8/26/2024

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal features Jack Miller Center President Hans Zeiger’s review at Modern Age of John Burtka’s recent book, “Gateway to Statesmanship: Selections from Xenophon to Churchill.” Zeiger writes that Burtka explores the necessary topic of statesmanship, which he defines as the “practical wisdom that is needed for governing, much less the philosophical and ethical foundations for that service.” Featuring excerpts that span from classical antiquity to the American Founding, Zeiger notes that “Burtka highlights a tradition of advice provided to kings and other rulers known as ‘mirrors for princes,’” which “consists of kings and other leaders recording their own advice and reflections.” These reflections are concerned with key themes such as republicanism, the virtues and habits of character that citizens should possess, and limited government. In closing, Zeiger recommends Burtka’s book, calling it “a wonderful place for students of political wisdom to begin their studies.”

At RealClearHistory, in light of former Congressman George Santos pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft, Jack Miller Center fellow Frank Garmon Jr. highlights a lesser-known con man in American history, Charles Cowlam. Garmon explores the life of Cowlam, who was “a Gilded Age swindler who managed to hoodwink many of the era’s leading politicians.” Garmon writes that Cowlam “made a career by exaggerating his credentials and constantly reinventing himself. One contemporary newspaper reported that ‘he has as many aliases as there are letters in the alphabet.’” Why, Garmon asks, do individuals like this tend to gravitate toward a life in politics? He argues that in personifying “the rags to riches story,” these individuals “play upon (and prey upon) the fluidity of American life.” Americans, Garmon notes, “appreciate them for their cleverness, even as we rebuke them for their dishonesty.” He closes by observing that the “New York Republicans that encouraged Santos’s campaign were blinded by the same forces that concealed Cowlam’s criminal past from his contemporaries. No one bothered to ask.”