Entries by Imprimis Digest

Science, Politics, and COVID: Will Truth Prevail?

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 18, 2021, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. The COVID pandemic has been a tragedy, no doubt. But it has exposed profound issues in America that threaten the principles of freedom and order that we Americans often take for granted. First, […]

Orwell’s 1984 and Today

The following is adapted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College reception in Rogers, Arkansas, on November 17, 2020. On September 17, Constitution Day, I chaired a panel organized by the White House. It was an extraordinary thing. The panel’s purpose was to identify what has gone wrong in the teaching of American history […]

American Sports Are Letting Down America

The following is adapted from a Hillsdale College online lecture delivered in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 19, 2020. Nearly 30 years ago, in a 1993 Nike commercial, professional basketball legend Charles Barkley fired the first shot at the “role model” concept popularized by Columbia University sociologist Robert K. Merton in the aftermath of the 1960s […]

American Sports Are Letting Down America

The following is adapted from a Hillsdale College online lecture delivered in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 19, 2020. Nearly 30 years ago, in a 1993 Nike commercial, professional basketball legend Charles Barkley fired the first shot at the “role model” concept popularized by Columbia University sociologist Robert K. Merton in the aftermath of the 1960s […]

Four Months of Unprecedented Government Malfeasance

The following is adapted from a lecture delivered on June 18, 2020, for a Hillsdale College online symposium, “The Coronavirus and Public Policy.” Over the last four months, Americans have lived through what is arguably the most consequential period of government malfeasance in U.S. history. Public officials’ overreaction to the novel coronavirus put American cities […]

“Faith and reason are mutually reinforcing” by Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice U.S. Supreme Court

Hillsdale College held a dedication ceremony for its new Christ Chapel on October 3, 2019, during a two-day gala to celebrate the College’s 175th anniversary. The following are excerpts from the dedication address. A video of the dedication ceremony may be viewed online at fourpillars.hillsdale.edu. This is a very special occasion—the 175th anniversary of Hillsdale and […]

Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence

Alex BerensonAuthor, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence Alex Berenson is a graduate of Yale University with degrees in history and economics. He began his career in journalism in 1994 as a business reporter for the Denver Post, joined the financial news website TheStreet.com in 1996, and worked as an investigative reporter for The […]

Should We Regulate Big Tech?

The following is adapted from a panel presentation on October 12, 2018, in Kansas City, Missouri, at a Hillsdale College Free Market Forum, sponsored by the College’s Center for the Study of Monetary Systems and Free Enterprise. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the invention of the automobile liberated individuals from the yoke of […]

America’s Cold Civil War

Charles R. Kesler Editor, Claremont Review of Books Charles R. Kesler is the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and editor of the Claremont Review of Books. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social studies and his A.M. and Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. A senior fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study […]

Does Diversity Really Unite Us? Citizenship and Immigration

By Edward J. Erler, Co-Author, The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration. The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 11, 2018, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Colorado Springs. President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossers has provoked a hysterical reaction from Democrats, establishment Republicans, the progressive-liberal media, Hollywood radicals, and the deep […]

The Negative Impact of the #MeToo Movement

Heather Mac Donald Manhattan Institute Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. She earned a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. in English from Cambridge University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She writes for several newspapers and periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, The […]

The Problem of Identity Politics and Its Solution

Matthew Continetti Editor-in-Chief, Washington Free Beacon Matthew Continetti, the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon, received his B.A. from Columbia University. Prior to joining the Beacon, he was opinion editor of the Weekly Standard. The author of The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine and The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring […]