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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
Thucydides' account of the twenty-seven-year war between Athens and Sparta is filled with timeless questions about human conflict: When are aggression and vengeance justified? Can peace ever truly be secured by war? How does war affect the integrity of language and character? What is the role of chance in war? Is war ever truly inevitable? Additionally, the participants [...]
Historian Jack Rakove talks about James Madison’s role in the creation of the Constitution and his arguments in support of the new frame of government in the Federalist papers. St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, hosted this event as part of its “Great Issues Forum.” Mr. Rakove is introduced by the President of St. John’s College, Christopher [...]
We highly recommend this marvelous pilot episode for The Cosmopolitans, a new series by our friend Whit Stillman. Please watch this witty comedy and take the survey at Amazonoriginals.com so that they will support a complete series. Smart, clever, fun and beautiful cinematography. Well done Mr. Stillman! Read Richard Brody’s review in The New Yorker and essays [...]
Brief reflections on Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World In this sublime work Henri Nouwen offers to readers: “The greatest gift my friendship can give to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn’t that what friendship is [...]
It is with sadness that we learned of the death yesterday of a great man, Stratford Caldecott, a Senior Contributor to The Imaginative Conservative. Stratford graced our pages with some sixty-six essays, on such wonderful and varied topics as: the nature of the human soul; the essence of beauty; the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien; the philosophy of G.K. Chesterton; Prince Charles as [...]
And, so it begins. The Hillsdale offices of The Imaginative Conservative have officially closed. Dr. Miles Smith IV will, happily, reside in what housed them for the next twelve months in southern Michigan. Just as true, the Longmont offices of The Imaginative Conservative are now open for business. Of course, HQ remains in Houston. But, [...]
Bradley J. Birzer has been appointed the second Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, the University of Colorado Boulder announced today. Dr. Birzer, a professor of history and the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies at Hillsdale College in Michigan, will begin his one-year appointment beginning in fall 2014. “Dr. Birzer brings impressive [...]
The Imaginative Conservative is pleased to announce that Stephen Klugewicz has joined its staff as Editor. Dr. Klugewicz previously served as president of Franklin’s Opus, as headmaster of Regina Luminis Academy, as director of education at the National Constitution Center, and as executive director of the Collegiate Network. He is the co-editor of History, on Proper Principles: Essays in [...]
As far back as I can remember, my mother always had new books to offer me. When I was just staring to read, she gave me Dr. Seuss and Richard Scary books. These were my favorites. As soon as I was old enough to ride my bike any distance at all, she had me get [...]
The Common Mind by Andre Gushurst-Moore A hallmark of the current age is the ease with which it embraces any number of rival moral narratives in the name of “open-mindedness” or “diversity.” Indeed, the thousand and one “isms” that are impossibly espoused serve only to erode further even the very concept of a common culture. [...]