Conservatism’s Sharpest Voices, Curated Weekly | ISI’s Intercollegiate Review brings you the best in serious conservative thought.
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CATEGORY: PHILOSOPHY (5 MIN)
Fukuyama, Strauss, and the “Pre-Modern Ideal”
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After winning a huge victory in the 2024 elections, the American right has a chance to set a vision for the nation. But since conservatives honor free and fair debate, there has been much dialogue over what that vision should look like. Thinkers and politicians continue to work through the scholarship of conservative academics to determine what America should look like as it moves forward in the 21st century.
For First Things
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, R.R. Reno discusses the work of two major thinkers: Francis Fukuyama and Leo Strauss. Fukuyama used a 1940s lecture from Strauss to criticize postliberal thinkers on the right in a recent article
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, but Reno believes that Fukuyama’s analysis is wrong. Reno says that Strauss was focused on retaining the “tradition of truth” that drew on metaphysical reality to combat nihilism, which had permeated the German academy before the Second World War.
Reno argues from Strauss’s work that all the achievements of the modern West will not long endure without foundation in the “pre-modern ideal.” This “classical ideal of humanity” transcends surface-level thinking, according to Reno, and it focuses on what some might see as “illiberal” concepts: “the authority of human nature, for example, and the authority of God.”
Reno also urges readers (including Fukuyama) to fight back against the oppressive academic culture that has illiberally forbidden discussion of the “pre-modern ideal.”
What do you think? Read Reno’s piece here
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to learn more.
Read Now
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Weekly Poll
Who better explains today’s political crisis: Francis Fukuyama or Leo Strauss?
[A] Fukuyama: liberal democracy has essentially won
[B] Strauss: we still need classical wisdom to guide us
[C] Unsure
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RESULTS: 6/12/2025
Is America ready to move past guilt and reclaim pride in Western civilization?
[A] Yes -- It's time to stand tall again | 71.2%
[B] No -- We still have wrongs to reckon with | 3.8%
[C] Unsure -- The debate isn't so simple | 25%
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CATEGORY: PHILOSOPHY (15 MIN)
What Makes a “Magnanimous Nation?”
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At a time (like many others in world history) when conflict and strife reign over many nations, America has an opportunity to set an example in great leadership. The Founders studied much about the most famous statesmen of the biblical, ancient, and medieval eras—ISI President Johnny Burtka released a book this year called Gateway to Statesmanship on those leaders and their modern counterparts.
But what is necessary to bring about such leadership? In an excerpt reprinted in The American Mind
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from his new book Prophetic Statesmanship: Harry Jaffa, Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Address, Edward J. Erler discusses Jaffa’s thoughts on President Lincoln’s conception of leadership and statesmanship.
Erler argues from Jaffa’s work (citing Lincoln) that ambition is a “neutral” tool to be taken up by people in power—and that in the hands of someone who would serve “just ends by enlarging freedom for all,” it could do great good. Erler says this person, per Jaffa and Lincoln, would be one who could “forgo the honors of his countrymen.” Erler compares this individual to the “great-souled man” from the work of Aristotle.
Erler also talks about the trait of magnanimity, which places those who wield it in the place of a “benefactor, not a servant.” He lays out Jaffa’s argument that a country itself may be magnanimous, acquiring a “consciousness of superiority which is superiority in the ability to benefit others.” And Erler then also turns to Leo Strauss, arguing that a nation that provides “equality of opportunity” creates the most fertile soil for getting those with great souls into government.
Read more of Erler’s work here
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Read Now
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CATEGORY: VIDEO
Can Elite Conservatism Speak to the Working Class?
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In a new video podcast from Modern Age
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, editor-in-chief Dan McCarthy discusses how conservatives from William F. Buckley Jr.’s time to today try to reconcile their elite backgrounds with the interests of the common man. This weekly series, Modern Age with Dan McCarthy, will explore how the history of conservatism informs and shapes American politics and culture. Watch the first episode here
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Subscribe to ISI's YouTube channel
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and Modern Age with Dan McCarthy
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today!
Watch Now
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CATEGORY: HISTORY (6 MIN)
The Chaotic Consequences of Communism
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Thanks to the efforts of journalists and politicians who refused to give in to public pressure against them, the Marxist influence on modern American education has largely been revealed to the public. Despite our victory in the Cold War, Communist thought has penetrated many institutions—and its values and methods continue to affect our nation today.
For this week’s article from the Modern Age
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website, Piers Shepherd reviews a new book called To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, by Sean McMeekin. Shepherd discusses some of the highlights of McMeekin’s historical account, including the incredible level of invasiveness the Bolshevik government perpetrated from the very beginning. In 1918, the Reds ordered the opening of individuals’ safes in private banks.
Shepherd also recounts McMeekin’s work regarding American assistance to Stalin’s Russia. Apparently, Shepherd says, U.S. companies helped design Soviet cities, combines, plants, and factories, which would eventually become part of the machine on the opposite side of the Cold War. He also notes McMeekin’s pushback against the positive characterization of Mikhail Gorbachev, who McMeekin says built up the Soviet army and cracked down on dissenters.
Shepherd ends with McMeekin’s warning for today: COVID lockdowns, social distancing, and other modern efforts like “debanking political dissidents” that Western democracies have used actually come from the Chinese Communist Party. And if the West continues down such paths, McMeekin cautions, “Communism as a governing template seems only to be getting started.”
Read more here
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on the Modern Age website.
Read Now
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Thought of the Day:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
- Abraham Lincoln
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