“The Conservative Mind” at 70 for Europe

By |2023-11-28T19:54:10-06:00November 28th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

In "The Conservative Mind," Russell Kirk, the father of American modern conservatism, said plainly that America is conservative or nothing, that America is European or nothing, and that conservative ‘European’ America is the only root of and hope for America itself. At 70, Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind is a young book. That work can [...]

Russell Kirk’s “The Conservative Mind” for the Rising Generation

By |2023-11-25T00:16:41-06:00November 24th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

Russell Kirk’s "The Conservative Mind" teaches us the importance of conserving our cultural patrimony and provides us with images of the customs, institutions, and beliefs that we ought to conserve. In this way, Kirk grounds us in the conservative intellectual tradition, from Burke to Eliot, that can stand against the ideologies of our age. Conservatism in [...]

Was Nathaniel Hawthorne a Conservative?

By |2023-05-18T18:02:44-05:00May 18th, 2023|Categories: Conservatism, Featured, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|Tags: |

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s chief accomplishment was his ability to impress “the idea of sin upon a nation which would like to forget it.” By reminding Americans of the power and influence of original sin, Hawthorne maintained that real reform must be first and foremost moral reform, and such reform is not possible until one had remembered [...]

Restoring the Meaning of Conservatism

By |2022-08-30T13:59:19-05:00August 30th, 2022|Categories: Conservatism, Featured, George A. Panichas, The Conservative Mind, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

The conservative as conservator guards against violations of our reverent traditions and legacy, and is, in fine, a preserver, a keeper, a custodian of sacred things and signs and texts. “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll get knocked down by anything.” —Anonymous It is now more than half a century since the publication of [...]

Russell Kirk Reconsidered

By |2021-04-28T15:49:35-05:00April 28th, 2021|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, Senior Contributors, The Conservative Mind, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

Russell Kirk gave voice to a myriad of persons, personalities, and ideas circulating in the decade after the Second World War, just as the West was trying to understand what it stood for, rather than what it stood against. The latter was easy. Communism and fascism were evil. But, what exactly did the West stand [...]

The Permanence of Russell Kirk

By |2019-10-14T12:29:01-05:00October 7th, 2019|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christian Humanism, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, Senior Contributors, The Conservative Mind, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

With the phenomenal success of The Conservative Mind—selling over a million copies during the three decades after its initial release—Kirk worried that “conservatism” might prove to be a hollow answer for the post-war world. Afterall, he reasoned, conservatism must, by necessity, be highly subjective, centered around a specific time and place, even while embracing universals. [...]

The Radicalism of Russell Kirk

By |2019-04-28T15:53:42-05:00April 28th, 2019|Categories: Conservatism, Libertarianism, Politics, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

The West has been undone by consumerism, the Sexual Revolution, outsourcing, urbanization, and centralization—all defended by modern conservatives as “the price we must pay” to live in a free and prosperous country. They’re wrong. As Russell Kirk argued, the principal function of government is not to ensure the material security and comfort of its citizenry. [...]

Why the Right Still Needs Russell Kirk

By |2019-05-30T12:10:26-05:00October 31st, 2018|Categories: Conservatism, Donald Trump, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

When I bought The Conservative Mind in 1994, I thought it was probably a book about how bad President Bill Clinton and the Democrats were—because that’s what I thought conservatism was. I was nineteen, a high school graduate with no intention of attending university, and thought “conservative” simply meant whatever Rush Limbaugh had talked about that day. [...]

The Conservatism of John Quincy Adams

By |2021-02-08T14:55:58-06:00October 15th, 2017|Categories: American Founding, Conservatism, History, John Quincy Adams, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind, Timeless Essays|

A scrutiny of John Quincy Adams’ words and deeds across his broad public life shows him to be a successful conservative, both as a thinker and as a leader. In The Conservative Mind, John Quincy Adams appears as a flawed, failed conservative. Though he “felt the pressing necessity for conservative principle in the conduct of [...]

“The Conservative Mind”: A Chaotic Story of Decay?

By |2023-05-11T08:45:21-05:00October 11th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Featured, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

In “The Conservative Mind,” Russell Kirk sought to identify, elucidate, and cultivate the best of the Western tradition as the West itself weathered, rather roughly at times, the storms of ideologies. Conserve the past, yes, but Kirk also wanted us to rally to the standards of the past to leave an inheritance for our children. [...]

My First Reading of “The Conservative Mind”

By |2021-05-10T19:02:35-05:00September 25th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Libertarianism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

When I finished The Conservative Mind for the first time, I remember thinking quite clearly that Russell Kirk had gotten so close to truth, but, then, just when he had the chance, he failed to promote freedom—the proper answer to every single thing. I often look at, hold, and peruse my first (first to me, [...]

In Honor of Russell Kirk

By |2021-05-10T19:21:32-05:00June 11th, 2017|Categories: Conservatism, Featured, George Nash, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind, Timeless Essays|

What Russell Kirk did was to demonstrate that intelligent conservatism was not a mere smokescreen for selfishness. It was an attitude toward life with substance and moral force of its own. In the book of Ecclesiasticus, it is written: “Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.” Today, I propose to honor [...]

Russell Kirk on the Variety and Mystery of Human Existence

By |2022-06-20T20:06:12-05:00May 10th, 2017|Categories: Alexis de Tocqueville, American Founding, Edmund Burke, John Adams, Russell Kirk, Ted McAllister, The Conservative Mind, Tradition|Tags: |

Too often the public conversation about universal truths divides along rather sterile ideological lines. Russell Kirk’s great warning is that this is not really a battle of ideas, understood abstractly, but a battle of sentiments or affections… Since the nation’s founding, a salutary tension has informed American political thought—a tension between the abstract, universal truths [...]

Russell Kirk the Conservative, Russell Kirk the Man

By |2021-05-10T19:41:57-05:00April 28th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Featured, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind, The Imaginative Conservative|

Russell Kirk’s life and labors can offer a potential salve to the recent struggles of American conservatism, which is threatened by a pall of superficiality and cynicism. Russell Kirk: American Conservative by Bradley Birzer (University Press of Kentucky, 2015) In the two decades since the death of Russell Amos Augustine Kirk, American conservatism has struggled. National [...]

Go to Top