In Praise of Latin
We never forget our Latin teacher, it has often been said. How true it is for others of my generation, I cannot say, but I most assuredly remember mine. In our small high school, situated in the remote Adirondack mountain fastness of northern New York, we had an...Forgotten Name, Enduring Legacy
Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth by Michael C. Toth (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2011). 240 pages, $25. When American schoolchildren study the Constitutional Convention, they typically learn a few names—Madison, Randolph, Patterson, Washington—and few...Universities: American, European, Third World
The literature and documentation of our educational decline have grown enormously in the last quarter-century, but we have now reached the moment when we may see education in perspective. Perspective in this case means the retrospective and prospective glance—but also...Peter J. Stanlis (1920–2011)
Peter Stanlis, who died on July 18, aged 91, was Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, at Rockford College and a world authority on Edmund Burke and Robert Frost. His scholarship and sheer intellectual courage reconfigured Burke studies by expounding the...Robert Nisbet and the Idea of Community
A “Best of the Bookman” essay from 1978 discusses Robert Nisbet’s understanding of community and in particular his reading of the great sociologists on the subject of the severe and even pathological isolation of the individual in modern society. By Fred Donovan...Peter Stanlis, RIP
Dr. Peter J. Stanlis has died. He was a great friend of Russell Kirk and the Kirk Center and a great scholar. We have posted a remembrance of him by Senior Fellow Ian Crowe in the University Bookman. In addition, we would like to call our readers’ attention to two...Karl von Habsburg on Russell Kirk
Von Habsburg speaks on the influence of Russell Kirk in Europe. This video is from a 2000 celebration in Prague for the publication of The Conservative Mind in Czech.You can watch it on Vimeo. Running time: 08:10. Karl von Habsburg is the son of Otto von Habsburg....Video on the Influence of Russell Kirk in Europe
Karl von Habsburg spoke at the announcement in Prague in 2000 of the Czech translation of Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind. The video of his remarks is available here. Karl is the son of Otto von Habsburg, who died in July (we posted a memorial article by...What was the Enlightenment?
A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy by Jonathan Israel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010). Pages xiv, 276. “For what do we live,” Mr. Bennet asked his second daughter, having just read to her...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!