Conservative Political Thought
Presented by:
Richard Avramenko
Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
&
Dr. Eduardo Schmidt Passos
Bradley Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Objective:
Following the principles of the Wisconsin Idea – that the boundaries of the University coincide with the boundaries of the state – with this series of lectures and readings we are serving the public mission of this institution. Following a series of historically important readings, the lecture series will present the central ideas of Conservative Political Thought as it emerged and developed in the wake of the French Revolution and later evolved in the United States.
The lecture series coincides with an upper-level seminar with 25 UW-Madison undergraduates. Members of the public are welcome to attend the public lectures in person, or follow along with the recordings we will create. For a full experience, we invite everyone to read the weekly texts that will inform the Lecture Series (and Q & A).
Suggested Book Purchases:
Jerry Z. Muller, Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and Political Thought From David Hume to the Present (Princeton University Press, 1997)
Patrick Deneen, Regime Change: Towards a Postliberal Order (Sentinel, 2023)
Joshua Mitchell, American Awakening (Encounter Books, 2020)
Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics (Liberty Fund, 1991)
Lecture Series Schedule
Week 1: Monday, January 29, 2:25pm
There will be no guest lecture for the public to attend. Participants are invited to read and watch:
Immanuel Kant, “What is Enlightenment?”
Immanuel Kant, “On the Idea of a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Intent”
Jaspreet Boparai, “The French Genocide that has Been Air-Brushed from History”
Movie: “The Scarlet Pimpernel”
Week 2: Monday, February 5, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “The Roots of Resistance in Edmund Burke’s Conservatism” (Ian Crowe, Belmont Abbey College)
Read: Muller, Introduction (pp. 3-31) & Chpt. 2 pp. 78-122 )
Week 3: Monday, February 12, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Back from Savagery: French Counterrevolutionary Conservatism” (Ethan Alexander-Davey, Campbell University)
Read: Louis de Bonald, “On Divorce” (in Muller, p. 123-133); Joseph de Maistre, “Considerations on France” (pdf); Joseph de Maistre, “Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions” (in Muller, p. 134-145)
Week 4: Monday, February 19, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Gunpowder Liberty: Conservative Women in the American Founding” (Kirstin Birkhaug, Hope College)
Read: Mercy Otis Warren, Judith Sargeant Murray, Elizabeth Willing Powel, and Abigail Adams
Week 5: Monday, February 26, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Alexis de Tocqueville’s Liberal Conservatism” (Richard Boyd, Georgetown University)
Read: Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the Revolution (Preface, Chpts I-V).
Week 6: Monday, March 4, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “The Conservative Disposition: Why Conservatism is Not an Ideology” (Jeff Polet, Ford Foundation)
Read: Russell Kirk, “Ten Conservative Principles”; Kirk, “Prospects for Conservatives”; Robert Nisbet, “Dogmatics of Conservatism”
Week 7: Thursday, March 14, 7:00pm (Law School 2260)
Public Lecture: “The Person as the Key to Catholic Social Thought” (David Walsh, Catholic University of America)
Read: David Walsh, “The Person as the Opening to the Secular World: Benedict and Francis” in The Priority of the Person; & Benedict XVI, “Caritas in Veritate” (pdf)
Week 8: Monday, March 18, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Michael Oakeshott and the Conservative Habits of Mind” (Elizabeth Corey, Baylor University)
Read: Michael Oakeshott, “On Being Conservative” and “The Tower of Babel”
Week 9: Spring Break
Week 10: Monday, April 1, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Conservative Approaches to Constitutional Interpretation” (Kenneth Kersch, Boston College)
Read: Kenneth Kersch, “The Alternative Tradition of Conservative Constitutional Theory”
Week 11: Monday, April 8, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Conservatism and Love of Home” (Mark Mitchell, Patrick Henry College)
Read: Wendell Berry, “The Pleasure of Eating“; Berry, “The Two Economies“; Berry, “Faustian Economics“; Berry, Manifesto: “The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” (poem); Roger Scruton, “Conservatism and the Environment“
Week 12: Monday, April 15, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Conservatism on Nature, Sex, and the Question of Womanhood” (Rachel Lu, Liberty Fund)
Read: Midge Decter, “Women at Work”; Frederica Mathewes-Green, “What Women Need”; Rachel Lu, “The End of Feminism”
Week 13: Monday, April 22, 2:25pm
Public Lecture (Grainger 4580): “Why Conservatives Have Been Unable to Respond to Identity Politics” (Joshua Mitchell, Georgetown University)
Read: Joshua Mitchell, American Awakening (Preface to 2020 Edition)
Week 14: Thursday, May 2, 7:00pm
Public Lecture (Law School 2260): “Conservatism as Populism: Past, Present, and Future” (Patrick Deneen, Notre Dame University)
Read: Patrick Deneen, Regime Change: Towards a Postliberal Order (chpts 3 & 5)