The Rhetoric of Alexander Hamilton
The political rhetoric of the Founders of the American Republic has received scant attention from scholars. The relative neglect is understandable. On the one hand, the very…
The Role of the “Middle Delegates” at the Constitutional Convention
Historians of the Constitutional Convention have agreed that there were divisions among the delegates, but have disagreed as to what those divisions were and what underlays them.…
Original Unintentions: The Franchise and the Constitution
The controversy over originalism-the question whether judges, in interpreting the Constitution, should be guided by the original intentions of the Framers or by some other standard-has generated…
Parties and Presidential Selection
The current presidential selection system is broken. The way to fix it is by returning to strong parties at the national, state, and local levels. The 2004…
Political Education for Dark Times
For decades, books and films on Harry Potter and his friends have dominated our early education in politics.[1] Harry Potter’s friends include tweens, teens, and adults the…
Defenses Against the Dark Arts: The Political Education of Harry Potter and His Friends
Defenses Against the Dark Arts: The Political Education of Harry Potter and His Friends. John S. Nelson. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021. John S. Nelson’s Defenses…
Is it possible to separate politics from philosophy, from any educational pursuit?
Education cannot occur where equality is taken as the preeminent moral virtue, where the past is rejected as hopelessly morally compromised, and when materialism is adopted as…
The 2021 37th International Meeting of THE ERIC VOEGELIN SOCIETY
37th International Meeting of THE ERIC VOEGELIN SOCIETY, 2021 American Political Science Association Meeting September 28-October 2 Seattle, WA David Walsh, Meeting…
George Santayana and the Ironies of Liberalism
The question—is liberalism a self-defeating enterprise?—has gained traction over the last couple of years. Even as far back as 1921, the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana dedicated time…
Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher’s Thought and Work
The American philosopher, Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), is a rare thinker. He is a philosopher in the classical sense of the word. Hoffer asks concrete and pressing questions…
Instrumentalizing Politics by Secreting Delirious Effluences
When we pose the question whether a sudden emergency situation can lead to or bring about permanent changes in politics, the seemingly evident answer would be ‘yes’.…
Science Fiction and Political Philosophy: From Bacon to Black Mirror
Science Fiction and Political Philosophy: From Bacon to Black Mirror. Timothy McCranor and Steven Michels, eds.. Lanham, MD.: Lexington Books, 2020. Science Fiction and Political Philosophy…
Death Be Not Proud
We think of our life stories as headed toward a concluding sentence, after which, if they were novels, we would see written: “The End.” Not that everyone…