Kenneth Monahan

"One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere."
-William the Silent

[Charles C. W. Cooke @charlescwcooke]

“Let’s make sure we get no more PayPals, Teslas, SpaceXs, Neuralinks, Starlinks . . .” Just illiterate, destructive, sclerotic nonsense.

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.

[Scott Winship @swinshi]

Mostly it depends on whether you ask two government bureaucrats who engage the debate or three ideologues pushing a wealth tax who don’t engage the debate

[Kenneth Monahan @Foudroyant]

@whignewtons @NicoPerrino @LJCenter Is there a link to a merch section of thier website somewhere?

[Tim Carney @TPCarney]

They used to say “country over party.”
Then they switched parties.
Now they say party over conscience.

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

Free speech is a legal right. It is also part of a larger inheritance, protected by people who paid costs most of us can barely imagine.

On Memorial Day, we remember those who gave their lives in service to that inheritance.

They did not die so Americans would fall into a dreary consensus on all things.

They died helping preserve a country where disagreement is possible without bloodshed, where dissent is not treason, and where citizens can argue, worship, protest, publish, persuade, offend, forgive, and begin again.

That is not a small thing. It’s the inheritance we are obliged to protect.