Russell Kirk (1918-1994) was the author of some thirty-two books, hundreds of periodical essays, and many short stories. Both Time and Newsweek have described him as one of America’s leading thinkers, and The New York Times acknowledged the scale of his influence when in 1998 it wrote that Kirk’s 1953 book The Conservative Mind “gave American conservatives an identity and a genealogy and catalyzed the postwar movement.”

Truth in Crisis

By |2024-04-15T14:10:23-05:00April 14th, 2024|Categories: Catholicism, Conservatism, Pope Benedict XVI, Russell Kirk|

In one of his last writings, Pope Benedict XVI afforded a key insight into the conservative ideal. Though he was writing as a Catholic about Catholic problems, the late pope’s reflections are truly universal. Speaking directly to the sexual abuse crisis that reached fever pitch during his pontificate, Benedict observes: “The crisis caused by the [...]

In Honor of Mr. Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday

By |2024-04-12T18:10:03-05:00April 12th, 2024|Categories: Clyde Wilson, Russell Kirk, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

Here are recommended essays regarding Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) on The Imaginative Conservative: Looking for Mr. Jefferson by Clyde Wilson Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday by Clyde Wilson The Jeffersonian Conservative Tradition by Clyde Wilson Thomas Jefferson, Conservative by Clyde Wilson From Union to Empire by W. Winston Elliott III Was Thomas Jefferson a Philosopher? by Eva Brann [...]

The Measure of Abraham Lincoln

By |2024-02-11T23:10:29-06:00February 11th, 2024|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, Conservatism, Essential, Featured, Presidency, RAK, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Abraham Lincoln never was a doctrinaire; he rose from very low estate to very high estate, and he knew the savagery which lies so close beneath the skin of man, and he knew that most men are good only out of obedience to routine and convention. Whatever the result of the convulsion whose first shocks [...]

Russell Kirk: Christian Humanism and Conservatism

By |2024-02-04T17:11:36-06:00February 4th, 2024|Categories: Christian Humanism, Christianity, Conservatism, G.K. Chesterton, History, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Russell Kirk was aware that others had also claimed the mantle of humanism, but in the name of secularism. The revival of Christian humanism in our time is spurred by the need to respond to the rise of this popular secular humanism and its half-truths. During a dinner conversation with Russell and Annette Kirk in [...]

Invasion of the Ultra-Subtle

By |2024-01-22T22:08:04-06:00January 22nd, 2024|Categories: Books, Liberal Arts, Russell Kirk|

More and more I am convinced that our ultimate human fate will depend on whether or not we succeed in wresting the intellectual life from the professoriate. Doesn't the whole intellectual world stand or fall on this distinction: whether our intellectual understandings are mere inventions, or whether they are authentic discoveries? One purpose of cultivating [...]

Russell Kirk’s “Saviourgate”: Timeless Moments & the Paradisical Journey

By |2024-01-04T13:45:35-06:00January 4th, 2024|Categories: Dante, Ghost Stories, Literature, Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot|

Set in Yorkshire, England on Christmas Eve, Russell Kirk’s short story “Saviourgate” is a story about the soul’s journey through the afterlife. Whereas many ghost stories explore only the diabolical imagination, “Saviourgate” opens up creative possibilities for thinking about life’s timeless moments and how they may be glimpses of paradise. Ghost stories were standard Christmas [...]

Permanent Things: T.S. Eliot’s Conservatism

By |2024-01-03T21:50:31-06:00January 3rd, 2024|Categories: Benjamin Lockerd, Conservatism, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Timeless Essays|

T.S. Eliot’s conservatism is “pre-political,” offering no simple formula for the modern polity. He reminds us that even if we could have our way in the political arena we would be unable to create a perfect society, given our own fallen nature. Such a wise mixture of hope and humility is what can keep conservatism [...]

The Twelve Days of Christmas

By |2023-12-25T13:49:33-06:00December 25th, 2023|Categories: Christmas, RAK, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Don’t mistake me for a spoil-sport: on the contrary, I should like to revive all the good old customs genuinely associated with the joyous season of Christmas. In city after city, I have seen Christmas parades on Thanksgiving Day! One might think that we were celebrating the birth of Mammon, rather than that of Jesus, [...]

“The Conservative Mind” at 70 for Europe

By |2023-11-28T19:54:10-06:00November 28th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

In "The Conservative Mind," Russell Kirk, the father of American modern conservatism, said plainly that America is conservative or nothing, that America is European or nothing, and that conservative ‘European’ America is the only root of and hope for America itself. At 70, Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind is a young book. That work can [...]

Russell Kirk’s “The Conservative Mind” for the Rising Generation

By |2023-11-25T00:16:41-06:00November 24th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

Russell Kirk’s "The Conservative Mind" teaches us the importance of conserving our cultural patrimony and provides us with images of the customs, institutions, and beliefs that we ought to conserve. In this way, Kirk grounds us in the conservative intellectual tradition, from Burke to Eliot, that can stand against the ideologies of our age. Conservatism in [...]

A Guide to Reading Ghost Stories With Russell Kirk

By |2023-10-29T14:31:22-05:00October 29th, 2023|Categories: Literature, Moral Imagination, Robert M. Woods, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

For Russell Kirk, the "ghost tale" may better communicate certain truths when compared to science fiction. His was no Enlightenment mind, Kirk now became aware; it was a Gothic mind, medieval in its temper and structure. —Russell Kirk, The Sword of Imagination As J.R.R. Tolkien assisted many with his most informative essay, On Fairy Stories, [...]

The Haunting of America: Russell Kirk’s Ghostly Fiction

By |2023-10-29T08:15:41-05:00October 27th, 2023|Categories: Ancestral Shadows, Fiction, Imagination, Literature, Mystery, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

The ghost story was the perfect vehicle for Russell Kirk to extend his own sense of awe-filled wonder to a wider audience. He was keenly aware of the need for romance and mystery in everyday life—and how hard it was to achieve it in America. He created for his readers one of those places in [...]

Liberal Learning, Great Books, & Paideia

By |2023-10-24T05:55:19-05:00October 23rd, 2023|Categories: E.B., Education, Eva Brann, Featured, Russell Kirk, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Timeless Essays|

First, I want to say how honored I feel at receiving this prize named after Russell Kirk, an admirable writer, and Paideia, a noble practice. Even those of you who have not studied Greek may recognize what paideia means. It is the same word you can hear in “pediatrics,” the medical care of children, or [...]

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