The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) Participant Writes Article on Visiting the Kirk Center for National Review
We hope you enjoy this essay from recent seminar participant, Bobby Miller:
Kirk’s life was consumed with the recuperation and preservation of what he called ‘permanent things.’ As he put it:
‘There are certain permanent things in society: the health of the family, inherited political institutions that ensure a measure of order and justice and freedom, a life of diversity and independence, a life marked by widespread possession of private property. These permanent things guarantee against arbitrary interference by the state.’
Kirk’s great insight was his identification of these foundational covenants. To be conservative is to champion their cause and to attempt to secure their longevity.
On this three-day trip, I enjoyed the company of other sympathetic young political aspirants — enterprising junior Hill staffers, prospective pundits, and wannabe policy wonks. We work in various positions in and around the nation’s capital, united, on paper, only by our belonging to the political Right. We all began our journey with different priors, perspectives, expectations, and objectives.
More From Our Highlights & News
TFAS Public Policy Fellows Explore The Roots of American Order at Piety Hill
From October 15–18, the Russell Kirk Center welcomed twenty Woodhouse Public Policy Fellows from The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) for a thought-provoking seminar on Russell Kirk’s magisterial The Roots of American Order.The seminar was led by Dr. David...
Eugene Volokh Awarded 2026 Richard D. McLellan Prize for Advancing Free Speech and Expression
Our 2026 McLellan Prizes grand prize recipient is Eugene Volokh, influential legal scholar and fellow at the Hoover Institution.
2026 Public Conference “Reclaiming Authentic Conservatism: Russell Kirk and the Roots of American Order”
Can American constitutionalism be reinvigorated? Can a renewal of moral imagination and historical consciousness recover the roots of order—within the soul and within the Republic?
Public Seminar: Knights, Heroes, and Patriots—Howard Pyle and the Shaping of the American Moral Imagination
What vision of life did Pyle offer—and what in that vision might still guide the formation of moral imagination today?