Recognizing, and acting, on the reality of student life as it is currently lived means imagining a world without books—broadly construed—as a means toward preventing their disappearance. “I cannot live without books,” Thomas Jefferson famously wrote John Adams in 1815. Jefferson did not believe the American republic could survive without books—or without people to read […]
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Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin
On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky; and Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. The coincidence of their being born on the same day might lead us to think about the points of similarity in their lives. William Herndon was Lincoln’s friend and law partner, and he wrote one […]
Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration
An interview with Carson Holloway, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, about his recent book Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration: Completing the Founding or Betraying the Founding? (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
The Humanities in a High Tech World
Scientists and physicians can figure out whether a new drug actually extends lives, and mathematicians can calculate the costs, but science alone cannot provide a considered judgment about who should have those benefits and at what price. From the 1830s to the 1860s, a South Carolina slave named Dave was a potter and a poet. […]
Can American Political Thought Be a Resource for Improving Race Relations in the U.S.?
President Bill Clinton said in his first inaugural address: “Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” This invites the question, what is right with America? As this pertains [...]
