The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard
times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and
President Obama had to shift to the political center to win the
2008 election (only to disappoint months after his inauguration),
conservative ideas garner little excitement or serious engagement
among young people as they once did even just two decades ago. We
have gone from Eric Voegelin "Don't immanentize the eschaton" to
Hannity's "Sean, you're a great American." To be sure, many
conservative and liberal young people have firm opinions on issues
along the conservative-liberal fault line. They can opine, and
fiercely so, by blog, twitter, or email on issues as wide ranging
as same-sex marriage, Constitutional interpretation, abortion, free
markets, and the role of religion in the public square. But very
few, if any, of them seem to be aware of the intellectual patrimony
from which their views sprang, and the arguments and reasons that
animated the proponents of the ideas they claim to sincerely and
deeply hold. "Hope" and "change," though fine words in their own
right, do not qualify as actual ideas that may guide presidents and
prime ministers to excellence in statecraft. There was a time when
many students in college or graduate school would participate in
robust discussions with friend and foe alike about the ideas and
arguments plumbed from the works authored by conservative
luminaries as diverse as Hayek, Strauss, Voegelin, Buckley, Weaver,
Friedman, Kirk, Lewis, Chesterton, and Anscombe, to name just a
few. Sadly, there is very little of this going on today in our
universities and colleges. A Second Look at First Things: A Case
for Conservative Politics has two purposes. The first is to remedy
this contemporary deficit by offering, in one volume, an
intelligent, winsome, and readable articulation of conservative
ideas on a variety of issues and questions. They range from the
abstract ("Why the Natural Law Suggests a Divine Source") to the
practical ("Lincoln and the Art of Political Leadership"), and to
the provocative ("Being Personal These Days: Designer Babies and
the Future of Liberal Democracy"). The second purpose is to honor
the great conservative political philosopher, Hadley P. Arkes, the
Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at
Amherst College. In 2010 he celebrated his 70th birthday, and 2011
marked the 25th anniversary of his classic monograph on natural law
and public policy, First Things: An -Inquiry Into the First
Principles of Morals and Justice (Princeton University Press,
1986). So, in celebration of these milestones, the editors have
chosen to produce a work that is consistent with Hadley's vocation
as an exceptional teacher of young people. Although most of those
who have read Hadley's books and articles think of him as an
engaging and productive scholar, which indeed he is, his students -
including both those at Amherst as well as those who have had the
privilege to hear his spell-binding lectures elsewhere - know him
as an outstanding teacher. His ability to unpack a principle of
jurisprudence by weaving together an analytical argument with an
enthralling tale or insightful anecdote is truly magical to behold.
Contributors include Michael Novak, Daniel Robinson, Gerard
Bradley, Allen Guelzo, Peter Augustine Lawler, Larry Arnn, James
Schall, s.j., and Christopher Tollefesen.
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