What It Means to Be an Imaginative Conservative

By |2023-07-09T17:36:36-05:00July 9th, 2023|Categories: Conservatism, Culture, Imagination, John Creech, Timeless Essays|

If culture can neither thrive nor survive without religion, then a cultural conservative, which Russell Kirk claims is the most imaginative of conservatives, must fight to preserve the religious foundations of his culture. Apropos of the title of this online journal, I think it appropriate to offer a few Russell Kirk—inspired refections as to what [...]

Democracy Is Beautiful: Conservatism as if the People Matter

By |2023-07-02T20:55:56-05:00July 2nd, 2023|Categories: American Republic, Community, Conservatism, Democracy, Film, Populism, Willmoore Kendall|

To rebuild their movement and society, and to rebuild a viable culture, conservatives must embrace the conservative populism championed by two men: filmmaker Frank Capra and scholar Willmoore Kendall. Pursuing this path will be challenging, for populism has become a bogeyman for the powers that be. Last December, my wife and I motored a couple [...]

John Randolph of Roanoke & the Formation of a Southern Conservatism

By |2023-05-23T17:50:16-05:00May 23rd, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Civil Society, Conservatism, Economics, History, John Randolph of Roanoke, South, Timeless Essays|

John Randolph of Roanoke, one of the great exponents of the Southern political tradition, knew that what was proper to any state government was the preservation of the received order. The duty of the citizen of the commonwealth was to resist any legislative or constitutional changes to the received order, and to grant a broad [...]

Was Nathaniel Hawthorne a Conservative?

By |2023-05-18T18:02:44-05:00May 18th, 2023|Categories: Conservatism, Featured, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|Tags: |

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s chief accomplishment was his ability to impress “the idea of sin upon a nation which would like to forget it.” By reminding Americans of the power and influence of original sin, Hawthorne maintained that real reform must be first and foremost moral reform, and such reform is not possible until one had remembered [...]

The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War

By |2023-04-25T14:52:16-05:00April 25th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, George Orwell, World War I, World War II|

Does the "socialist-patriot" George Orwell offer a model for us today? Specifically for the young—of left or right—for whom Peter Stansky's book is likely meant to serve as an introduction of sorts? The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War by Peter Stansky (130 pages, Stanford University Press, 2023) Less a brief biography than a lengthy [...]

The Victorian Jacobites

By |2023-03-20T13:14:40-05:00March 14th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, England, History|

Like their British counterparts, the American Jacobites bitterly criticized the damage done to the working class and cities by the industrial system and listening to their neo-feudal critiques one sees similarities with Progressivism and Populism. While these latter movements analyzed from the perspective of the political left, the Jacobites did so from the political right. [...]

The Failure of American Conservatism & the Road Not Taken

By |2023-03-12T11:45:51-05:00March 9th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism|

It is today widely acknowledged that conservatism is in disarray or crisis. There is an obvious need for major rethinking of the meaning of conservatism and of what it means to be an American. This book suggests that the current disorientation springs in large measure from certain long-standing, seemingly chronic weaknesses. What went wrong and [...]

Conservatives, Liberals, & the Purpose of Education

By |2023-03-01T17:27:29-06:00March 1st, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism|

In "Conservatism: A Rediscovery," Yoram Hazony emphasizes the importance of living a conservative life: one in which duty, honor, and a deep respect for family, faith, tradition, and nation are the highest values. The classical purpose of education is about forming young people to be just such kinds of adults. Political philosopher Yoram Hazony’s latest [...]

T.S. Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday”

By |2024-02-13T20:46:22-06:00February 21st, 2023|Categories: Ash Wednesday, Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Lent, Literature, T.S. Eliot, Timeless Essays|

T.S. Eliot’s “Ash-Wednesday,” a monumental work—the Purgatorio between the Inferno of “The Waste-land” and the Paradiso of the “Four Quartets”—has always been, as long as I can remember in my adult life, a comfort and a mystery to me. I assume it remained as such even to the Great Bard of the Twentieth Century himself. [...]

Choosing Southernness, Choosing My Father’s Way

By |2023-07-31T23:58:42-05:00February 12th, 2023|Categories: Conservatism, Featured, Mark Malvasi, South, Timeless Essays, Tradition|

Southern ways are held up to ridicule, and Southern virtues are out of fashion. But because Southerners think, believe, live and act within an inheritance, they enjoy a sense of confidence, faith and stability that may prove an invaluable asset as the foundations of our society begin to collapse. Late in August 1965, a young [...]

Conservatism Stands for the Common Person

By |2023-02-07T16:58:58-06:00February 6th, 2023|Categories: Conservatism, Populism|

The left has mischaracterized conservatism for nearly a century, and the left’s hold on the media has entrenched this distortion. But conservatism now possesses a prime opportunity to break free of this mischaracterization. In contrast to the left’s creed of division and anger, conservatism can become the voice of joy and gratitude. Populism has acquired [...]

The Democracy of the Unborn

By |2023-01-30T14:21:36-06:00January 30th, 2023|Categories: Abortion, Conservatism, Edmund Burke, Liberalism, Timeless Essays, Tradition|

Society has been reduced to those living in the present; but in being reduced, it has excluded the democracy of the dead and unborn. We, in the present, must fight for this most obscure of all classes. In the abortion debate, one of the pro-choice arguments is based on the idea of “personhood.” Personhood is [...]

What Is It Now That Conservatives Must Conserve?

By |2023-01-25T10:59:33-06:00January 25th, 2023|Categories: Conservatism, Pat Buchanan, Politics, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

What is the conservative’s role in an America many believe has not only lost its way but seems to be losing its mind? What is it now that conservatives must conserve? In light of the great Patrick J. Buchanan’s just-announced retirement, we are republishing this excellent essay, which first appeared in our pages in 2012. [...]

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