Hamilton

Michael Barone on the Geography of Our Nation

Michael Barone joins the podcast to discuss his new book Mental Maps of the Founders. Continue Reading »

The Strange Fate of Hamilton and Harry Potter

The moral shelf life of pop cultural artifacts seems much shorter than ever before, and the criteria by which they might be judged far less predictable. Continue Reading »

Pessimism Vindicated

The founders would be appalled” is a common sentiment in American politics, expressed mostly by the right. Those on the left, by contrast, are overjoyed at the thought of appalling the founders, whom they accuse of a raft of unforgivable sins, which can be expiated (and even then, only partially) . . . . Continue Reading »

Sacral Presidency

Whether they are monarchs or not, powerful leaders take on royalish trappings because politics is ineradicably sacral. Continue Reading »

The Francis Effect?

The First Things Podcast, Episode 7. Also featuring: The Hamilton Debate and the Marquis de Lafayette’s “Guns and Ships.” Continue Reading »

The Moral Heart of Hamilton

Hamilton tells of America’s pursuit of greatness and reminds us how much we need goodness. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical locates politics downstream of marriage and family. Continue Reading »

2016 Presidential Candidates as Described by the Smash-Hit Musical Hamilton

Hillary Clinton

It must be nice, it must be nice
To have Washington on your side

Bernie Sanders

Scratch that
This is not a moment it’s the movement
. . . . Continue Reading »

Dump Hamilton

Quinn Hillyer at National Review is calling the anticipated change in the U.S. $10 note “outrageous and ignorant.” The change entails removal of Alexander Hamilton’s portrait for that of an as yet unnamed woman. It’s not the woman that arouses Hillyer’s unhappiness, but the removal of his . . . . Continue Reading »

More on East Asian Islet Jitters

Well I couldn’t resist (ineptly) posting that photo of the reef-rock that China and the Philippines both claim, but doing so perhaps made the topic seem more humorous than it really is. Bottom line 1: you gotta watch China on every geo-strategic front, and the “spontaneous” . . . . Continue Reading »

Founders’ Fight Club Books: Federalists v. Republicans

My Rock Songbook has slowed down of late, and there’s a reason. At Washington and Lee University, where I currently teach, we do this cool thing of having a month-long intensive class. The prof is supposed to pack this with a semester’s worth of material, and my class is an American . . . . Continue Reading »