Category: The Historical Muse

This summer, I wrote another chapter in my ongoing quest to finish a book on Whittaker Chambers and Ronald Reagan. Out of the chapter I wrote during the summer, I excerpted a portion and turned it into an article regarding the admiration Reagan had for Franklin Roosevelt’s leadership style, even though Reagan ultimately changed his views about FDR’s policies. That article is now published and available for your perusal in the online journal First Principles. The title is “Ronald Reagan… Read more »

My road to becoming a historian was a strange one. I think I always liked history; it was the history classes I didn’t like. Frankly, my early education was rather drab when it came to history. I have no memory of ever being inspired by what I was taught. I barely have a memory that I was taught at all. American history, in high school, was a dull affair. The teacher, who was also the basketball coach (this was in… Read more »

I am busily developing a new course for SEU called “Ronald Reagan and Modern American Conservatism.” I hope to teach it next spring. It will be an ambitious project because there is so much to include. Originally, I had decided to do a course on Reagan only, but the more I thought about it, I realized I cannot treat him separately from the development of the conservative movement. Therefore, one of the books in the course will be George Nash’s The Conservative… Read more »

I will be offering thoughts regarding any period of history and the individuals who helped make history. In addition, I will include commentary on the historical profession. Below is one of my favorite historial figures, Whittaker Chambers. He is not well known to the general public, but was greatly influential as a founder of modern American conservatism. His book, Witness, is an autiobiography of monumental significance, both for its analysis and its writing style. I have used Witness in courses for 19 years; students,… Read more »