“I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy, By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.” —Walt Whitman [1] Ronald Reagan’s vision of America’s role in the world, especially as it was expressed in his presidential speeches, continues to resonate with many Americans. President George [...]
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and [...]
A good friend of mine and a man I respect immensely, Hunter Baker, warned me to finish Isaacson’s long biography of Steve Jobs before passing too much judgment on the life and personality of the technology genius. Another close friend (a fellow Apple fanatic going back to the 1980s when we were debate colleagues and [...]
The contrast in the ways historians John Patrick Diggins and Robert Griffith describe Eisenhower seems odd. How could the pictures of one president who served a half-century ago diametrically oppose each other? The answer lies in the fundamental difference in the way the two historians practice history. The Imaginative Conservative recently published Dr. John Willson's [...]
Pat Buchanan Early in Ronald Reagan’s second term, Bill Rusher, the publisher of National Review, was interviewing the president in the Oval Office for a documentary on the conservative movement. Rusher asked how he would describe Barry Goldwater’s role. Reagan thought a moment and replied: I guess you would have to call him [...]
Democracy and Leadership by Irving Babbitt. Foreword by Russell Kirk, Liberty Classics, 1979, 390 pp. The appearance of a new edition of Irving Babbitt’s Democracy and Leadership (first published in 1924) is one sign among many that interest in this controversial thinker is growing markedly. Several scholarly studies related to his work have been published [...]
The cowardly behavior of the Italian captain who recently fled his sinking ship reminds me of James Hamilton, Jr., for whom “women and children first” meant something. James Hamilton (1786-1857) was born near Charleston on May 8, 1786 to James Hamilton, Sr., a rice planter, and his wife Elizabeth Lynch. He was educated at Newport, [...]
There are a good many Americans who talk about an American century in which America will dominate the world. They rightly point out that the United States is so powerful today that we should assume a moral leadership in the world…The trouble with those who advocate this policy is that they really do not confine [...]
(Some thoughts on Brad Birzer’s recent post.) Brad, you make a number of important points in this letter. I would like to consider your letter in light of the following concerns. Can Rep. Walberg and other Republicans make the argument that since they only control the house in opposition to the Senate and the White [...]
Why the Fame? Given John Adams’s liabilities–his prickly personality, several career setbacks, and the inconvenient fact that his presidency was shoehorned between that of eminent Virginians–it is hardly surprising that his revival came so late–200 years after his retirement from public life. I’d argue that it is not justifiable to give all the credit to [...]
John Adams has finally gotten the fame he craved, but it was a long time coming over a rough road. Already as a young man he tortured himself thinking about a future without fame. John Adams has finally gotten the fame he craved, but it was a long time coming over a rough road. Already [...]
John Adams’ public life makes for a compelling story. Consider the number of firsts that he is associated with during the early days of the republic. Once Forgotten Founding Father and Philosopher President Makes a Comeback…. Why? Ten years ago, David McCullough told audiences something that still has the capacity to surprise us. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author said [...]
Irving Babbitt Democracy and Leadership, first published in 1924, still is in print at the end of a whole generation. This new printing indicates how little ephemerae found their way into the body of Babbitt’s writings, and how he foresaw, far more clearly than his opponent John Dewey, the great issues of the [...]
I watched the entire series, “The Kennedys.” As someone who has a sound understanding of human nature (that is to say, a Christian understanding) I was never particularly attracted to what historian Thomas Reeves calls “The Camelot School” of Kennedy historiography, nor particularly repelled by it. Anybody who is surprised by occasional flashes of virtue [...]