Western Heritage, Lecture 2: The West and Genesis
My praise of the four iconographic cities of the West: Jerusalem; Athens; Rome; and London–culminating, of course, in Philadelphia.
Full, unedited lecture–September 2, 2016. Warts and all.
TIC: Definitive Biography
The founder of modern conservatism, Russell Kirk.
I’m so honored that The Imaginative Conservative thinks so well of RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE. Thank you proudly to Winston, Steve, and Co.
The Imaginative Conservative‘s co-founder and editor-at-large, Bradley J. Birzer, has received another award for his outstanding, new biography of seminal conservative thinker, Russell Kirk. Following on the heels of The Imaginative Conservative‘s own 2015 Book of the Year Award, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has announced that Dr. Birzer has won the 2016 Henry and Anne Paolucci Book Award for Russell Kirk: American Conservative. According to ISI, “a distinguished panel of judges chose this masterful biography from among five impressive finalists. The Paolucci Book Award is an annual honor recognizing the best book that advances conservative principles. The award is named in memory of Henry and Anne Paolucci, distinguished scholars, teachers, and writers who exemplified the ideal of the public intellectual.”
To read the full piece by Winston Elliott, please go here: http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/09/russell-kirk-american-conservative-bradley-birzer.html
At TAC: Life in Hawkins, Indiana, 1983
Official Neflix poster of the best show of 2016
STRANGER THINGS is bloody and gruesome and, strangely, quite heroic and beautiful. There’s definitely no gloss on any thing. What appears good is really just apathy and conformity and what is broken must overcome brokenness to find heroism and grace.
This TAC piece is a thank you note to my 12-16 year old self.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/i-once-lived-in-hawkins-indiana/
Join Libery Classroom Today!
As many of you probably know (after all, I talk about it all the time!), Tom Woods created a virtual academy several years ago with his excellent website, Liberty Classroom. As the traditional university continues to decay, drowning in its own subjective and swampy morass, Liberty Classroom offers a serious alternative–featuring lectures on economics, politics, constitutionalism, history, and literature.
The courses are offered by some of our greatest living scholars: Tom Woods; Kevin Gutzman; Jason Jewell; Jonathan Bean; and Brion McClanahan.
Timeline, Jacksonian America
Early Republic Timeline, 1807-1848; Birzer
John Taylor of Caroline
1807 Jefferson Embargo
1809 James Madison becomes president
Jefferson Embargo repealed
1810 Henry Clay elected Speaker of the House
Fletcher v. Peck
1811 Battle of Tippecanoe
1812 War of 1812 begins
Western Heritage: Intro Lecture
No relation to the lecture, except the use of chalk.
If you’re interested, here’s my first lecture of the Autumn 2016 semester–Western Heritage, an Introduction, looking at the questions: what is man; what is God; and what is man’s relationship to man?
Western Heritage Core Syllabus 2016
M.T. Cicero, the greatest of Roman republicans
Course: Western Heritage, H104-7; H104-8
Autumn 2016, meets in LANE 233
Professor Bradley J. Birzer; office: Delp 403; bbirzer@hillsdale.edu
Required Readings
- Hillsdale College History Department, ed., Western Heritage Reader (provided)
- Secondary text (available in HC Bookstore)
- handouts/readings
Grading: There will be three papers, a number of pop (that is, temporally random) quizzes, two midterms, and a blistering final. Each of the exams will be based on lectures, discussions, and readings.
Grading structure in sum: Participation: 15%; papers (3 total): 30%; midterms (2 total): 30%; final: 25%
Papers. Each paper should be roughly 700 to 1,000 words in length. Please double-space your paper and use one-inch margins on each side. At the end of the paper, please state the word count. No source page or bibliography required unless you go beyond the Western Heritage Reader.
- Paper 1. Using the various writings from the Old Testament in the Western Heritage Reader, define the Hebraic understanding of the human person and his relation to God.
- Paper 2. “What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem?”: Explore the ways in which Christianity is Hellenic and (especially) Hellenistic.
- Paper 3. What is the best leader? Compare the political views of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin.
Significant dates for the semester
Week 1: August 31-September 2
Week 2: September 5-9
Week 3: September 12-16
Week 4: September 26-30 (Paper 1 due: September 30, 6pm)
Week 5: October 3-7 (Midterm 1: October 5)
Week 6: October 10-12
Fall Break: October 13-16
Week 7: October 17-21
Parents: October 22
Week 8: October 24-28 (Paper 2 due: October 28, 6pm)
Week 9: October 31-November 4 (Midterm 2: November 4)
Week 10: November 7-11
Week 11: November 14-18
Week 12: November 21-22
Week 13: November 28-December 2
Week 14: December 5-9 (Paper 3 due: December 9, 6pm)
Final examinations
- H104-7: December 15, 1-3pm
- H104-8: December 13, 8-10am
Paolucci Book Prize, 2016: Russell Kirk, American Conservative
I am deeply honored to have won this year’s Paolucci Prize from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Overwhelmed might be a better work than honored! Well, both, actually. Thank you, ISI, and thank you, Russell Kirk!
Here are the past winners:
2015: Richard Brookhiser, Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
2014: Daniel Hannan, Inventing Freedom
2013: Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation
2012: John Fonte, Sovereignty or Submission
2011: Pauline Maier, Ratification
2010: Angelo M. Codevilla, Advice to War Presidents
2009: Philip Hamburger, Law and Judicial Duty
2008: Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
2007: Andrew Roberts, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900
2006: William Daugherty, Executive Secrets
For more information on the Paolucci Award, please go here: https://home.isi.org/professors/paolucci-book-award
To order, RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, please go here: https://www.amazon.com/Russell-Kirk-Conservative-Bradley-Birzer/dp/0813166187/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472419971&sr=1-1&keywords=russell+kirk+american+conservative
It’s a Far Cry: The Genius of Rush, Snakes, and Arrows — Progarchy
Snakes and Arrows, Rush’s 18th studio album, came out on May 1, 2007. It was the last Rush album to be distributed by Atlantic, but the first to be produced by Nick Raskulinecz. Snake and Arrows was profoundly progressive, but it was also one of Rush’s blues-iest album, almost certainly influenced by their EP, Feedback, […]
via It’s a Far Cry: The Genius of Rush, Snakes, and Arrows — Progarchy
A quarter of a century — elizabeth hamilton
A few days before my 25th birthday, several of my older friends admitted that on their 25th birthdays, they’d woken up feeling rather like someone had punched them in the face. They were no longer in their early twenties. They were 25 now. They needed to get their lives together. They needed to grow up. These were honest, innocent admissions, not […]
T.E. Hulme,SPECULATIONS (Full Book)
It is no exaggeration to state that without this man, there would be no 20th century conservatism.
T.E. Hulme’s posthumous masterpiece, SPECULATIONS. Hulme was the first conservative of the twentieth-century, influencing almost too many figures to count–but most importantly T.S. Eliot and Christopher Dawson.
First published in 1924, almost a decade after Hulme’s death in World War I.
Father Marvin O’Connell: One of the Greats
Not one of his students would ever accuse Father O’Connell of softness, favoritism, or sloth. He was a fierce man, a fierce priest, and a fierce professor. He possessed perhaps the most penetrating and intelligent eyes and brow I have ever encountered in a teacher. He had a booming voice, and he loved to quote Churchill. Sometimes, he would break into a Churchill speech when trying to explain some complexity of history. Certainly, the most memorable moment in any class I took in college was O’Connell’s full recitation of Churchill’s speech of May 1940, his first speech—“the finest hour” as Prime Minister. I was fairly certain that Churchill was, in fact, standing in our classroom in O’Shannessey Hall at Notre Dame in that fall of 1988. It’s quite possible that O’Connell was shooting lasers and lightning from his eyes as he delivered this speech. Whatever it was, Father O’Connell cast a spell over the entire classroom, and we were ready to go to war against the Nazis, even if it meant our most certain death. Never have I felt a greater call to arms. When O’Connell finished, I looked around the room. There was nothing but stunned silence and a number of tears flowing from the eyes of his students.
To read my full obituary of this great man, please go here: http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/5006/father_marvin_r_oconnell_requiescat_in_pace.aspx
Stormfields 