Location: The Heritage Foundation's Allison Auditorium
What is conservatism? To this question conservatives have
formulated varying responses, while liberals have provided their
own answer. Some conservatives have claimed that conservatism
is the alternative to liberalism, while others have argued that it
is the philosophy which cures modern liberalism from its own
defects. Conservatism has therefore faced a dilemma between
reversing and slowing our present course, between principle and
prudence. In America, an attempt to resolve this dilemma must
begin by recurring to our origins, to our Constitution and to the
principles and ideas which gave birth to it, which are found in
The Federalist and de Tocqueville's Democracy in
America, two authoritative conservative texts.
Harvey C. Mansfield is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of
Government at Harvard University. He has written on a variety
of subjects in Government and Political Philosophy, including
Edmund Burke, Machiavelli, and the discovery and development of the
theory of executive power. He has also translated three books
of Machiavelli's and (with the aid of his late wife, Delba
Winthrop) Tocqueville's Democracy in America. His
book on manliness was published in 2006. Professor Mansfield
has been on the faculty at Harvard since 1962, and is considered
one of today's most eminent political philosophers.
More About the Speakers
Harvey C. Mansfield, Ph.D.
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government,
Harvard University
Hosted By
Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
Vice President, American Studies and Director, B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics
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