ISI Faculty Resource Center

One of the more irritating assumptions in modern cultural/political life is the common theme one encounters on campus (and elsewhere) that the cultural Right restricts liberty while the Left defends it. And no one (allegedly) restricts liberty more than those tyrannical members of the "Religious Right," with their repressive moral code and puritanical sensibilities.

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Are we witnessing the “death of conservatism,” as the title of a recent book has it? Or is conservatism rising again “on the steppingstones of liberal excesses,” as George F. Will argues? To determine where conservatism is headed, there is no better authority than George H. Nash, the preeminent historian of American conservatism.

First Principles is proud to present this excerpt from Nash’s new book, Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism.

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A quote for your consideration: "The Supreme Court is now dominated by a highly politicized ... majority intent on working its will, even if that means ignoring precendents and the wishes of the elected branches of the government." A diatribe…

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By Peter D. Salins Louis Menand's The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University is a short, provocative book that raises many more questions than it answers. Its greatest contribution is that it clearly delineates the development of the American university from its origins in the late 19th century to the many absurdities that characterize it today. Menand's exposition of the various key events and trends that have shaped the contemporary American university runs like a stream throughout the book's occasionally disjointed sections and chapters (the book is largely a compilation of lectures he gave at the University of Virginia). What we learn is that, for the most part, all of the key features of the American university as we know it today emerged full-blown in a burst of academic gestation over a single generation - approximately 1870 to 1900 - largely through the efforts of one man, Charles Eliot, Harvard University's president from 1869 to 1909. Although Menand reviews the important ways in which the American university has changed since then, describing some of the key twists and turns along the way, he stresses that much has remained the same - often for no particularly good reason. Menand divides the American university's historical evolution into three distinct phases: a formative period running from its launch in 1870 under the influence of Harvard's Eliot through its institutional maturation in the 20th century up to the onset World War II; a "golden age" of rapid expansion in enrollment, funding and prestige that lasted from 1945 to 1970, a product of post-war population and economic growth and the cold war, heavily influenced by another Harvard president, James Bryant Conant; and a post-golden age phase taking us from 1970 to the present, that Frederick Hess (but not Menand) has aptly dubbed the "politically correct" university.

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Here´s a sign of the times: if you´re worried about what all these digital and internet technologies are going to do to books, you can join a movement to signal your support of books (and other pen-and-inked things). Here´s what really makes that a sign of the times: the movement is online.

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Michael McConnell, along with the attorneys from the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund, filed last Thursday at the United States Supreme Court their opening brief in the case of CLS v. Martinez. This brief explains how the University of California-Hastings has violates the student' rights to form their own private group to advocate its Christian ideas on campus, as well as set standards so that people conduct their lives in accordance with their Christian beliefs. Those interested in a deeper understanding of the legal issues in this case will find this well-written brief easy to follow and understand. Some of the phrasing in it is just downright elegant.

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At the World Economic Forum last week over in Davos, Switzerland, another figure rose up to warn of the dangers that the digital revolution pose to reading. He stated, "The one that I do worry about is the question of 'deep reading.'" Surveying the plethora of "instantaneous devices," he declared that "you spend less time reading all forms of literature, books, magazines and so forth." The habits damage reading skills, and they damage cognition, too, he maintained, although he took a moment…

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In a recent post on Education Week's blog, Debra Viadero offers a caution about President Obama's support for community colleges. Pointing to her recent article on community college research that indicated how much more we need to know about how best to improve completion rates in that

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ADF Center for Academic Freedom client Mike Adams posted an article today at Townhall.com that humorously highlights the ludicrous implications of the speech code at the University of Northern Colorado. The speech code bans "inappropriate jokes," meaning those motivated by any form of bias. Of course, this leaves students wondering whether blonde jokes, Aggie jokes, political jokes, or even lawyer jokes are permitted on campus.

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by Mark C. Henrie

"Totalitarianism," in its adjectival form, "totalitarian," originated in 1923 among opponents of Italian fascism, who used it as a term of abuse in describing the policies of the dictator Benito ...

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