Decadence and Its Critics

By |2021-05-19T01:24:10-05:00August 12th, 2018|Categories: Civil Society, Civilization, Conservatism, Culture, Gleaves Whitney, Great Books, Modernity, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

If conservatives can pin down the idea of decadence while avoiding shrill tones, they may go far in explaining what it means for a civilization to decline… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Gleaves Whitney as he explores how conservative critics may articulate the standard by which to [...]

The Progeny of Jefferson and Adams

By |2021-04-22T19:09:02-05:00December 27th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Featured, Gleaves Whitney, History, John Adams, Stephen Tonsor series, Thomas Jefferson|

All Americans tend to look at the nation either as disciples of Jefferson or as disciples of Adams: Jefferson told Americans what they wanted to hear; Adams told Americans what they needed to know… I. I was having a beer with a couple of other graduate students. We were looking out onto State Street, enjoying [...]

Is a “Liberal Conservative” an Oxymoron?

By |2021-05-19T01:26:34-05:00November 1st, 2017|Categories: Alexis de Tocqueville, Conservatism, Featured, Freedom, Gleaves Whitney, History, Liberalism, Liberty, Politics, Russell Kirk, Stephen Tonsor series|

The liberal conservative must be discerning. For he believes in freedom as well as in order. He believes in individualism as well as in community. He believes in the equality of all men as well as in hierarchy, natural aristocracy, and excellence… After the trip to Washington, DC, where I thrilled at seeing the U.S. [...]

Socrates and Free Government

By |2021-04-29T09:50:29-05:00October 25th, 2017|Categories: Apology, Gleaves Whitney, History, Plato, Socrates, Stephen Tonsor series|

A free government is only sustainable if citizens can govern themselves. Socrates patiently revealed, through conversations that held a mirror up to fellow citizens, that they did not sufficiently understand such basic concepts as justice, piety, virtue, truth, and goodness when applied to themselves. Yet they presumed to govern others? Author's Note: Following is my revised [...]

Stephen Tonsor on Intellectual History & Equality

By |2021-05-19T01:28:17-05:00October 9th, 2017|Categories: Education, Equality, Freedom, Gleaves Whitney, History, Stephen Tonsor series|

Ideologues have been manipulating the idea of equality for two centuries now. Still, it is equality that has provided the dynamism, the moving force that has energized modern history. The great liberal and leftist revolutions of the past two centuries have all been made in the name of equality…   After we began the walk [...]

The South & the American Iliad

By |2021-05-19T01:29:36-05:00September 26th, 2017|Categories: Civil War, Gleaves Whitney, History, South, Stephen Tonsor series|

Because the Civil War is the American Iliad, it is constantly being refought in the public memory. Much is at stake, for myths make meaning, meaning makes politics, and politics make myths… Jesse Jackson made a remarkable run for the presidency in the early months of 1988—two decades before America would elect its first black [...]

America: Liberal or Conservative at the Founding?

By |2021-05-27T13:23:33-05:00September 17th, 2017|Categories: Civilization, Economics, Gleaves Whitney, History, Roots of American Order, Stephen Tonsor series|

In the process of revitalizing Britain’s governing principles, the American founding also unleashed the ideas of liberty and equality to an unexpected degree. A heavy overcast settled over the Huron Valley. Expecting snow at any moment, I sought shelter in Haven Hall. My hope was to intercept Dr. Tonsor coming down from his office, then [...]

Stephen Tonsor on Christopher Dawson and Religion

By |2019-07-23T13:06:38-05:00September 7th, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Civilization, Community, Culture, Gleaves Whitney, History, Religion, Stephen Tonsor series|

“You cannot assume your personal opinions are the truth. This is why we study history: to use the slashing blade of reason like a machete to hack through the dark jungle of false opinion until we see the light of truth”… When Professor Stephen Tonsor had finished his prepared remarks on Christopher Dawson, arguably the [...]

The Greatest Book Never Written

By |2019-06-13T11:30:39-05:00August 31st, 2017|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Culture, Featured, Gleaves Whitney, History, Liberty, Stephen Tonsor series|

Lord Acton is the prophet who foresaw our times. He anticipated the dangers of statism. But ironically he is now a setting star—passé and remote. This, it must be said, is a tragedy of his own making. It’s a mystery why he never wrote his planned magnum opus… In late July, shortly before loading a [...]

To Hone One Mind Against the Gritty Stone of Another

By |2020-02-18T12:12:11-06:00August 17th, 2017|Categories: Beauty, Culture, Gleaves Whitney, History, Stephen Tonsor series|

My first conversation with Stephen Tonsor occurred on a mid-April morning in 1987. Already we were talking about a great nineteenth-century historian, the first principles of a European Liberal, and what it all meant to an American conservative… My first conversation with Stephen Tonsor occurred on a mid-April morning in 1987. I was living in [...]

Presidential Farewell Addresses

By |2021-01-17T11:15:46-06:00January 10th, 2017|Categories: Barack Obama, George Washington, Gleaves Whitney, Presidency|

Presidential farewells constitute a great American conversation among the nation’s chief executives and open our view onto a large and detailed panorama of the past. Farewell, Mr. President When on January 10, 2017, Barack Obama delivered his farewell address to the nation, the occasion was only the tenth time in U.S. history that a president [...]

Remembering a Crucial Battle in the “Conservative Wars”

By |2022-07-04T15:31:31-05:00December 26th, 2016|Categories: Conservatism, Culture War, Featured, Gleaves Whitney, Paul Gottfried|

The “conservative wars” between neoconservatives and the Old Right became particularly bitter after a stormy session at the Philadelphia Society in 1986. Mr. Gleaves Whitney, the president of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies and a Senior Contributor to this journal, has written about an event that I remember well.* I was involved in it, [...]

The Education of a President

By |2022-02-22T17:48:51-06:00December 2nd, 2016|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, Classical Education, Education, Featured, George Washington, Gleaves Whitney, History, Liberal Learning, Presidency|

The lack of schooling in the formation of one of every four U.S. presidents underscores the paradox that even the most humble among them were often great champions of education in general and of the liberal arts in particular… Can the liberal arts prepare citizens for leadership? Most of us in higher education want the [...]

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