April 19 marked the anniversary of the American Revolution – specifically, the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The American Declaration of Independence justifies the rebellion by listing “a long train of abuses and usurpations [revealing] a design to reduce [the colonists] under absolute Despotism.” It explains the nature of these various abuses and usurpations as […]
The American Experience
What the “corrupt bargain” of America’s 1824 election can teach us about 2024
As Americans prepare to head into one of the most contentious presidential election seasons in recent history, experts are looking 200 years into the past to the heated election between John Q. Adams and Andrew Jackson for insight and answers as to what may lie ahead. Several important questions concerning the similarity of the election […]
Slavery, Disunion, and the Violent Election of 1856
The election of 1856 was the most violent peacetime election in American history. For the first time, a national political party with a legitimate chance to win the presidency campaigned on an anti-slavery platform, putting a fright into Southern politicians, the slave owners they represented, and their Northern sympathizers. After decades of blustering about secession […]
A Defense of American Constitutionalism
The following is a review of Dennis Hale and Marc Landy, Keeping the Republic: A Defense of American Constitutionalism (University Press of Kansas, 2024). In one of the less-noticed aspects of his State of the Union address, President Biden announced his elimination of the requirement that Federally-backed mortgages be accompanied by title insurance. Instead […]
Teaching Beyond Ideology: How Voegelin and Strauss can save the American classroom
Teaching college students today about the significance of the American principles of freedom, equality, and constitutionalism is an uphill battle against the rise of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at the expense of the humanities and social sciences, the bureaucratization of the classroom with its plethora of non-pedagogical mandates, and — perhaps most difficult […]
