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{Gregg's Bookshelf Recommendation}
Russell Kirk: Surprised by the Foundations of Conservatism
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| Gary L. Gregg, Ph.D |
This fall marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Russell Kirk, someone who has been very influential in my life and whose family and home are vital aspects of the McConnell Scholar experience. In this time of great political divisions and ideological confusion, it would do everyone well to spend some time with Russell Kirk. Conservatives will find a vision that has largely been abandoned and so will find Kirk new and profound; Progressives will be surprised by sharing some core values with Kirk while being edified by seeing the very foundations of thoughtful and imaginative conservatism.
Born in Plymouth, Michigan on Oct. 19, 1918, Kirk's first important book was published in 1953 as The Conservative Mind. Before this book hit America’s political culture, there were those who were resisting the New Deal, those who were concerned about cultural trends, and those who were anti-communist. There was no unifying movement and little self-understanding among these groups, however. With The Conservative Mind, Kirk demonstrated a long pedigree of great thinkers–from Edmund Burke and John Adams to Robert Frost and T.S. Eliot–who were also “conservative” thinkers. The book shook America’s intellectual culture and provided a positive rallying point for a disparate group of thinkers and political activists.
You can find out more about Kirk in my little Op Ed I published last month or by looking at the many outstanding essays about him found at The Imaginative Conservative, which was founded to promote his vision. We also have an outstanding video of a lecture by Dr. Bradley J. Birzer in this edition of Meditations. That lecture has garnered appreciation and surprise across the political spectrum. If you are going to start with a book, I highly recommend the essays found in The Essential Russell Kirk. Those are taken from across his career and are accessible and important to anyone who wants to understand how we got here and how things might have been different.
Gary L. Gregg, Ph.D. directs the McConnell Center, a nonpartisan program at the University of Louisville that attracts the best and brightest students from around Kentucky and grooms them for careers in effective leadership. Since 2000, he has also held the Mitch McConnell Chair in Leadership at the University of Louisville.Views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the McConnell Center.
This recommendation is part of the McConnell Center's Meditations publication series, which features the center's educational resources in a monthly e-newsletter. Content includes a great books podcast series hosted by McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg, book recommendations, student research and writing, and notable lectures available in video format. Subscribe