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Arthur Melzer: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing
According to the standards of today, all philosophic and political writing is expected to be clear and unambiguous. Writers are told to be absolutely…
6 years, 3 months ago
James Ceaser: How We Select Presidential Candidates, Then and Now
Is the current system of presidential selection—primary and caucus voting—working well? How did the framers of the Constitution think about president…
6 years, 4 months ago
Paul Cantor on The Western
What was the Old West? How did Westerns emerge as a quintessential American art form? What are the greatest Westerns and what accounts for their endu…
6 years, 4 months ago
Harvey Mansfield on Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws
Though not read nearly as much as it should be, Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (1748) is a fundamental text in the history of political philoso…
6 years, 5 months ago
Diana Schaub on Frederick Douglass
In this Conversation, first released in 2018, Professor Diana Schaub considers the life and ideas of the statesman and political thinker Frederick Do…
6 years, 5 months ago
Jonathan V. Last: The Demographic Baby Bust and its Consequences
The birthrate in the United States, and in many other countries around the world, has been declining for decades. The US birthrate now is at 1.8, whi…
6 years, 5 months ago
Stan Veuger on Europe Today: Politics, Economics, and the Future of the EU
What is the political and economic situation in Europe today? How should we think about contentious issues like stresses in the European Union, Brexi…
6 years, 6 months ago
N. Gregory Mankiw: On the Economic Ideas of the Left and Right Today
How is the US economy performing today? How should we think about the turn against free markets by prominent figures of the Left and the Right? What …
6 years, 6 months ago
Jack Goldsmith: On Jimmy Hoffa, labor unions, and the rise and fall of the mob
Jack Goldsmith is a professor of law at Harvard, an expert on national security, terrorism, and cybersecurity—and a regular guest on Conversations. A…
6 years, 6 months ago
Mike Murphy on the Democratic Race and the 2020 Presidential Election
As we head into the 2020 election year, veteran political strategist and commentator Mike Murphy joins Bill Kristol to discuss the state of the race …
6 years, 7 months ago