The Conservative Mind by Dr. Russell Kirk, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, still exerts considerable influence over the intellectual elements of American Conservatism. Dr. H. Lee Cheek delivers a lecture on this book for The McConnell Center at the University of Louisville’s “Milestones of the 20th Century: Democracy in America” lecture series. [...]
A History of Political Ideas from Antiquity to the Middle Ages by Philippe Nemo As the first part of a two volume survey of political thought, Philippe Nemo approaches the field of study in a manner different from many American texts. Appealing to readers with “little prior knowledge” of political thought, the author provides a [...]
The “Conjectural Beginning of Human History”[1] is Kant’s attempt to recast the creation story of Genesis. The procreative act of Yahweh is cooperative in the sense heaven and earth are combined, as well as the essence of the Divine and humankind. According to Genesis 2:4, creation is the work of generations (toldoth); however, Kant’s creation [...]
Harry Jaffa and Mel Bradford Part II of “Not in Memoriam, But in Affirmation: Mel Bradford’s Scholarly Legacy at 20” (Part I) Mel Bradford’s interest in the Founding follows naturally from his Agrarianism. He believed that, unlike the French and Russian Revolutions, America’s was a conservative revolution. Both the Declaration of Independence [...]
Part I of “Not in Memoriam, But in Affirmation: Mel Bradford’s Scholarly Legacy at 20” The late Mel Bradford (1934-1993) was truly one of the giants of the postwar conservative intellectual movement. A Texan (born in Fort Worth), Bradford earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in English at the University of Oklahoma before going [...]
Tocqueville: The Aristocratic Sources of Liberty by Lucien Jaume While this profound, and elegantly written and translated work, will not appeal to all scholars of political thought, Lucien Jaume (Centre Recherche Politiques de Sciences Po) nevertheless provides many insights into the life and work of the great French student of American social and political life. [...]
Considering the large role he played in our nation’s past, Georgia’s Alexander Stephens deserves more than a footnote in our history. Limited by a popular and academic culture at the beginning of the 21st century that denigrates the past and places too much confidence in the present, the thoughtful student of Georgia politics and [...]
A Review of William H. F. Altman’s Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: The Philosopher of the Second Reich (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2013). In this imaginative and refined commentary on Nietzsche’s political thought, Altman provides an incisive critique of the achievement of Nietzsche, as well as his limitations. The work is the third volume of a trilogy on [...]
H. Lee Cheek The Wise Men Know What Wicked Things Are Written on the Sky, by Russell Kirk Wise Men is a collection of 11 lively essays by the wise old sage who was contemporary conservatism’s most able prophet. The Kirk neophyte will find these essays most alluring; it is unusual to experience [...]
The purpose of this essay is to elucidate the importance of Plato’s commitment to rational discourse in the Apology and Gorgias. Both dialogues chronicle the transfer of authority from the destructive world of Athens to the philosophers. The organization of politics and society, according to Plato, is determined by the orderliness of the souls of its citizens. The [...]
Political Philosophy: A Historical Introduction by Michael J. White […]
H. Lee Cheek In many regards, 2012 has been a troubling, nay, bewildering year. 2013 offers the possibility of a recovery and the renewal of our political tradition. Here are the books that I am giving as Christmas gifts. Kevin Gutzman’s James Madison and the Making of America (St. Martins, 2012), offers [...]
As the recent petitions to the White House confirm, secession is an idea that never goes away. The verb “secede” is derived from the Latin “secessio,” meaning any act of withdrawal. Originally introduced in the seventeenth century as a concept of ecclesiastical discourse and political theory, secession assumes the existence of the modern state, [...]
Francis Graham Wilson Francis Graham Wilson (1901-1976), an eminent political scientist, lifelong scholar of public opinion, and a central figure in the postwar American conservative intellectual movement, was born near Junction, Texas, to Horace Ernest and Stella Jane (Graham) Wilson. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1923 and earned a [...]