Suffer the Little Children
St. John Henry Newman advised in his Idea of a University that, if forced to choose, it would be better to abolish the classrooms and fire the instructors than close the dormitories and dining halls....
View ArticleAristocrats in a Democratic Age
What is “succession” to a democratic age? Over the last several years, the HBO series Succession has explored this question. Nominated for 25 Golden Globes this year alone, the series follows the Roy...
View ArticleThe Baby and the Bathwater
“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” is a saying that seems to go back to 1512. We use the saying to warn a friend against a syndrome of erring: In jettisoning something bad, first separate...
View ArticleAutocracy in Russia
For much of his reign, Vladimir Putin has been working to put himself at the head of a “conservative international.” He wants to be seen as the great defender of Christendom, a champion of traditional...
View ArticleSearching for Character in Identity
A few years ago, I was teaching at an inner-city charter school, majority black, minority Hispanic. One Friday, over lunch at an all-day faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training,...
View ArticleAmerican Values Decline with American Community
A poll on American values in the Wall Street Journal last week has caused a stir. The poll, which the Journal conducted along with the well-regarded NORC at the University of Chicago—the non-partisan...
View ArticleThe Mother Science of Democracy
Dr. Tabia Lee says she was fired this year because she was the “wrong kind of black person.” She was hired in 2021 as faculty director of the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural...
View ArticleA Fumble for American Democracy
Is the future of the National Football League’s Super Bowl linked with the future of American democracy? The Super Bowl may seem to some like an overly commercialized sports championship game, but it...
View ArticleBeyond Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalists have received an outsized amount of attention from left-wing scholars, journalists, and activists for the last several years—most recently because Justice Alito displayed a flag...
View ArticleA Tocquevillean Christmas Fable
Editor’s Note: This essay was originally published on December 24, 2018. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is the finest cinematic exploration of the commercialization of Christmas. The central story is...
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