From Purpose to Politics: The Decline of Three Liberal Arts Institutions
In the early years of our nation, the increasing demand for an educated population led to the founding of many small colleges. Almost all of them had religious roots and…
Posts tagged with
“western civilization”
Five Steps to Revive the Liberal Arts
For centuries, the liberal arts have been a cornerstone of academic life at Western universities. A liberal-arts education offers an interdisciplinary foundation in the humanities, natural and social sciences, and…
A New Liberal-Arts University Arises
Ralston College counts among its first graduates a 24-year-old man who, in his third term of study, asked me what he could do to help ensure our fledgling institution would…
Hatred of Western Civilization Stokes the Campus Antisemitism Crisis
The unspeakable brutality and depravity of the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel led soon afterward to aggressive protests on many of our college campuses. The protests (and declarations, blog…
Now Is the Time to Renew History Departments
In 2022, Jon Lauck published The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800-1900. His book describes a wonderful range of things to love about the 19th-century Midwest: its…
Undoing “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” Requires Alumni Effort
An historic battle is waging over the future of higher education in the U.S. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. The presenting issues are critical social justice theory and freedom…
Did You Know? Disrupt Texts Is the Latest Attack on the Western Canon
Penguin Classics is partnering with Disrupt Texts to replace Shakespeare and Homer with Ibram X. Kendi. What is Disrupt Texts? For the uninitiated, it is a new radical movement in classrooms which seeks…
The Power of Denunciation in Political Science
A recent case of attempted silencing and censorship has roiled the field of political science. Two gender studies professors, Allison Howell of Rutgers University and Melanie Richter-Montpetit of the University…
Higher Ed Is Stoking the Flames of the War on History
On July 4 at Mt. Rushmore, President Trump praised Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Louis Armstrong; it was a significant political and cultural speech, comparable to Trump’s speech extolling Western…
Whatever Happened to the Teaching of Western Civilization?
Stanley Kurtz ranks as one of this country’s most insightful critics of higher education. The National Association of Scholars chose wisely in commissioning him to write a report on what…