The Conservative Mind
Dr. Michael P. Federici is a Senior Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center. He is also Professor and former Chair of the Department of Political Science and Global Affairs at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where he currently serves as Faculty Senate President. He previously taught for twenty-four years at Mercyhurst University, where he chaired the department for seven years, served as Faculty Senate President, and sat on the university’s Board of Trustees. Federici earned his B.S. in economics from Elizabethtown College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in politics from The Catholic University of America. In addition to numerous scholarly articles and reviews, he is the author or editor of six books, including The Challenge of Populism (1991), Eric Voegelin: The Restoration of Order (2002), The Political Philosophy of Alexander Hamilton (2012), Rethinking the Teaching of American History (edited, 2012), The Culture of Immodesty in American Life and Politics (co-edited, 2013), and The Catholic Writings of Orestes Brownson (2019).
Time: Wednesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 pm ET
Dates: April 15, 22, 29; May 6, 13
Faculty: Dr. Michael Federici
Location: Online
Tuition: $100 (waived for students)
Course Description — On the eve of the publication of Russell Kirk’s 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, most intellectuals did not consider conservatism to be a viable tradition in America. Lionel Trilling, one of the country’s leading literary critics, famously summed up the prevailing attitude. “In the United States,” he insisted, “liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition.” Conservatism, he argued, was not a serious intellectual tradition, but instead an expression of “irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.”
After Russell Kirk published The Conservative Mind, however, this prevailing view was challenged. In particular, Kirk’s landmark text showed an intellectual genealogy of the foremost conservative statesmen, poets, clergymen, and scholars in the Anglo-American world. Importantly, he also clarified the idea of conservatism by contrasting it with ideology, and by identifying certain principles that reflect genuine conservative thinking.
Therefore, this virtual master class explores Russell Kirk’s conservative principles as found in The Conservative Mind. Then, while reading selected chapters and excerpts from Kirk’s landmark book, the class examines some of the seminal thinkers in the Anglo-American tradition—including Burke, Adams, Coleridge, Scott, Newman, Brownson, Babbitt, and others—as a way to better understand intellectual conservatism. Through all of this, students will keep in mind what it means to say that conservatism is a disposition of character, a way of thinking, a habit of mind.
In addition to Dr. Federici’s expertise, this course will occasionally feature guest lecturers who are leading scholars of the major figures under study.
Applications are due by March 30, 2026. Class size is intentionally limited to allow for ample participant conversation. Please send a resume and letter of interest to Dr. Darrell Falconburg, Academic Program Officer, at dfalconburg@kirkcenter.org.