism, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays, Tradition|

American conservatives, when they have felt the need to establish their lineage, have accepted the rather conventional framework of liberalism-conservatism, already existing in American historiography and popular lore. But one possible tradition of American conservatism is the Jeffersonian tradition. As a movement of thought, the resurgent conservatism of twentieth century America cannot achieve maturity without [...]

A Teaching for Americans: Roman History and the Republic’s First Identity

By |2021-04-21T15:59:43-05:00October 19th, 2015|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Essential, Featured, History, M. E. Bradford, Republicanism, Rome, Timeless Essays|

What did Rome mean to the original Americans? What counsel did its early history contain? And what must we conclude about our forefathers from their somewhat selective devotion to the Roman analogue? The Federal District of Columbia, both in its formal character as a capital and also in its self-conscious attempt at a certain visual [...]

Are Self-Evident Truths True?

By |2021-08-01T16:51:24-05:00August 2nd, 2015|Categories: American Founding, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Republicanism|

Is there a political philosophy in the Declaration of Independence? One step toward answering this question—not the only step, but from the philosopher’s point of view the most fundamental—is to ask whether the “self-evident truths” of the Declaration are really true after all. I have to admit that “fact or fiction” struck me at first [...]

Republicanism and Catholicism’s Only Relevant Partisans

By |2016-08-03T10:36:57-05:00March 15th, 2014|Categories: Catholicism, Christendom, Conservatism, Republicanism|Tags: |

Each electoral cycle, nearly six out of every ten American Catholics cast the ghastly vote of the libertine. As such, one can only assume that the ideas and “lifestyles” emblazoned by these six out of ten votes follow faithfully (tongue firmly lodged in cheek!) upon such libertinism. Regarding the shameful demographic ordeal, the orthodox American [...]

Reflections on A Republic Divided to the Point of Collapse

By |2016-08-06T18:18:35-05:00January 29th, 2013|Categories: American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Christendom, Civil War, Republicanism|

What better word might explain America in 1861 than that of word Homer used to begin The Iliad: Rage. But, rage for or against what? And, with what consequences? A century and a half later, we must recognize the whole period as rich with potential, rich with glory and . . . ripe for corruption. Noble [...]

The Republic: Past, Present, Future?

By |2016-11-26T09:52:12-06:00October 27th, 2012|Categories: American Republic, Cicero, Classics, Quotation, Republicanism|

Cicero Long before our own time, the customs of our ancestors moulded admirable men, and in turn these eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however, inherited the Republic like some beautiful painting of bygone days, its colors already fading through great age; and not only has our [...]

Wishful Thinking: A Response to Winston Elliott on Foreign Wars

By |2014-01-28T09:42:40-06:00August 8th, 2012|Categories: Foreign Affairs, George W. Carey, Politics, Republicanism, W. Winston Elliott III|

Two posts by our good friend Winston Elliott serve as my point of departure. The first (on 3 May) was entitled, “What is the proper role of military power for a Republic?,” and raised salient considerations in seeking an answer to that question; the second (appropriately enough on Memorial Day) emphasized the responsibility of the [...]

Liberalism and Republicanism in the American Revolution

By |2019-06-04T16:02:26-05:00July 18th, 2012|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Republicanism|

The colonies were “not only under different governors, but [had] different forms of government, different laws, different interests, and some of them different religious persuasions and different manners,” Benjamin Franklin wrote to a British audience in 1760. Ethnicity, religion, geography, economic systems, political systems, and degrees of freedom and servitude divided the population against itself. [...]

Four Tenets of Republicanism: A No-Frills Primer

By |2019-05-02T13:18:20-05:00July 13th, 2012|Categories: American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Republicanism|

One may find four fundamental tenets to republicanism rightly understood. First, for a society to be effective, men must behave virtuously. Second, men must use the gifts that nature or God has bestowed upon them. Typically, republican thinkers believed the best economic activity for man was agricultural. Third, republicans must be independent and armed, willing [...]

Americana Res Publica: No Revolution

By |2016-07-26T15:53:13-05:00July 4th, 2012|Categories: American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Republicanism|

As we celebrate the 236th anniversary of the passage of the Declaration of Independence (the signing would have to wait until August 2, 1776), it’s very much worth remembering what form of government the Founders hoped to establish in America. We were founded unquestionably as a Republic with the writing and passages of the Articles [...]

Self-Government Requires Self-Governing Citizens

By |2023-01-14T17:16:29-06:00May 21st, 2012|Categories: Books, Republicanism|

America was not great because of those in power or because of its “privileged orders,” but derived its “dignity and importance, through the natural and honorable channels of prudence and industry.” These were not political qualities, but social values of individual responsibility and integrity. During the first four decades of the American Republic, the irascible [...]

The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson

By |2020-10-19T15:08:45-05:00May 9th, 2012|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Books, Constitution, Republicanism, Thomas Jefferson|

The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson by David N. Mayer (416 pages, University of Virginia Press, 1995) Thomas Jefferson continues to fascinate scholars. A voluminous literature examines his long public career and extensive comments on political issues. Historians have shown particular interest in exploring the elusive philosophical underpinnings of Jefferson’s political persuasions. David N. Mayer makes a [...]

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