I make available, below, the text of a lecture I delivered in November, 2011, at University of Texas at Austin. My thanks to the Jefferson Center and Tom and Lorraine Pangle for the invitation. My suggested title was “Against Great…
Patrick J. Deneen
A mysterious author by the name of “J,” a writer at the suspiciously derivatively-titled website “Back Porch Republic,” has posted a thoughtful and provocative examination of “The Hunger Games” as a portrayal of local communities brutalized by the centralizing power…
Don’t miss Brad Birzer’s superbly thoughtful essay “Christian Humanists Challenge the Machine.” He provides a lucid historical and philosophical roadmap tracing the anti-humanism of the modern impulse of mastery, beginning – ironically enough – with the rise of so-called “humanism,”…
On Sunday I was the invited speaker at the magnificent National Cathedral in a series devoted to the exploration of political themes. The subject was “The State of Political Language.” The event was recorded, and is available here.…
I was invited by the good people at “Minding the Campus” to write a response to the recently released 2011 American Freshman Survey. My brief essay is now available on their website, and might be of some interest to FPR…
Alexandria, VA. … Vast and even incalculable quantities of ink have already been spilled over the issue of the HHS mandate that religious organizations purchase contraception as part of their compliance with the Obama health care plan. It would seem that
Last night I sent the following note (which I edit and redact somewhat here for wider consumption) to a large number of students who have made my time at Georgetown so memorable and worthwhile. It is a bittersweet decision, but…
George Will has penned an end-of-year pick-me-up for conservatives, counseling them that the likely prospect of Republican Presidential electoral defeat in November (given their sad slate of potential nominees) ought not to get conservatives down in the mouth. Rather, things…
In this season of the “holidays,” it was announced several days ago that Fairfax County schools would be permitted to install video surveillance cameras in High Schools. Fairfax County is frequently lauded as being one of the best public school…
Until one of us finds the time to slap down Joe Carter’s attack on distributism (as Rod Dreher called upon us to do), I’ll direct our good readers to a searing post by Thaddeus Kozinski.
One small-owner money quote:
Robert…
I received the latest issue of the essential journal The New Atlantis yesterday, and was honored once again to appear in its pages. The essay in question – entitled “The Science of Politics and the Conquest of Nature” – is…
I will be lecturing tomorrow, Thursday, November 17 at the University of Texas at Austin. My lecture is entitled “Why Great Books?” and is being sponsored by the Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas.
I described…
“If what you wish is merely to make a great splash, to be impressive and formidable, to influence other peoples of Europe, you have before you their example: get busy and imitate it. Cultivate the sciences, the arts, commerce, industry;…
I’ll be in The City of the Big Shoulders this Thursday and Friday, October 13-14, both to attend and to participate in a conference at the University of Chicago honoring and reflecting on the work of Jean Bethke Elshtain. While…
Our friend Phillip Blond returns to the U.S., landing first in Washington, D.C., where he will join me tomorrow evening, Thursday October 6 for a “conversation” about his recent work, his take on the current political and economic situation, his…
Alexandria, VA … On Monday night of this week, New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke at Georgetown University at the invitation of the program that I founded and direct, “The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy.” A large
