| Starting off this week’s curation is the latest civic institution op-ed from Mike Sabo, who highlights the work of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and its new president, Ryan T. Anderson. As part of its mission, EPPC fellows such as Stanley Kurtz are working to defend our nation’s founding principles – including a respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, justice, the rule of law, and limited government. James Piereson reviews a new biography by Neal Gabler about the “Lion of the Senate,” Edward M. Kennedy. The biography covers Kennedy’s birth in 1932 to the height of his time in the Senate in 1975; the second volume will cover Kennedy’s life until his passing in 2009. Piereson’s overall assessment is that this biography is the next in a line of hagiographies of the Kennedy clan. In Gabler’s narrative, “The Kennedys represent the morally enlightened side of America, and so their failures must be excused,” Piereson writes, “while Republicans like Richard Nixon appeal to ‘the darkness of the electorate,’ in other words, to the ‘bad’ America populated by reactionaries and bigots.” Historian Ashley Cruseturner finds fault with the “uncivil war in American history,” which was most recently exemplified by the San Francisco Board of Education’s decision to scrub Abraham Lincoln’s name, along with the names of many other American historical figures, from schools in the district. Turner argues that these actions – especially in light of the 1619 Project – portend grave issues. Americans are moving from feeling hope that our country is, with fits and starts, moving towards achieving our founding principles to being ungrateful for the work of past generations of Americans, ready to jettison the blessings of liberty for a different project altogether. Adam Seagrave writes that freedom has been America’s defining feature since it was founded. Our understanding of freedom “allows for the simultaneous expression of [the] unity and diversity characteristic of American identity” while driving us to defend and reassert liberty when it is in peril. Original Posts Mike Sabo, RealClearWire Michael DiMatteo, RealClearPublicAffairs Essential Reading James Piereson, New Criterion When Edward M. Kennedy died in 2009, he was eulogized by President Obama as “the soul of the Democratic Party, and the lion... Allen C. Guelzo, New Criterion There are some biographies which are almost impossible to write. Sometimes this is because the subject is guilty of such monstrosities... In the News Richard Gamble, Law & Liberty Jude Schwalbach, Daily Signal Stanley Kurtz, National Review K.S. Bruce, RealClearPolitics Lynn Uzzell, Law & Liberty Frederick Hess, Education Next Kathleen Rellihan, Newsweek Daniel Perreault, KWWL Max Hastings, Bloomberg Jonathan Butcher, Daily Caller Louise Dube, National Review David Eisner, RealClearPolicy Ashley Cruseturner, Ashley's Substack Adam Seagrave, Race & the American Story John McWhorter, The Atlantic Ian Rowe, Philip Magness, Robert Paquette, et al., National Association of Scholars National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood's "1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project" critiques the New York Times'... Stephen Tootle & Tony Williams, BRI Primary Source Close Read What should the balance of government intervention and economic liberty be in a capitalist society? BRI Senior Teaching Fellow Tony Williams... Matt Spalding, Charles Kesler, & Ryan Williams, American Mind Podcast In this special edition of The American Mind Podcast, Ryan Williams is joined by two members of the 1776 Commission to discuss... Desmond Jagmohan & John J. Miller, Bookmonger John J. Miller is joined by Desmond Jagmohan of the University of California at Berkeley to discuss Booker T. Washington’s Up... Chris Flannery, American Story By July 1776, American revolutionary John Dickinson maintained that he did not entertain any doubt whether America should... Michael Warren, Patriot Lessons The Declaration of Independence’s list of grievances includes the suppression of the right to a jury trial. Learn how the jury right... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories Another Super Bowl, the 55th such championship, is in the books. The National Football League thinks so much of its annual ... Good morning, it's Feb. 5, 2021, a Friday -- the day of the week I pass along quotations intended to ... Iconic American illustrator Norman Rockwell was born on this date in 1894. Throughout his career, Rockwell’s paintings were dismissed by ... | 
