Christianity & the West

The New Right

The Great Speeches

Western Civilization I

MWF 10:30 AM – 11:20 AM | WASH 293H

This course surveys the epic development of Western Civilization from antiquity to around 1500. It begins with the classical Greeks, whose philosophy, art, tragic literature, theoretical mathematics, and civic identity laid foundational pillars. It then examines the Hellenistic Age after Alexander the Great, followed by Rome’s rise from Republic to Empire, and its lasting legacies in law, engineering, and republicanism. The course examines the profound fusion of Greco-Roman and Christian traditions, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the emergence of Christendom in medieval Europe, encounters with Islam, and the Crusades. It explores high medieval achievements, such as the emergence of modern law, the founding of universities, Gothic architecture, and scholasticism, before concluding with the Renaissance, defined by humanism, perspective painting, and revival of classical learning.

Political Philosophy

MWF 10:30 AM – 11:20 AM | WASH 393C

This course will survey the new field of political psychology, which studies what leads people to form their moral and political beliefs. We will study the origin of common biases that lead people to form or change their political beliefs, and we will also consider the extent to which our political predispositions may be influenced by genetics, by parenting, and by our broader culture.

Evolution & Human Nature

MWF 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM | WASH 293L

Why do humans go to war, compete for status, drink too much, eat too much, and swear to quit some filthy habit, only to relapse? In this course we explore how evolution shaped human nature. From our love of beauty to our hatred of injustice, natural selection offers surprising insights into why we think, feel, and behave the way we do.

The Last Men: Liberalism & the Death of Masculinity

MWF 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM | WASH 293K

American Revolutionaries

MWF 12:30 PM – 1:20 PM | WASH 293P

The Great Statesmen

MWF 12:30 PM – 1:20 PM | WASH 293S

Men of great power and ferocious will acting at the decisive moment built the modern world—both for good and ill. This course will examine these founders, statesmen, and tyrants: Napoleon, Lincoln, Lenin, FDR, Hitler, Kissinger, and Lee Kuan Yew.

Decline of the West

MWF 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM | WASH 293I

Oswald Spengler predicted over a century ago that Western civilization, like all great cultures, was destined for inevitable decline. This course confronts the urgent question: Is the West now entering its twilight, fated to fragment into a multicultural entity torn by divergent cultures, races, and identities lacking a shared core ---- while China ascends with its relatively homogeneous population and authoritarian capitalism? It examines how Samuel Huntington’s "clash of civilizations" thesis applies inward: beyond external conflicts between civilizational blocs, the West faces intensifying internal clashes between its historic European-derived liberal universalist values and the growing influence of non-Western populations alongside radical progressive (“woke”) ideologies.

Modern Political Theory

MWF 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM | WASH 293N

This course surveys modern political theory. It will include classical thinkers central to the Western cannon, such as John Rawls and Robert Nozick, but it will also include contemporary theorists of political power such as Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land.

Cultural Evolution

MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM | WASH 293B

Like organisms, ideas evolve. A pop song becomes catchier over time, a cartoon more childlike, a recipe more delicious. In this course we explore how and why cultures evolve, from the playful world of pop music to the high stakes of political and religious institutions.

American Generals

MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM | WASH 293R

Human beings, not abstract social forces, make choices. Nowhere is this clearer than war. From Yorktown to the First Gulf War, this course will cover the military men who made the crucial decisions leading to the greatest victories and sharpest defeats in American history. This course will focus on the most important battles of George Washington, Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Husband Kimmel, Chester Nimitz, George Patton, and Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.

Clash of Civilizations

MWF 3:30 PM – 4:20 PM | WASH 393D

Statesmen of the Bible

MWF 3:30 PM – 4:20 PM | WASH 293E

Athens & America I

U.S. Constitution & Philosophy

Nation & Migration

Rome & America I

TR 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM | WASH 293D

Europe & America I

TR 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM | WASH 293G

This course examines the intellectual traditions of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Reformation that deeply influenced the formation of American civilization. It begins with a brief overview of how Greek and Roman thought shaped the Founders' vision of America, then focuses on the intertwining of classical ideas with the early medieval Germanic ethos of aristocratic and heroic freedom, alongside Christianity's emphasis on individual conscience and resistance to tyranny, further advanced by Protestant Reformation concepts of religious liberty. The course explores how English classical liberalism, building on these foundations, was actualized in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 through opposition to arbitrary rule, constitutional monarchy, and natural rights. (Students in this course are eligible to go on a study abroad trip to Western Europe during Spring Break 2027.)

Explorers and Conquerors

TR 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM | WASH 293J

Washington

TR 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM | HONR

This is a 1-credit course, cross listed with. We will read and discuss Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life. Like this biography, our focus will be on Washington the man, the general, and the statesman. Along the way we will discuss general questions raised by his life: What is virtue? What is statesmanship? What is America?

American Entrepreneurs

TR 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM | WASH 293B

What does it take to build something that changes a nation? Through the lives of figures from Carnegie and Rockefeller to Jobs and Bezos, students explore how capital, labor, technology, and globalization have transformed American industry, politics, and culture... and debate what entrepreneurship means for the future of the Republic.

Woke

TR 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM | WASH 293O

The term “woke” began as a label progressives gave themselves to indicate that they had woken up, as if from a religious revelation, to various forms of worldly injustice. But the term has been disputed from the outset, as well as hijacked by different interest groups. This course will explore what the term signifies, whether the underlying ideas have merit, and the extent to which modern secular political movements are similar to religious revivals, such as the Great Awakening of Christianity in 18th century America.

The American Empire

TR 4:00 PM – 5:15 PM | WASH 393E

The rise of the American empire from the Spanish-American War onward through WWII and beyond reveals how the Progressive belief in the movement of history and necessity of uplift on a planetary scale ushered in the reigning world order. This course will dwell not only on the geopolitical and military considerations at stake in this system but its view of justice, as well.

Social and Political Philosophy

TR 4:00 PM – 5:15 PM | WASH 293E

You'll find out what some of history's greatest thinkers had to say about justice, liberty, equality, and community, then figure out your positions on a number of current debates such as migration, national identity, free speech, race, gender, and family.