Paul A. Rahe
Paul A. Rahe holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College, where he is Professor of History. He majored in History, the Arts and Letters at Yale University, read Litterae Humaniores at Oxford University’s Wadham College on a Rhodes Scholarship, and the returned to Yale to do his Ph.D. in ancient Greek history under the direction of Donald Kagan. He is the author of Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution (1992) and of Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic (2008), co-editor of Montesquieu’s Science of Politics: Essays on the Spirit of Laws (2001), and editor of Machiavelli’s Liberal Republican Legacy (2006). In 2009, Professor Rahe published two books: Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic, and Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect. He is a frequent contributor on contemporary politics and culture to the website Ricochet. He can also be found at www.paularahe.com.
Our Latest Podcasts
- The Obama Administration's Neo-Puritanical Repression May 16, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Men Fading Badly? May 10, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Capitalism Has Won! And Conservatives Are Confused May 8, 2013 Peter Lawler
- MOOCS and the Stratification of American Higher Education May 3, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Having Issues with "Issues" April 28, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Nathan Harden : Nipples in New York May 18, 2013Lady Ricochet readers: If you were upset about potentially losing your right to bear an oversize soft drink in New York City, perhaps you will take comfort in knowing that at least some rights remain vigilantly protected by the Bloomberg regime: The command was read [in February] at 10 consecutive roll calls. Each of the cityâs 34,000 officers, in theory, […]
- Joe Malchow : IRS Planted Question May 17, 2013The audience question at an otherwise sleepy conference that allowed the IRS to ever so slightly frontrun the revelation that it targeted conservative organizations was, in the event, planted by the IRS. The Internal Revenue Service wrote and planted the question asked on May 10 that led to the IRS scandal, the questioner said in a statement today.Celia Roa […]
- Nathan Harden : They Know They Didn't Know They Didn't May 17, 2013This week, we've been told over and over just how much members of the Obama administration know they didn't know. It's the week of: ⢠the IRS I dunno, ⢠the Benghazi blame dodge,⢠and the AP-AG answer refusal/alleged recusal.But today I discovered something else that a member of the administration maybe didn't know she didn't k […]
- tabula rasa : The Modern World: What and Who Do You Love and Hate? May 17, 2013I've had occasion recently to read or re-read most of the works of C. S. Lewis. It's been a great experience, but it has caused me to ponder an issue that was often on Lewis's mind: Lewis was never comfortable with the modern world, and had an active dislike for much of it. His literary world was that of Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, and […]
- Jack Dunphy : Welcome Back, Milt Rosenberg May 17, 2013Back in January I posted here lamenting the sudden absence of Milt Rosenberg from the WGN radio lineup. Today I was gratified to discover that he has launched his own program on the Internet. Appearing as his first guest is friend of Ricochet Mark Steyn. Whatâs not to like about that?If youâre unfamiliar with Mr. Rosenberg you can consider yourself bless […]
- Troy Senik, Ed. : Yet Another Constitutional Problem for the White House May 17, 2013While we're all lost in the Benghazi, DOJ, and IRS scandals (and the anticipation that the President will eventually just decide to hit for the cycle and quarter troops in the homes of Americans), it bears noting that an earlier White House exercise in making the Constitution an outhouse accessory came back to the fore this week. From Damon Root at Reas […]
- Need To Know with Mona Charen and Jay Nordlinger : Abusing Power May 17, 2013Direct link to MP3 file This week, Jay (on location in Oslo, Norway) and Mona welcome the WSJ's Best of The Web columnist James Taranto. He discusses the IRS and the Associated Press scandals and gives us a tour of even more controversies currently flying under the media radar. James also explains why our current Alinsky-style of government doesn't […]
- Big John : Netflix Reloading May 17, 2013So, now that summer is here, we will replace our DVR patterns with off-season fare like AMC's Longmire and USA's Psych and Burn Notice. We also cycle through Netflix collections of British stuff. We loved Foyle's War and Inspector Lewis, and have now started George Gently. We need more stuff to watch in our Instant Queue while we escape the T […]
- Greg Lukianoff : WSJ: "Feds to Students: You Can't Say That" May 17, 2013Check out my op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal about the crazy campus overreach coming from the Department of Education and the Department of Justice: The scandals roiling Washington over the past two weeks involve troubling government behavior that had been hiddenâthe IRS targeting of conservative groups and the Justice Department's surveill […]
- James Delingpole : Obama, the IRS, and the Fuhrer Prinzip May 17, 2013Before anyone calls me on Godwin's Law, I'd just like to say that I don't believe in Godwin's Law. (For reasons we can perhaps discuss another time.)Anyway, to my headline. Though I'm not saying Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler are peas in a pod, I do think there are certain similarities going on in the way their administrations work - […]
- Western Chauvinist : Stay Focused, Advance the Agenda May 17, 2013Republicans are, once again, squandering a critical opportunity. Mitch McConnell's "The truth will come out, no matter how long it takes" is cold comfort to those of us with any sense of urgency about the disastrous course this country is on, and any experience with Republican "effectiveness" in fighting this administration. And John […]
- Mollie Hemingway, Ed. : What About the Video? May 17, 2013I'm in New York, where I attended the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty's annual Canterbury Medal Dinner last night. This year's winner, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, spoke about the rising threats to religious liberty. You can read his remarks here.The Becket Fund is something of an ACLU for religious liberty. Their events tend to look like the World […]
- Denise McAllister : Jack Bauer Is Back! May 17, 2013All you 24 fans can grab your popcorn and beer because Jack is back. Fox is rekindling the popular show as a miniseries called 24: Live Another Day, starring Kiefer Sutherland. Unfortunately, it will run at half the length, with 12 episodes instead of the full 24. The show will be in chronological order but will skip some hours and is expected to kick off on […]
- Rob Long : I Just Think This Is Cool May 17, 2013There's no real reason to post this, except I think it's cool: I found it, and some other cool Cold War stuff, here.For some reason, this stuff still seems more thrilling to me than an iPhone. […]
- Pejman Yousefzadeh : I Wrote Too Soon on the IRS Scandal Today May 16, 2013Because now, even more information has come out.Start with the fact that we have yet another resignation: President Obama on Thursday appointed senior budget adviser Daniel Werfel as the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, as that agency manages a scandal stemming from its targeting of conservative groups. The appointment is effective May 22 […]
- Roman Genn : Madam Secretary May 16, 2013[…]
- Roman Genn : What, Me Worry? May 16, 2013[…]
- tabula rasa : Lileks' Line of the Day (The Boys of Ricochet Shine in the New Issue of NR) May 16, 2013My electronic version of National Review just arrived. I, of course, went to Steyn, Lileks, and Long first. I can get to that other stuff any time. Steyn has a great column on the savaging of Niall Ferguson and Jason Richwine (Ferguson's apology was, as Steyn called it, a "self-neuter"). Rob imagines how the talking points for Pearl Harbor and […]
- John Yoo : Eric Holder's Bizarre (Non?)Recusal May 16, 2013As noted over on the Member Feed, I spoke to the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin about Attorney General Eric Holder's claim that he recused himself in the case of the Justice Department obtaining extensive phone records from the Associated Press, yet said that there was likely no written evidence of that fact. For the benefit of the Ricochet audie […]
- Pejman Yousefzadeh : The IRS Scandal Gets Worse and Worse May 16, 2013I have a lot to write about.Iâll start with the fact that the president has asked for the resignation of Steven Miller, the acting director of the IRS. There was a lot of tough talk from the president about how the IRSâs actions were supposedly inexcusable and intolerable, but note that the IRS makes it very difficult to actually bring it to account for […]
- Ralphism Redivivus May 11, 2013Naturally I appreciate the kind and intelligent attention to my ideas from Peter Lawler, Richard Reinsch, and Carl Scott. (I would not be dismayed in the unlikely event that the term “Ralphism” caught on, though I might have suggested a term more along the lines of “the Hancockian wisdom.” But be that as it may…) […]Ralph Hancock
- “Gay Marriage” and the End of Lockean Conservatism (Part 3, Conclusion) January 31, 2013Finally, as an example of such vision of substantive goods (as evoked by Roger Scruton, above), let me share a tidbit from an important essay against same-sex marriage (made world famous by the Pope’s high praise) authored by France’s chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim. I have just finished translating this essay, very soon to appear in […]Ralph Hancock
- “Gay Marriage” and the End of Conservative Lockeanism (Part 2 of 3) January 30, 2013(This is a continuation of a post from yesterday; it will make most sense in that context.) When Maggie Gallagher answers John Corvino’s individualist argument for “gay marriage” (in Debating Same-Sex Marriage), she relies mainly on a good and important argument for man-woman marriage based upon universal human and social necessities: “Marriage is a word [.. […]Ralph Hancock
- “Gay” Marriage and the End of Conservative Lockeanism (Part 1 of 3) January 29, 2013Tom West – who, I want to make clear at the outset, can easily run circles around me in his knowledge of Locke’s writings – does well to remind us of the (now) conservative, pro-family conclusions that Locke draws from his very modern philosophical premises. And these conclusions are (or should be) still relevant to […]Ralph Hancock
- Politics and Christianity: The Rule and The Exception (Continued) December 11, 2012(Please read my previous post first, if you haven’t.) Try to follow me here: Christianity, I was arguing, necessarily implies an ambivalence towards any moral-political culture. On the one hand, it reinforces much conventional moral content by declaring it to be the object of a divine command: Thou shalt not steal, commit adultery, etc. At […]Ralph Hancock
- Politics & Christianity: the Rule and the Exception December 10, 2012The essence of Christianity is to love one another, to have compassion, not to judge, but to forgive, to accept – no? Applied to politics, the implication seems obvious: unlimited tolerance, equality of lifestyles, etc: in a word, extreme liberalism. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything, conservatives will say, and they will have a point, […]Ralph Hancock
- Come Let Us Reason Together January 13, 2011The outrage in Arizona has sparked another cycle of mutual recriminations between liberals and conservatives that points up what seems to be a growing chasm running through our political culture. Each side sees itself as faithful to good old American principles, and sees the other side as tending (at least) towards a dangerous extremism. It […]Ralph Hancock
- Propadeutic to a Thumotic and Erotic Ontology December 11, 2010[The following is the preface to my forthcoming The Responsibility of Reason: Theory and Practice in a Liberal-Democratic Age (Rowman & Littlefield)] Propadeutic to a Thumotic and Erotic Ontology. This is the fanciful and facetious subtitle I used to try out on friends when asked about the book I was writing. It was a serious […]Ralph Hancock
- THE CONSTITUTION AT RISK? Founding Principles and Today’s Politics November 13, 201017-20 November 2010 A Conference Hosted by the Tocqueville Project of Brigham Young University, with Funding from The John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs and The Sutherland Institute. Is the Constitution as understood by the Founders at risk? If so, then how so, and what caused this? And would […]Ralph Hancock
- Overheard at Yale: Pomocon Ontology II November 9, 2010[Conclusion of the astute synopsis by Mr. Entel, followed by his even more astute questions:] Plato, Hancock contends, enacts this yoke between being and knowing by seemingly affirming the simple superiority of theory to practice, thus suppressing the question of the relation between the good of thinking and the common good by appearing to answer […]Ralph Hancock
Books by Our Authors
The Responsibility of Reason by Ralph C. Hancock
The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order by Daniel J. Mahoney
Modern and American Dignity by Peter Augustine Lawler
Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift by Paul A. Rahe