A society beset with historical amnesia is a dangerous one. History in the 21st-century academy has been warped into “social studies,” where the past is studied through the lenses of sociology and psychology. We conservatives need to promote a society that understands that studying the past as it happened is vital to the success of [...]
Historiography is not an exchange in the marketplace but a fight on the battlefield. It has a particular point of view on the past and punishes opponents; it is power politics masked as tolerant neutrality. The Left—like those behind the 1619 Project—understand the stakes and are fighting to maintain their legitimacy. It is time the Right [...]
Robert Salyer’s “A Primer on the Right” lays out the implicit foundational principles for the modern Right and Left. Whether or not the reader agrees with his definition, it is surely in everyone’s interest that we think more seriously about the fundamental divides which mark 21st-century politics. A Primer on the Right: The Challenge of [...]
The progressive left seems to want us to become something akin to social democratic Europe with all its cultural trimmings, while the right wants us to remain more like the America of old. To satisfy both parties, is the answer for the United States of America to become like the Europe of old? Just where [...]
The progressive vision of history should give any intelligent and humane person pause. The progressive vision demands conflict; in its understanding, history is made up of winners and losers. This flies directly against the long tradition of republican and Judeo-Christian thought that calls for the “common good,” not the greater good of those with might. [...]
Conservatives tend to be skeptical about the doom-and-gloom scenarios that are being presented as absolute certainties unless the country as a whole is essentially shut down for months. Many have called us “deniers” or accused us of valuing money over human life. But I believe that this skepticism is both eminently reasonable and will prove [...]
Proclamation on the 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket for the Defense of Religious Liberty Today is the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket on December 29, 1170. Thomas Becket was a statesman, a scholar, a chancellor, a priest, an archbishop, and a lion of religious liberty. Before the [...]
Unlike most European languages, in which there is a formal and an informal mode of addressing someone else, the English word “you” lacks this distinction and the tremendous psychological barrier that accompanies it, and was thus crucial to promoting political democracy and social democracy. There are many, many things that strongly affect a person or [...]
While it’s tempting to compare the 2020 dispute with 2000, since most of the players in that drama are, well, still alive, the real parallels are with 1876 and 1824—for different reasons. The U.S. Supreme Court may prefer to avoid wading into yet another presidential race 20 years after Bush v. Gore. It may never [...]
In a victory for transgender rights, the Supreme Court recently rejected a case brought by parents against an Oregon high school that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice based on the gender with which they identify. The “conservative” justices on the bench have failed to distinguish sexual orientation or gender confusion [...]
Radicals believe schools are instruments of power, but such schooling is false and a corruption of the thing itself. Radical schools are not bad schools; they are ideological shams pretending to be schools. Genuine schooling is oriented toward truth and cultivates wisdom and virtue. According to Russell Kirk, “to the radical—communist, or fascist, or socialist, [...]
Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau stand at contrary poles in their assessments of the Enlightenment. As modern citizens grapple with the choice between cosmopolitan integration into the global community and a civic affection for their particular society, they will be forced to confront the arguments advanced by these thinkers almost three centuries ago. Introduction At [...]
Though secession is unlikely, a secession of the heart has already taken place in America. We are two nations, two peoples seemingly separated indefinitely. Can a nation so divided as ours, racially, ideologically, religiously, still do great things together, as did the America of days gone by, to the amazement of the world? When the [...]
The truly formidable challenge for a President Biden will be China, which is not the China of 2016 that Vice President Biden recalls. The Biden-Harris administration will confront "a pandemic, an economic crisis, calls for racial justice and climate change. The team being assembled will meet these challenges on Day One." So declares the transition [...]