Welcome Home to the Russell Kirk Center
Strengthening America’s Tradition of Order, Justice & Freedom
The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal aims to recover, conserve, and enliven those enduring norms and principles that Russell Kirk (1918–1994) called the Permanent Things. Explore the Center’s programs, publications, and fellowships and join with us to continue Kirk’s work to renew our culture and redeem our time.
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At the Kirk Center
Events
October 23: Educational Event at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation — William F. Buckley Jr. at 100
October 28: Book Gallery — Kirktober 2025: James Panero and Adam Simon on the Haunted House
November 19: Prize Gala at the National Press Club in Washington, DC —The Richard D. McLellan Prizes for Advancing Free Speech & Expression
Mecosta House Books
Explore Mecosta House
At Mecosta House, we aim to combine with the Kirk Center’s programs to foster an intellectual community dedicated to exploring the wisdom of our predecessors while forging a new conservative humanism.
We hope our readers will be edified by the titles we publish, and that they will strengthen the programs and the courses we will introduce at the Kirk Center as part of our School of Conservative Studies. David Hein’s Teaching the Virtues offers a fresh look at a perennial educational aim—encouraging virtue in the next generation, and we are proud to present it as our first book.
From the University Bookman
The Case Against Buckley
“From the geography of Sharon to the faculty at Yale, Buckley took on an entrenched progressive elite. His great achievement was to manifest an alternative American aristocracy, a counter-elite that took full form in the presidency of Ronald Reagan.”
Latest Pieces
Beyond Stoicism
“The revival in interest in stoicism should not surprise. Stoic philosophy naturally attracts adherents in troubled times: it summons to duty, educates in constancy, and inspires self-mastery because it speaks to perennial human needs.”
Aliens to Life
“…the mundane activities of ‘waiting in line, writing by hand, remote learning, navigation, boredom’ may be the only thing keeping us from becoming machines.”
The Postwar British Conservative Movement
“Kowol identifies three prominent stands within the conservative movement in Britain that, to use Nash’s words, wanted ‘to change it, restore it, preserve it.'”
Leisure and the Lost Ascent
“…leisure cannot be achieved when it is sought as a means to an end, even if that end is something as noble as the salvation of Western civilization. The ultimate root of leisure, divine worship, is beyond the reach of the human will. Though leisure requires willing openness to God’s grace, even that openness is itself a grace.”
William F. Buckley’s Cold War
“The conservative’s vocation is to remind the world that the soul was made for eternity, not bondage in barbed wire. We have the examples of great statesmen, writers, and thinkers to inspire our efforts at defending a humane freedom. The example of Buckley’s life and work, which truly culminated in our last true victory over totalitarianism, is one of the best conservatives could look towards now.”
About the Bookman
For six decades, the University Bookman, founded by Russell Kirk, has identified and discussed those books that diagnose the modern age and support the renewal of culture and the common good. Currently published online, the Bookman continues its mission of examining our times in light of the Permanent Things that make us human.
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