Free Republic

Every once in a while one gets an insight into the sad state of higher education in the United States. Back in 2008, when my agent was attempting to market the manuscript of what recently appeared in two companion volumes under the titles Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic and Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect, he ran into an unexpected snag. None of the editors at the trade presses he approached had ever...

Sorry for the vanity but had to brag that my son was accepted to Hillsdale College today! It was recommended on this forum so I thought I would give him a shout out here. Congratulations Hayden!

It's not too late to RSVP for Hillsdale College's next "First Principles on First Fridays" lecture, featuring Dr. Paul Rahe, the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College. "America's Finest Hour: The 20th Century's 75-Year War" November 6, 2009 7:30 - 8:45 AM The Heritage Foundation's Allison Auditorium 214 Massachussetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 The First World War broke out at the beginning of August, 1914. The Cold War came to an end with the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. The seventy-five years that passed between these...

Self-Evident Truths Held by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 13, 2009 Matthew Spalding of the Heritage Foundation was the speaker at a recent Hillsdale College event. Spalding is the author of the upcoming book, We Still Hold These Truths, which will be released later this month. Spalding’s presentation focused heavily on America and the conservative movement in a historical context. He began by pointing out that the issues we face now have their roots in the far past—most certainly not recent history. The first compulsory national health care, he noted, was promoted by the Germans in the early 1900’s. “[The Kaiser]...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jennifer Powell September 24, 2009 202-248-5084 jpowell@hillsdale.edu Hillsdale College First Principles on First Fridays Lecture: “American Renewal: Is It Too Late To Reclaim Our Principles and Our Country?” Washington, D.C. — Matthew Spalding will deliver this month’s “First Principles on First Fridays” lecture, sponsored by Hillsdale College's Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. It will take place on Friday, October 2, from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m. at Ebenezers Coffee House, located at 201 F Street, N.E. Coffee, fruit, and pastries will be served. The lecture topic will be “American...

The Constitution provides for treaties, and even specifies that treaties will be "the supreme Law of the Land"; that is, that they will be binding on the states. But from 1787 on, it has been recognized that for a treaty to be valid, it must be consistent with the Constitution—that the Constitution is a higher authority than treaties. And what is it that allows us to judge whether a treaty is consistent with the Constitution? Alexander Hamilton explained this in a pamphlet early on: "A treaty cannot change the frame of the government." And he gave a very logical reason:...

Last evening, CSPAN aired a great interview of Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn with Brian Lamb on their program Q&A. To view it online, click here http://www.q-and-a.org and then click on "Watch" under "Last Sunday."

A broadcast of an interview of Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn by CSPAN Founder and CEO, Brian Lamb will air this Sunday, June 14, on CSPAN's program Q & A. For more details, please click here: http://www.q-and-a.org.

Freedom Is Not Free by: Alana Goodman, June 05, 2009 As pundits and politicians bicker back and forth about the cause of our country’s problems—the healthcare system, the free market, gay marriage—journalist Mark Steyn points to one root catalyst for our nation’s difficulties: indolence. “In most of the developed world, the state has gradually annexed all the responsibilities of adulthood—health care, child care, care of the elderly—to the point where it’s effectively severed its citizens from humanity’s primal instincts, not least the survival instinct,” Steyn told an audience at Hillsdale College on March 9th. Steyn, a Canadian immigrant, knows all...

This week the 1,600 or so members of Harvard's Class of 2009 will leave campus with a coveted Ivy degree. Of this number, seven will leave with something else: the gold bars of a second lieutenant. At a time when institutions from our banks and auto makers to our churches and public schools seem to have trouble honoring their most basic promises, these young officers enter a life where words have meaning, meaning has consequences, and those consequences can include a flag-draped coffin. Tomorrow on Harvard Yard, Gen. David Petraeus will address these young men and women -- four Army,...

Most recently known for his bid for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination, Ronald Reagan is distinguished for his successful careers in motion pictures, broadcasting, and politics. Mr. Reagan was a player and production supervisor of television's "General Electric Theater" for eight years and hosted and acted in the "Death Valley Days" television series. For many years he owned and operated a horse breeding and cattle ranch. Elected California's 33rd governor in 1966, he was re-elected in 1970. After leaving office in early 1975, Governor Reagan began a daily radio commentary program, nationally syndicated, and a weekly newspaper column in which...

A few weeks ago, I helped my 18-year-old sister move into her freshman dorm at Hillsdale College in Michigan. I was anxious for her -- I worried that the female culture at her school would be similar to that at my own alma mater, Tufts University in Medford, Mass. As a reserved evangelical from Colorado Springs, Colo., I was shocked by a lot of things at Tufts when I entered in the fall of 2003. What shocked me more than anything, however, was the way women treated other women. I regularly heard young women refer to each other using the...

IT IS A great pleasure to be back at Hillsdale. It is some 32 years since I first visited the College for a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society. Those few days were an important education in American politics for me. The conference was attended by many people who had just returned from the Republican Convention at which President Ford had narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan. They were full of enthusiasm for Reagan and full of conviction that one day he would become president. Their enthusiasm—and their passion too for sound doctrine—swept me along. I think I became a firm Reaganite...

Heroes: What Great Statesmen Have to Teach Usby Paul Johnson, Historian   PAUL JOHNSON is the author of several bestselling books, including the classic Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties, A History of the American People, A History of Christianity, Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky, A History of the Jews, Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney, Art: A New History, George Washington: The Founding Father, and most recently, Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including...

The University of Wisconsin-Madison did relatively well in a 50-college test of how much students learned about history and economics during four years of college, but students in Wisconsin and nationally knew little when they came in and not much more when they left. No college did better than a D-plus on the Civic Literacy Test released Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonpartisan conservative educational organization that stresses the values of a free society. The national average was F.The test of 14,000 randomly selected students revealed that some of the most expensive Ivy League universities, with the highest-paid...

September 10, 2007, 5:00 a.m. Hillsdale’s ComebackThe college is stronger than ever. By John J. Miller When Larry Arnn arrived on the campus of Hillsdale College seven years ago as its new president, the school was reeling from scandal and its future was uncertain. Today, however, the college has bounced back. “We’re much stronger,� says Arnn. This year’s incoming freshman class, in fact, is Hillsdale’s best ever. The numbers tell the story. The freshman who arrived on campus last month had an average SAT score of 1940 and an average ACT score of 28. The year before Arnn took...

America is the only nation in history founded on an idea: the proposition that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No other nation can make such a claim. This is what makes us unique. It is why, for more than two centuries, America has been a beacon of liberty for all who aspire to live in freedom. It is also why America was so brutally attacked on September 11. The terrorists who struck the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers despise what America stands...

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a distinguished visiting fellow at Hillsdale College. He has a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. in classics from Stanford University. He is a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services and has written for several newspapers and journals, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Times, Commentary, the New Republic, the Claremont Review of Books, the Weekly Standard and National Review Online. He serves on the...

Occasionally I will hear a friend say, as he contemplates the utter wasteland our urban public schools have become, and as he views the deterioration of American society, ‘what this country needs is another depression”. Having been a young child during the ‘Great Depression’, and having therefore the interest in learning all I could about it, I do not agree with the thought. I do not agree that we need to go through another era when millions lived in abject poverty. I do agree with the concerns for our country, as teachers, numbed by classroom experiences and handcuffed by politically...

Thanks to the manner in which the Ivory Tower makes poster children of its most problematic professors and the zeal with which college administrators excise “dead white guys” from their curricula, Winston Churchill is probably not as well known on many American college campuses as Ward Churchill. Indeed, I found foundations, scholarships, institutes, centers and even high schools named after Great Britain’s most famous prime minister but few classes on his life and work. About the only college course on Winston Churchill that I could find on a quick Google search was one at Hillsdale. Perhaps some of the great...

We keep coming back to cover commercially published historian David McCullough for a reason: Unlike his academic counterparts, he actually has something to say. “Many people today are saying that we should be teaching morals in our schools,” McCullough himself said in a lecture earlier this year at Hillsdale College. “They could find support in the closing line of this section of the Commonwealth Constitution, which speaks of the necessity ‘to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social...

If you are looking for the legacy of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, do not look in the concrete rubble of so-called safe house in Baqubah that became his final resting place. Instead, look less than 10 miles to the west, on the side of the road in the desert town of Hadid, for a pile of cardboard banana boxes. Inside those boxes were nine human heads. Some of the heads still had their blindfolds on. Iraqi police are still attempting to identify the murdered men. Days earlier, in Baquba, Iraqi police found another eight severed heads. One of those heads...

George Roche, Captain of Hillsdale Ship by Ron TrowbridgePosted May 16, 2006George Roche, president of Hillsdale College for 28 years, from l971 to l999, died May 5 at age 70. His body had been torn by diabetes most of his life. It is nearly impossible to exaggerate his accomplishments. He made Hillsdale College what it is, even today where the foundation he established remains, with the college presently building upon it. He was the captain of the ship, steering the boat and giving us mates direction. He gave the college the best faculty and the best students it had ever...

18-year-old write-in candidate elected Hillsdale mayor 11/9/2005, 8:30 a.m. ET The Associated Press HILLSDALE, Mich. (AP) — An 18-year-old high school student has been elected mayor after mounting a write-in campaign to oust the 51-year-old incumbent. With all the votes counted, Michael Sessions had 732 votes to 668 for Mayor Doug Ingles, according to unofficial figures posted on the city's Web site. A cheer went up in the Sessions home when the results were announced over the radio. The Hillsdale High School student lives with his parents and 13-year-old sister Sarah. Scott and Lorri Sessions at first had doubts about...

Enrollment is up at smaller colleges with Christian values. Some think students hope it will launch political careers. By Adam Karlin | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor Catherine Shultis, a National Merit Scholar with a perfect SAT score, is a natural for the hallowed halls of academia: Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown. But last month, she began her freshman year at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Why Steubenville instead of Cambridge, Mass., or New York? The East Coast elite universities "lack a grounding in the Christian faith, and they're turning away from core principles and becoming more and more liberal,"...

A top-notch college education no longer means four years of liberal indoctrination. According to the experts, schools that promote conservative values are among the nation’s best. Which colleges made the list?

The United States has enjoyed unprecedented liberty, prosperity and stability, in large part because of its Constitution. I would like to discuss a number of myths or misconceptions concerning that inspired document. Myth or Misconception 1: Public policies of which we approve are constitutional and public policies of which we disapprove are unconstitutional. It might be nice if those policies that we favor were compelled by the Constitution and those policies that we disfavor were barred by the Constitution. But this is not, by and large, what the Constitution does. Rather, the Constitution creates an architecture of government that is...

On my radio show today, I addressed the topic of military “counter-recruiters.” You know what military recruiters are—the people who go to high schools and colleges and tell young people about their opportunities to serve their country in the military. Well, now there are also “counter-recruiters” who go to these schools and tell young people why they shouldn’t serve their country in the military.

Good morning folks. I know no other place to go than to freerepublic to get what I hope is an honest assessment about Hillsdale College. Last November, my sister first found about Hillsdale College, a conservative liberal arts college located in Michigan. She likes many aspects of the college including the fact that they do not accept federal funding. Her senior high school daughter applied for admission and was accepted for next fall. Recently, however, she was talking with a colleague and learned about a sex-suicide scandal that involved the president and his daughter-law. Apparently this affair was uncovered in...

The patient's heart hasn't yet stopped beating, but the game is over. The disease is terminal. The end is coming. The liberals killed liberalism by being small-minded, irrational, mean-spirited, and uninformed. In other words, by being bad liberals.

Robert P. George delivered the following commencement address to the Hillsdale College Class of 2003 on May 10 in the George Roche Health Education and Sports Complex. Following the speech, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science. - - - - - - - - - - It is a great honor to have the opportunity to address you this afternoon and to join the ranks of the honorary alumni of this eminent institution. To those who are graduating today, and to their families, I offer congratulations for all that you have achieved, and best wishes as you grasp...

The American Media in Wartime by Brit Hume. 06-21-2003. The military learned its lesson in Vietnam The following is adapted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College seminar in Dearborn, Michigan, on April 28, 2003. I'm going to begin by reading some samples from the American media coverage of the Iraq conflict. I admit to finding them delightful. Before the war began, my colleague and friend, the ever-voluble Chris Matthews of NBC, said that if we go to war in Iraq, "[It] will join the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Desert One, Beirut and Somalia in the history of military...

October Imprimis Views on Islam Benazir Bhutto, David Forte and Will Morrisey On September 15-20, 2002, Hillsdale College held a seminar on the topic, “How to Think About Islam.” Nine guest speakers, both Islamic and non-Islamic, and several faculty members offered divergent views on several questions: Does the radical form of Islam behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, represent true Islam? or is it an aberration? Is Islamic doctrine compatible with religious pluralism and constitutional democracy? How are we to think of Islam in the context of the war against terrorism? The following remarks are excerpted or adapted...

Bradley A. Smith Commissioner, Federal Election Commission Bradley A. Smith was appointed to the Federal Election Commission in May 2000. Prior to that, he was professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. His writings on campaign finance and other election issues have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Legislation, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, and many other publications. He has testified numerous times before Congress, and is a frequent contributor to USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. In...