An Introduction to American Conservatism

On Saturday morning, we did the second of two events at the Signs of Life Bookstore in Lawrence. I helped to lead a session, once again held on the second floor art gallery, on "An Introduction to American Conservatism." Caleb Stegall of The New Pantagruel also helped lead the session with me.

I gave the first lecture and led the first discussion on "The American Conservative Movement - the last 50 years." I basically used a model I saw Mark Henrie use, and distinguish three distinct traditions within the movement, categorizing them as the (1) libertarians/classical liberals, (2) traditionalists, and (3) anti-communists. I put F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom as the guiding philosophy for the first tradition, Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind and Richard Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences for the second tradition, and Whittaker Chambers' Witness as an example of the third tradition. I traced the movement as being glued during most of this time by anti-communism and the Cold War.

Caleb Stegall talked a lot more about the idea of "community". He actually wrote the entry on "community" for the most recent ISI Books title, American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia.

About 15 people attended the session, half of which were students at th University of Kansas and the other half were either friends of Josh's or locals. This event was the major kick off of the new ISI chapter at the University of Kansas. Josh is really using the bookstore as a major venue where the group will have their meetings, and combine their experiences with this unique setting. Caleb Stegall is local to the Lawrence area, he was raised here and now practices law, but is very much involved in the intellectual conservative movement, most notably through his writings and through his emphasis on building community.

I remarked to the students that this bookstore and this ISI chapter are surely building blocks for the sense of community they are building in Lawrence. The meeting lasted from about 9am-noon, and the rest of the day was spent just relaxing, reading, and taking in my final experiences of Kansas, at least for now. I have to put Lawrence, Kansas in the "top 10" places I have visited that I think would be worthy of living in. I don't really have a 1 through 10 list, but I'd put it up there with some of my other favorite places in the United States: San Diego, Jacksonville, Dallas, Annapolis (MD), Chapel Hill (NC) , Virginia Beach, among some others.

Lawrence's "community" stands out though. It's not a terribly big city, but not terribly small, but it has a very "small town" feel, while still being "trendy". It's right in the heart of America, and there's only two downfalls to this area - there's not a beach within 1,000 miles and it's in the middle of tornado alley. Other than that, it's a great community with good people. You don't find too many places like this left.