What the West Has Given the World

By |2021-05-03T15:06:32-05:00September 5th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Featured, Great Books, Philosophy, Plato, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

While the West has made more than its share of mistakes, it has also done some things better than any other civilization, or, at the very least, introduced things to the world that the world then claimed for all of humanity. For those of us who still love Western civilization and consider ourselves loyal patriots [...]

When Men Became Human: Christopher Dawson’s 500 BC

By |2021-05-24T14:59:03-05:00August 30th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christopher Dawson, History, Natural Law, Philosophy|

Though Christopher Dawson remained unsure why the Natural Law developed, he did not hesitate to celebrate it. He remained firmly convinced that the development of Natural Law did not randomly emerge from individual genius, but rather believed that individual genius arose out of the various traditions and norms of each people. As a historian and [...]

How Christopher Dawson Tried to Save History

By |2018-10-11T23:01:35-05:00August 21st, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christopher Dawson, Featured, History, Humanities, Politics|

Christopher Dawson stood as an antagonist against the conformity of progressive and professional history, and he rightly noted that such history negates not just personality but the very essence of creativity itself… While the domestic violence (criminals, cops, mobs) of this summer pales in comparison to the outrageous behaviors of the previous one, our season [...]

Bruce Timm’s “Batman”: Virtue in a Fallen World

By |2017-08-18T08:14:09-05:00August 17th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Culture, Film, Modernity|

Bruce Timm’s Batman is a critical marker for modern Western civilization, reminding us that the war is always worth waging, even in the twilight… Bruce Timm Twenty-five years ago, on September 5, 1992, a very young Bruce Timm aired the first episode of a self-contained but what would become an expansive universe, now [...]

Amos Kendall: A Great, Unremembered American

By |2020-09-14T16:07:32-05:00August 2nd, 2017|Categories: American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Ethics, Government, History, Politics, Presidency|

 It is our loss that Amos Kendall, who helped Andrew Jackson rid government of corruption, remains to this day one of the least known of all nineteenth-century American statesmen. Of all of those in his informal circle of advisors during his presidency, none mattered as much to Andrew Jackson as Amos Kendall, a steadfast friend [...]

What If? The Moral Imagination of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”

By |2017-08-31T12:02:36-05:00July 27th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Charity, Christianity, Conservatism, Edmund Burke, Film, Moral Imagination, Senior Contributors|

The story of Beauty and the Beast is the oldest story in the Christian world. It’s the story about love, sacrifice, and redemption… Several nights ago, I reluctantly watched Disney’s 2017 live version of Beauty and the Beast. I must admit three things before I get into the heart of this essay. First, I’ve never [...]

Andrew Jackson’s Duel With John Sevier

By |2021-01-29T15:52:34-06:00July 18th, 2017|Categories: American West, Bradley J. Birzer, Culture, History, Senior Contributors|

To the men of Andrew Jackson’s era, the following or breaking of the rules of dueling signified much about one’s own character and what one thought of his opponent’s character. Once the two men agreed to having been satisfied in the duel, a strong friendship might resume. From the very origins of colonial America, public [...]

Tolkien’s Tea Club

By |2018-12-26T14:48:26-06:00July 7th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Friendship, Imagination, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature|

Through the Tea Club he formed with his young classmates, J.R.R. Tolkien felt his first comradery among friends dedicated to something higher than themselves… Long before Tolkien began his own personal mythology, he had already lived a rather full life. Joy as well as tragedy had filled it. His father had passed away while Tolkien, [...]

How Coherent Were the Inklings?

By |2019-01-07T13:56:29-06:00June 30th, 2017|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Featured, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien|

Religion shaped the Inklings as much or even more than did whatever generational zeitgeist one might want to attribute to the group… Though not the best-known Inkling, Adam Fox had the privilege of being the first of the group to arrive in this world. Through no choice of his own, he appeared on July 13, [...]

C.S. Lewis: Ulsterman

By |2021-04-29T09:30:04-05:00June 22nd, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, Catholicism, Christianity|

C.S. Lewis’ assent and ascent to Christianity would be laborious and always deeply intellectual, guided and influenced by Catholicism even as the Romanists repulsed him. “Outside a life of literary study, life has no meaning or attraction for him,” W. T. Kirkpatrick, C.S. Lewis’s tutor, informed his father. “He is adapted for nothing else. You [...]

The French Revolution: Did Edmund Burke Lose His Mind?

By |2022-07-13T18:29:49-05:00May 24th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Edmund Burke, Edmund Burke series by Bradley Birzer, History, Liberty, Revolution|

Thomas Paine and others charged that Edmund Burke unhesitatingly defended the French monarchy, monarchy in general, corruption in the Church, and oppressive governments, as long as they provided stability. But is this true? When challenging the “coffee-house” radicals who were so gleefully leading the French into generations of ruin through their mad abstractions, Edmund Burke [...]

Peter Lawler, Rest in Peace

By |2021-04-27T21:30:52-05:00May 23rd, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Liberal Learning, Peter A. Lawler|

Rather gruff and rumpled-looking, Peter Lawler was absolutely and always his own man. Not from an elite or Ivy League background, Peter nevertheless could have, and often did, run complete circles around his intellectual opponents, many of whom thought themselves superior. An American original and an anti-individualist individual, he was the very personification of a healthy [...]

The Role of the University in the Twilight of the West

By |2018-10-30T14:31:11-05:00May 16th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Education, Featured, Robert Nisbet, Tradition|

The primary purpose of the university is to preserve the great ideas of the past and to introduce the present generation to timeless conversations, thus preserving such wisdom for countless and unknown future generations… Conservatives rarely remember the profound influence Robert A. Nisbet (1913-1996) had on the press, academia, and the public at large in [...]

Remembering The Road to Serfdom

By |2019-10-16T15:48:39-05:00May 11th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Economics, Free Markets, Friedrich Hayek, History, World War II|

Friedrich Hayek believed that the very institutions of liberalism and republicanism, when misused, can foster the totalitarianism of democracy… The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek (University of Chicago Press, 1944) Professor Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) wrote The Road to Serfdom while a professor at the London School of Economics as the allied war [...]

Go to Top