New York Times Review of RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
YES! Throw any superlative you want out there, I’m your man!!! Thank you, NYT!
On Al Kresta, Talking Kirk
I had a great time talking with one of my favorite radio hosts, Al Kresta. Thanks, Al!
https://avemariaradio.net/audio-archive/kresta-in-the-afternoon-january-20-2016-hour-2/
Audio Lecture: Founding of American Republic 1
Patriots at work.
If you’re interested in the American republic and the founding period, this is my first lecture of the spring 2016 semester.
If you’re so inclined. . . enjoy!
Request for Any Robert Nisbet Correspondence
Dear Anyone,
I’m trying to collect any and all letters to and from Robert Nisbet (1913-1996). He wrote letters frequently, but no one has yet collected his correspondence except for the Library of Congress (which just has three boxes, mostly manuscripts of books).
If you have any extent correspondence to or from Nisbet and would be willing to copy or scan any or all of it for me, I would be extremely grateful.
If there are costs involved, just let me know.
Yours, thankfully, Brad
Please just email me at my gmail.com account: bradbirzer@
Mark Pulliam Reviews RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
A very kind and very detailed review of RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE. Thank you, Liberty Fund!
http://www.libertylawsite.org/2016/01/15/the-fertility-god-of-conservatism/
A Few Nice Nisbet Quotes
Robert Nisbet (1913-1996)
“Traditionalist we may choose to label Burke, but the fact is, few minds of stature have ever given more brilliant witness to rights, liberties and equities in the affairs of government”
“Insight into the nature of the totalitarian mind, complete with its passion for centralization and uniformity, for rationalist extirpation of tradition and prejudgment, and for an absolute moralism that would extend when necessary to terror was not so easily com by in the late 18th Century, and we owe Burke much for this first insight.”
–Robert Nisbet, “Burke’s Guide to Revolution,” Wall Street Journal (June 5, 1972), 12.
“Patriotism is indispensable to the American nation. Nothing, however, corrupts and damages patriotism like war that is without relation to clear and compelling national interest.”
–Robert Nisbet, “War, Crisis, and Intellectuals,” Wall Street Journal (January 25, 1971), p. 10.
Kat Timpf: The Full and True Story!
The prettiest and best mind on Fox.
Ha. My praise of all that is Kat Timpf, a former student and always friend.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-fearless-millennial-at-fox-news/
Ralph Hauenstein, RIP
What a man. I only had the privilege of meeting him a few times, but I thoroughly enjoyed his company. And, he treated one of the men I respect most–Gleaves Whitney–with all due support and respect. Thank you, Mr. Hauenstein. A true western man.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/01/businessman_philanthropist_ral.html
Three Thoughts about Charles Carroll of Carrollton
ISI Books, 2010.
I was just asked by a group in France to describe three aspects of Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s thought and life. Nice. I’ve not given a lot of thought re: him for several years. Kind of like visiting an old friend.
For what they’re worth, here are my three thoughts.
1. Born a bastard (only because of anti-religious laws) to a wealthy Roman Catholic couple in Maryland, Charles Carroll and his cousin, John Carroll (later the first archbishop in the United States) , left Maryland for education at St. Omer while still young boys. Charles, however, stayed in Europe for nearly two decades, before returning to the American colonies in 1765. Because of Maryland law, Roman Catholics could not educate their children or raise their children in the Catholic Church. To do so risked confiscation of the children by Protestants. Additionally, Roman Catholics could not serve in politics or law (even as witnesses in crimes), but they could rather tenuously hold property. Upon returning to Maryland in 1765, the now highly educated Charles began to involve himself in various clubs and societies in Maryland, eventually revealing his profound philosophical side in the famous 1773 debates regarding taxation and religious authority. Charles emerged from these debates a republican patriot and hero. As Maryland moved toward independence from Britain, 1774-1776, Charles emerged as its champion and the anti-Catholic laws faded quickly in revolution.
2. Because of the insistence of his father and the education the Jesuits provided him at St. Omer, Charles was fiercely humane and liberal in his education. He knew, for example, Cicero as well as he know Montesquieu, and he deeply admired both. That is, he saw his current life not as a break from the past, but as an extension of it. When he signed the American Declaration of Independence, he believed he was doing so as a representative of the liberally educated from Socrates to the present. While Charles was extreme in this belief, he was not unique. Most of American founding fathers had received an intense liberal education in Greek and Latin.
3. Throughout his life, Charles remained a republican, but he was certainly not a democrat. That is, he believed that the best free society worked when its members willingly gave of themselves to the common good. When they began to focus only on their own advancement or rights, society decayed quickly. As much as Charles liked Thomas Jefferson personally, he feared that Jefferson was simply too radical to lead the United States, and he feared that Jefferson’s passions would lead to the undoing of American liberty and republicanism. Because Carroll lived to the age of 95, he had the privilege of being the last of the signers of the Declaration of Independence to pass away. In the early 1830s, he even met the greatest of all analysts of American society, Alexis de Tocqueville, and served as one of the French writer’s main informants. The two men had almost identical views of American democracy. It was beautiful, but it was also quite fragile.
To order AMERICAN CICERO: http://isibooks.org/american-cicero.html
Over at TIC: Salem’s Lot
Why I love the novel, Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King. Over at The Imaginative Conservative:
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/01/is-salems-lot-a-great-work-of-horror.html
My Favorite Book of 2015
I am very grateful to my friend, Daniel McCarthy, for having invited me to write 300 words about my favorite book of 2015.
For 2014, I went Hayekian and philosophical: Jim Otteson’s masterful THE END OF SOCIALISM.
For 2015, I went artistic.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-american-conservatives-2015-books-symposium/
Sam Gregg Reviews RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
I’m thrilled by this beautifully-written review of RUSSELL KIRK: AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE. Thank you, Dr. Gregg!
Stormfields 