Thematic persistences and conceptual changes have marked the entire course of history, sometimes proceeding in parallel and sometimes intertwining, but it is undeniable that the early modern age represents in a paradigmatic way a privileged observatory from which to verify the fruitful interaction between theoretical changes and the recovery of sources. The volume offers materials for the study of the ways in which the ideas that make up the modern tradition are transformed, from a deliberately non-systematic point of view. The analysis takes into account two main aspects: the tension between continuity and change; the perception and conceptualization of change. The essays collected here bring out the plural dimension of the modern, a point of convergence of heterogeneous traditions and themes, and focus both on the words used to describe and make perspicuous, in all its forms, change, and on the concepts that have been affected by this change, enriching themselves in a growing polysemicity, and which therefore significantly distinguish the early modern age.

Instead of relying on government, the US could rebuild the middle class through private investment, income support, debt relief, and job training.

A recent debate on meritocracy at Harvard revealed deeper questions about the purpose of the school.

We need to study history as a subject in its own right, acquiring a deep appreciation for the story of Western civilization, with all its abysses of failure and all its deservedly celebrated achievements. We need to help our students understand old texts at a deeper level, in less anachronistic ways. Above all, we need to arm them against the hostility to their own tradition that has become such a destructive force in our culture.

Institutional trust depends on loyalty and personal relationships, but loyalty needs to run both ways.

Our efforts must focus on depoliticizing higher education.

A response to No Half-Measures on Higher-Ed Reform, Mike Gonzalez.

Excerpted from The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, by Allen C. Guelzo and James Hankins, forthcoming from Encounter Books in 2024.

The first full-length study of Francesco Patrizi—the most important political philosopher of the Italian Renaissance before Machiavelli—who sought to reconcile conflicting claims of liberty and equality in the service of good governance.

At the heart of the Italian Renaissance was a longing to recapture the wisdom and virtue of Greece and Rome. But how could this be done? A new school of social reformers concluded that the best way to revitalize corrupt institutions was to promote an ambitious new form of political meritocracy aimed at nurturing virtuous citizens and political leaders.

The greatest thinker in this tradition of virtue politics was Francesco Patrizi of Siena, a humanist philosopher whose writings were once as famous as Machiavelli’s. Patrizi wrote two major works: On Founding Republics, addressing the enduring question of how to reconcile republican liberty with the principle of merit; and On Kingship and the Education of Kings, which lays out a detailed program of education designed to instill the qualities necessary for political leadership—above all, practical wisdom and sound character.

The first full-length study of Patrizi’s life and thought in any language, Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy argues that Patrizi is a thinker with profound lessons for our time. A pioneering advocate of universal literacy who believed urban planning could help shape civic values, he concluded that limiting the political power of the wealthy, protecting the poor from debt slavery, and reducing the political independence of the clergy were essential to a functioning society. These ideas were radical in his day. Far more than an exemplar of his time, Patrizi deserves to rank alongside the great political thinkers of the Renaissance: Machiavelli, Thomas More, and Jean Bodin.