Who are the best conservative academics? (Shameless vanity)

self

[Torie]

That he is grown so great?

Well, I guess it is nice to have a hero, in an unheroic age. It provides parameters in one's life. I'm still looking myself.

[EdZep]

Not sure if he's teaching, but Dinesh D'Souza did a great job of exposing PC and Lib policies in his book, Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus, 1991, Vintage Books.

Socialists in Congress? Click on the zeppelin, Grasshopper.

[beckett]

I'll mention Harvey Mansfield, since no one else has. And Robert George too. And I'll throw in Alasdair MacIntyre, a former commie who still harbors some dangerous views, but whose repudiation of the "emotive" culture surely earns him a place in the hearts of conservatives.

[Faraday]

Thomas Sowell.

[habs4ever]

Turley is a soft liberal, not a conservative at all.He the type you have drinks with and enjoy his company.

[beckett]

Oh...and Joseph Epstein, the former editor of The American Scholar, who teaches at Northwestern. He writes like a dream. I thought of him when I saw his nemesis mentioned, Mortimer Adler.

[Torie]

Joseph Epstein.

[cornelis]

nice to have a hero

I've posted the names of them above. A few from another age are E. Gilson, E. Voegelin, Frederick Wilhelmsen, Ortega Y Gasset.

[tamu]

can't say as i do :(

[Howlin]

He's conservative. I know somebody who took his classes.

[x]

Sowell and Williams are very good at what they do and at reaching a broader audience. Harvey Mansfield and his wife Delba Winthrop might also make the list. Paul Gottfried always has something interesting to say, though he seems obsessed by having been passed over for funding too many times. John Lukacs also has recognition, merits and achievements, though it's highly questionable whether he can be called a conservative, as opposed to merely an old fogy or crank. There are also younger libertarian scholars like Hummel and Higgs and younger Straussians like Ceaser and Pangle who have won acclaim among those who share their point of view as well as many less known scholars hard at work.

There are many skilled and intelligent British conservative academics, from older types like George Watson and Robert Conquest to younger writers like Andrew Roberts, Niall Ferguson and others. The philosopher Roger Scruton is often worth reading as is A.N. Wilson, though he is not an academic, but a novelist who writes widely on other topics for the popular press.

There is much that is admirable in those who go against the prevailing academic currents. Personally, though, I've gotten very disillusioned with academics: either they are playing the careerist advancement game, or they are setting up little straw men to knock down, or they are going off and doing something completely mad like endorsing empire, jihad or secession. But I suppose any movement or idea needs its academic promoters and defenders.

[Lizzy W]

I adore Harvey Mansfield. You beat me to him :)

[beckett]

Thx for the link. I haven't read most of those pieces and it will be a pleasure to go through them.

[Lancey Howard]

On the economic front, Paul Craig Roberts is outstanding, as is Walter Williams.

[WxMan2000]

They are probably all lurking down at Zeno's...heh...heh.

[jjbrouwer]

Shameless vanity

I agree.

[SunnyUsa]

"Shameless " ....didn't you invent it?

[jjbrouwer]

Watsonfellow has taken shameless vanity to new levels.

[connectthedots]

I used to deliver Coase's mail at the law school. No, you don't need perfect information actually. Efficiency is a relative matter. JMO.

You are correct, one does not need "close to perfect information". One merely needs enough information andmaybe a bit more as insurance. Most decisions are not so difficult that more is needed or required. An top of that, the opportunity cost of obtaining "close to perfect information" can be very high. Besides, how is one ever going to know when they have "perfect information"?

[jjim]

To all of you who think "Rush" is a good answer, to quote "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Do me a favor . . . and stay off my side."

I would nominate, as a "rising star," Francis Beckwith, who was nearly blackballed at Baylor for publishing an article arguing for the legal legitimacy of teaching ID in public school classrooms as an alternative to Darwinism.

I don't know if either of these men are particularly political creatures, but I take great pleasure in knowing that two of the nation's premier philosophers--John Hare at Yale and Alving Plantinga at ND--are traditional, orthodox, evangelical Christians. Aren't all evangelicals stupid fundy-nut-jobs? :0)

Condie should go on the list.

As a PhD candidate, myself, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a very liberal environment that dominates academia. I have some ideas as to why that is, but that is beyond the scope of this thread . . .