What solutions are conservatives offering to help young men flourish in the modern world? | Read Intercollegiate Review every Thursday for the best of intellectual conservative thought.
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CATEGORY: CULTURE (21 MIN)

Men for new seasons

In their recent piece for American Compass, Evan Myers and Howe Whitman III address an issue which has captured the attention of the nation this year: a crisis of male flourishing. They specifically focus on two recent books on the issue. The first, Of Boys and Men, comes from Brookings fellow Richard Reeves, and the second, Manhood, comes from GOP Sen. Josh Hawley.

Starting with Reeves’ contentions, Myers and Whitman appreciate the author’s diagnosis, but they take issue with his proposed cure. As Reeves notes, men are studying less, working less, and earning less. But as a solution, he suggests holding boys back a year in school as compared to girls, and he argues for pushing men into female-dominated sectors of the economy. Myers and Whitman see these proposals as “deeply unappealing.”

However, Myers and Whitman also have problems with Hawley’s take. They agree with the Senator that men ought to cut addictions, get married, start a family, and earn an honest living. But they disagree that simply telling men to “just do it,” as Myers and Whitman put it, solves anything. Men are trying, they argue, and yet still face many obstacles.

Instead, Myers and Whitman propose policies that could stimulate male mental and economic health, such as more single-sex schools, investing in jobs, and banning pornography. Read the entire article and their proposals here.

Weekly Poll

RESULTS: 11/30/23

Last week, we asked: Do you think Ronald Reagan was more of a populist or a fusionist? Here are the results:

[A] Populist - 23.3%
[B] Fusionist - 62.8%
[C] Unsure - 14%

Do you think young men today are struggling more or less than prior generations at flourishing as adults?

[A] Young men are struggling more than prior generations.
[B] Young men are struggling less than prior generations.
[C] Young men are struggling about the same as prior generations.
[D] Unsure
CATEGORY: ECONOMY (5 MIN)

The truck that saved Christmas

TV commercials in recent years have come under fire for a loss of quality and a change in messaging. With the possible exception of Burger King’s “Whopper Whopper” jingle, ads have become less funny, more moralistic, and bear the clear marks of a more-progressive culture. So conservatives reacted with surprised pleasure when a very pro-middle America Chevrolet commercial hit airwaves this month.

Sohrab Ahmari, writing for The American Conservative, draws more than a cultural point out of this Chevy ad—he also draws an economic one. “A Holiday to Remember,” the commercial in question, features a 1972 Suburban. Ahmari says the old vehicle reminds him of a time when American economy was stronger and more manufacturing-centric.

Ahmari then details the “neoliberal” rise to power, which he claims occurred around 1972. He mourns the loss of American industry to a huge flood of foreign exports, noting the country had gotten out of “the business of building stuff—material stuff.” And Ahmari believes the working class and labor markets took the brunt of the loss.

Ahmari ends on a hopeful note reminiscent of the Christmas-themed ad: he urges America to revitalize its factories and take a careful approach to foreign trade.

Read Ahmari’s full article right here.
CATEGORY: PODCAST EPISODE

How Often Did the Founders Think About Rome? | Dr. Khalil Habib

In this episode, Khalil Habib joins Conservative Conversations in an episode that covers:

  • a wide range of great thinkers, including Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Polybius, Livy, Lucretius, Tocqueville, and Edmund Burke
  • why republics tend to become empires, and how the Founders used the history of the classical world when thinking about the Constitution
  • how Napoleon fits into the story and meaning of the French Revolution

Texts Mentioned:

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Christmas Open House 

​​​December 12th, 2023

Join ISI this Christmas and Holiday season at our Christmas Open House in our newly dedicated Linda L. Bean Conference Center.

This festive evening will feature local award-winning historian W. Barksdale Maynard from the University of Delaware. He will speak on his book The Brandywine: An Intimate Portrait. From the Battle of the Brandywine in 1777—a character-forming crucible of war for George Washington—to the rise of the Brandywine School of Art, our region has made rich contributions to American liberty, arts, and culture.

Don't miss an open bar reception, lecture, and Q&A as we celebrate the Brandywine Valley’s contributions to the American tradition!

Join us in Wilmington, DE >>>
Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
Amid Campus Turmoil, a Princeton Department’s Iranian Influence Looms Large via The Princeton Tory
“The language of ‘mutual respect’ employed by Princeton administrators in the current moment, or of academic freedom itself, was nowhere in sight amid past instances of controversy, particularly when the killing of George Floyd whipped the community into a yearslong frenzy of historical revisionism and McCarthyite firings... The blatant double standard is perhaps most visibly wielded by members of the school’s Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES)... NES today serves as a prominent venue for the Iranian regime’s malign influence in American higher education. Its academics have repeatedly done the ideological bidding of the Ayatollah beneath the veil of academic freedom. Meanwhile, its scholars, several of whom maintain direct relations with the regime, have turned a blind eye to the mullahs’ flagrant human rights infractions and moral turpitude.”

Chloe Cole Visits the U, Leftists React via The Cougar Chronicle
“Then, on November 30th, a professor canceled class due to ‘a presentation by a prominent anti-trans activist.’ This ‘activist’ was Chloe Cole. Also reacting, the U of U’s LGBTQ Resource Center and Women’s Resource Center held a ‘healing circle’ with a sound bath and tarot card readings. The university’s ‘Armed Queers’ group also called for a protest of Chloe’s speech.”

Abolish the Stanford Graduate Workers Union via The Stanford Review
“On November 2nd, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union, or SGWU, voted 683 to 370 to issue a statement of solidarity alongside various Palestinian trade unions. In this act of reckless hubris, the Union decided to take a side in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. The SGWU was founded to represent the needs of Stanford graduate students, yet this partisan pivot does nothing of the sort and unfortunately comes as no surprise, as the Union originated from a left-wing student organization, the Stanford Solidarity Network.”

Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) at PEP Event via The Dartmouth Review
“At [Gramm’s] talk with the PEP on November 2, Senator Gramm reminded me of an entertaining type of non-conformist personality that I have not seen in a long time, perhaps since my childhood in Georgia: that of the charismatic southerner.”

Reporting by The Stanford Review last month was recently covered in a Campus Reform article.

Reporting by The Michigan Review last month recently pick up in a piece by Yahoo News.

CATEGORY: CONSERVATISM (6 MIN)

A weathered warrior

Many Americans consider entering into a peaceful and relaxing retirement in their 50s, 60s, or 70s—the seeming reward for a life of work. Few dedicate this portion of their lives to the same great cause they have engaged in from the beginning of their career, and fewer still do so into their 90s.

But such is the story of Harvey Mansfield, the great scholar and professor, who finally stepped down from his position at Harvard this past summer. Mansfield also earned ISI’s Charles H. Hoeflich Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

For this week’s Intercollegiate Review archive, Loren Brown, at the time the CN intern for Modern Age, delivers an ode to Mansfield centered around an American Enterprise Institute conference on Mansfield’s work. Brown lauded Mansfield’s example for young Harvard conservatives, his respect for the Western tradition, and his humble and charitable spirit.

As for the conference, Brown discussed panels on Machiavelli, Tocqueville, transgenderism, and Mansfield’s work in relation to each of those topics. Yet Brown begins and ends with the professor himself, whose gravitas affected him significantly. He mentions Mansfield’s “wit and charm” as he closed the conference, calling him “a beacon for many.”

Read Brown’s work in honor of Mansfield here.

Thought of the Day:
 
“Masculinity must prove itself,
and do so before an audience.”

- Harvey Mansfield
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