WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation today announced Daniel J. Mahoney has joined as a new senior research fellow for Heritage's B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies.  

The Simon Center advances the principles of America’s Founding through scholarship, education, and public engagement. Mahoney will help further that mission through his research and leadership.

For nearly four decades, Mahoney has been a leading scholar of political philosophy, statesmanship, and the American constitutional tradition. Most recently, he has served as a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, senior visiting fellow at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., graduate campus, and Professor Emeritus at Assumption University, where he taught for 35 years.  

An award-winning author, Mahoney has written or edited more than 20 books on subjects including the American Founding, conservatism, democracy, totalitarianism, and political leadership.

Scott Yenor, chair of the American Citizenship Initiative and the AWC Family Foundation senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, welcomed Mahoney to the team:

“I am pleased to welcome Daniel Mahoney to the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. As one of America’s foremost scholars of political philosophy and the American political tradition, Daniel brings a wealth of expertise that will help advance Heritage’s efforts to defend and renew the intellectual foundations of the American republic.”

Mahoney said the following on his appointment:

"I am delighted to join the Simon Center at Heritage under the very able leadership of Jay Richards. In forty years of scholarly and public writing, in numerous books, essays, and reviews, I have vigorously defended the dignity and nobility of our Western inheritance, which deeply informs the precious achievement that is the American Founding.

"As importantly, I have attempted to clarify and renew the indispensable moral foundations without which liberty and democracy wither and cease to bear fruit. I have also taken pointed aim at the nihilistic culture of repudiation all around us and have stood up to the totalitarian temptation in its various forms. I will happily continue this work in the Simon Center. In doing so, I hope to contribute to a revitalized conservatism rooted in a spirit of gratitude and a deep appreciation for what Alexis de Tocqueville eloquently called 'liberty under God and the law.'"  

Mahoney is a frequent contributor to leading publications, including The Claremont Review of Books, The American Mind, National Review, and The New Criterion, and has lectured at institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Hillsdale. His work has earned numerous honors, including ISI’s 2023 Conservative Book of the Year award for The Statesman as Thinker.