Revolution

Manifest Destiny and the American Nimrods

Standing with his father as they watched the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, eight-year-old John Quincy Adams must have wondered in amazement at the bloody and brutal nobility of it all. And, what must he have thought...

Edmund Burke on the Rage & Frenzy of the French Revolution

As revolutionary as they claimed to be, the French Revolutionaries were as old as sin, Edmund Burke assured his readers. “Trace them through all their artifices, frauds, and violences,” he argued, and “you can find nothing at all that is new...”

Reflecting on Edmund Burke’s “Reflections”

It would be difficult to find a more beautiful republican thought in all of Edmund Burke’s writings than this: "A man full of warm speculative benevolence may wish his society otherwise constituted than he finds it; but a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how...

Edmund Burke & the French Revolutionaries

The French Revolutionaries, Edmund Burke rightly understood, sought not just the overturning of the old, but, critically, they also desired the destruction of the true, the good, and the beautiful. Only by lying about the nature of the human person could they accomplish their goals...

The Siren Song of Anarchy in Western Art & Literature

The image of reason cut adrift and order overthrown are universal symbols of enormous and compelling power. Each of us sees in the dethronement of discipline and order an immediate personal advantage... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join...

The Reformation Then and Now

While the Reformation divided the Church, it must be said that it was brought on by her own inability and unwillingness to repent and turn to the Gospel. We can see some of the same trends today in our society and Church. For this Reformation Day, therefore,...

Should Conservatism Seek to Destroy the State?

For their own sake, as well as the sake of the civilization which they love, conservatives can and should deny the state’s legitimacy, on the grounds that it is destructive of the true, the good, and the beautiful...

At the Center of the Storm: John Sullivan of New Hampshire

Controversy surrounds the story of John Sullivan's life. Yet he is among the representative Americans of his time—gen­erous to a fault, jealous of his personal honor, optimistic, gregarious, ambitious, and "larger than life"... John Sullivan

The French Revolution: Did Edmund Burke Lose His Mind?

Edmund Burke did love order, and he also loved the ordered soul and the ordered society—the one in which men freely pursued the good, the true, and the beautiful... When challenging the "coffee-house" radicals who were...

The American and French Revolutions Compared

Americans turned to the concrete lessons of history and experience to guide them in securing their liberty. The French, on the other hand, deified Reason above not only experience, but also above religion and divine revelation... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the...

Prudence vs. Fanaticism: On the American & French Revolutions

The American and French Revolutions provide a contrast between principle and ideology; between prudence and fanaticism; between prescriptive rights and extravagant ambitions; between historical wisdom and utopianism; between free government and democratic despotism... A little book forgotten...

The Siren Song of Anarchy in Western Art and Literature

The image of reason cut adrift and order overthrown are universal symbols of enormous and compelling power. Each of us sees in the dethronement of discipline and order an immediate personal advantage... ...

Locating the Tory Tradition in American History

We ought to locate the basis of American conservatism in our colonial past, at a time when the English Tory variant of the old order of Europe had a real presence in our civilization, and we ought to remember that the old Tory order survived in the...

Edmund Burke, Ideologues, & Subdivisions

When Edmund Burke surveyed the names of those leading the French Revolution in its first half year of existence in 1789, he despaired. Several were certainly good men, he noted, and many were quite accomplished. Yet, not...