Historian Francis J. Gavin will present this year’s LaFeber-Silbey Lecture, “California Dreaming – The Crisis and Rebirth of American Power in the 1970s”. The talk is Thursday, October 3, at 4:30 p.m. in the Kaufmann Auditorium/Room G64 in Goldwin Smith Hall. Sponsored by the Department of History, the talk is free and open to the public.
Our contemporary power structure claims to be based on merit and aims for diversity, but it has lost a sense of duty and responsibility that the traditional aristocracy represented, says author and political essayist Ross Douthat. In “Meritocracy and the Public Good: Who Wins? Who Loses?” Douthat will explore what the costs of this structure are to the common good. Sponsored by the program on Freedom and Free Societies, the talk will be held Thursday, April 25, at 5:30 p.m.
The Democratic Party began in the 1820s as an organization of and for white men who opposed a strong federal government. The party gradually wooed a more inclusive constituency, and its partisans built a national state that sought to advance the common welfare.
Is the fabric of our civilization being torn by identity politics, nationalism and populism? Are Americans ignoring character and competence in an “us vs. them” political landscape? Political analyst Jonah Goldberg examined divisiveness in U.S. politics and discuss possible solutions in his talk, “Suicide of the West” Thursday, Nov. 29, at 5:15 p.m. in Klarman Hall’s Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium. His lecture was free and open to the public.
From NATO-Russian relations to the collapse of communism in Poland to Guantanamo Bay, Ambassador Daniel Fried ’75 has been on the front lines of U.S. foreign policy. He’ll share an analysis of U.S. foreign policy informed by his 40-year career in the U.S. government as this year’s LaFeber-Silbey lecturer.
In what seems to be a new age of populism, what does history tell us about elites and the will of the masses?
Military historian Victor Davis Hanson will address these issues in his talk, “Populist Revolt: Everything Old is New Again,” April 23 at 5:15 p.m. in G10 Biotechnology Building. The lecture is sponsored by the Freedom and Free Societies program at Cornell and is free and open to the public.
In what seems to be a new age of populism, what does history tell us about elites and the will of the masses? Public intellectual and renowned military historian Victor Davis Hanson will address these issues in his talk, “Populist Revolt: Everything Old is New Again,” April 23 at 5:15 pm in Cornell’s Bio-Tech Building, G10
