Waiting for Odysseus: The Tale of Argos

By |2022-02-21T20:59:45-06:00June 6th, 2021|Categories: Essential, Great Books, Homer, Odyssey, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

As enticing as Odysseus’ adventures are, questions remain: what of Penelope, Telemachus, Laertes, and indeed Ithaca left behind? What about their twenty years without a King, a father, a husband, and a son? Odysseus’ brief encounter with his faithful dog Argos demonstrates the price paid by those left behind. When Odysseus, the man of wily [...]

The American College of the Building Arts

By |2021-06-11T09:02:07-05:00May 7th, 2021|Categories: Architecture, Beauty, Culture, Education, Labor/Work, Liberal Arts, Liberal Learning, W. Winston Elliott III|

A. Wade Razzi, Chief Academic Officer at American College of the Building Arts, is interviewed by W. Winston Elliott III, Editor-in-Chief of The Imaginative Conservative. W. Winston Elliott III: Describe ACBA and its mission. The American College of the Building Arts was founded in the wake of Hurricane Hugo, which did massive damage to the [...]

An Ode to Great Books and a Beautiful Library

By |2021-04-24T17:30:14-05:00April 24th, 2021|Categories: Books, Essential, Featured, Libraries, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III, Will Durant, Wisdom|

“If I were rich I would have many books, and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft to the touch, in paper generously opaque, and type such as men designed when printing was very young. I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before [...]

In Honor of Mr. Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday

By |2021-04-13T11:02:20-05:00April 13th, 2021|Categories: Clyde Wilson, Russell Kirk, Thomas Jefferson, 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 [...]

A Decade of Hope-Filled Conservatism

By |2020-12-23T00:12:05-06:00July 9th, 2020|Categories: Christianity, Cicero, Conservatism, Essential, Hope, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

I pray that The Imaginative Conservative offers a conservatism of thought and imagination in the hope of preserving the best of the Western tradition and restoring the virtue of our Republic. After a decade of faithful effort we continue to persevere and pray. […]

A Unique Liberal Learning Opportunity

By |2022-09-17T19:02:35-05:00June 1st, 2020|Categories: Education, Liberal Arts, Liberal Learning, St. John's College, W. Winston Elliott III|

Becoming educated is a process of becoming intellectually free so as to be capable of thinking for oneself, engaging in ongoing learning and inquiry, and achieving inner freedom. St. John’s College believes that the life of the mind is crucial to full human flourishing. Loyal readers of The Imaginative Conservative have been given many opportunities [...]

Homer’s “Odyssey” and What It Means to Be Human

By |2020-05-22T00:16:16-05:00April 4th, 2020|Categories: Books, Gleaves Whitney, Great Books, Greek Epic Poetry, Homer, Imagination, Literature, Odyssey, W. Winston Elliott III|

As we are forced into isolation and confronted by our mortality in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we begin to ask ourselves an important question: What does it mean to be human? Gleaves Whitney, Director of Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, and Winston Elliott III, The Imaginative Conservative’s Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, [...]

From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition

By |2021-04-22T18:17:31-05:00April 12th, 2019|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Books, Clyde Wilson, Essential, Republicanism, Thomas Jefferson, Timeless Essays, W. Winston Elliott III|

From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition by Clyde N. Wilson (356 pages, The Foundation for American Education, 2003) “To check power, to return the American empire to republicanism we do not need to resort to the drastic right of revolution nor to the destructive goal of anarchic individualism. We have in the [...]

Firing the Imagination: The Legacy of Russell Kirk

By |2022-04-28T16:32:55-05:00October 19th, 2018|Categories: Conservatism, Prospects for Conservatives, Russell Kirk, The Imaginative Conservative, W. Winston Elliott III|

Russell Kirk offers us a rich legacy in words and deeds. If we heed them we may yet play our part in preserving our Republic’s ordered liberty. The thought of Dr. Russell Kirk has inspired many people and many projects, including the journal that you are now reading. Founded by Dr. Bradley Birzer and myself [...]

“Russell Kirk: American Conservative” — A Definitive Biography

By |2022-10-07T12:12:47-05:00September 1st, 2016|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Featured, Russell Kirk, W. Winston Elliott III|

The Imaginative Conservative’s co-founder and editor-at-large, Bradley J. Birzer, has received another award for his outstanding, new biography of seminal conservative thinker, Russell Kirk. Following on the heels of The Imaginative Conservative’s own 2015 Book of the Year Award, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has announced that Dr. Birzer has won the 2016 Henry and Anne [...]

Four Ways to Help The Imaginative Conservative

By |2023-03-30T19:24:22-05:00January 20th, 2016|Categories: Support The Imaginative Conservative, The Imaginative Conservative, W. Winston Elliott III|

Do you enjoy reading our reasoned and reflective essays at The Imaginative Conservative, as we pursue the Good, the True, and the Beautiful? Do you enjoy engaging in discussions of culture, history, politics, and economics, in the tradition of Russell Kirk, Edmund Burke, Richard Weaver, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson, and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism? Do [...]

Russell Kirk: American Conservative – Imaginative Conservative 2015 Book of the Year

By |2016-11-04T19:18:26-05:00January 1st, 2016|Categories: Book of the Year, Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Russell Kirk, W. Winston Elliott III|

The Imaginative Conservative is pleased to announce its 2015 Book of the Year: Bradley J. Birzer's Russell Kirk: American Conservative. This is the first in what will be an annual recognition given by the editors of The Imaginative Conservative to the book published during the calendar year that best enhances our understanding of conservatism. As Robert Stacey said in his review in [...]

Five Candles, Each Blazing

By |2015-07-10T11:08:52-05:00July 10th, 2015|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, The Imaginative Conservative, W. Winston Elliott III|

Winston Elliott III & Brad Birzer For those of you who do not know, Winston Elliott is the mastermind behind this whole venture, The Imaginative Conservative. I first met Winston twenty summers ago—at a conference he sponsored in Houston, summer 1995. I was still in graduate school at the time, living in Bloomington, Indiana. [...]

In Gratitude & Hope: The Adventure Continues

By |2016-11-04T19:18:27-05:00July 10th, 2015|Categories: The Imaginative Conservative, W. Winston Elliott III|

Today we celebrate the five-year anniversary of The Imaginative Conservative. While it is true that we first published on July 10, 2010, the seeds of our efforts were planted much earlier. Friendships of decades, books inherited from the past, and lives spent in pursuit of eternal truths are the foundations of The Imaginative Conservative community. Among our writers many share friendships which help us to [...]

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