Papers & Publications
"I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?" Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #84
Second Annual Carl B. Menges Colloquium
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF OPENING NIGHT CEREMONIES
1. "Intangible Assets in Intellectual Property and Finance,"
by F. Scott Kieff
2."Is Property the Cornerstone of Liberty,"
by James W. Ely, Jr.
AUDIO RECORDINGS OF SIX SESSIONS
May 1, Disk 1 (Session I: Meaning of Property)
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8 - Track 9
May 1, Disk 2
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6
May 1, Disk 3 (Session II: Property Rights in Human Beings)
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8
May 1, Disk 4
Track 1 - Track 2 -Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6
May 1, Disk 5 (Session III: Property Rights In China)
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8
May 1, Disk 6
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5
May 2, Disk 1 (Session IV: Property Rights and War)
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7
May 2, Disk 2
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8 - Track 9
May 2, Disk 3 (Session V: Eminent Domain)
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8
May 2, Disk 4
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5
May 2, Disk 5 (Session V: Kelo v New London)
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8 - Track 9 - Track 10
May 2, Disk 6
Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6
Editor
Hamilton Book in Third Printing
The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father (New York: New York University Press, 2006) derives from a major conference, sponsored by Carl Menges, a charter member of the AHI's Board of Directors. Douglas Ambrose, co-editor of the volume, is one of the AHI's co-founders. This lauded volume, now in its third printing, contains eleven essays by leading authorities in the field.
"This superb collection of essays goes a considerable distance towards redressing the balance and towards restoring an American statesman to the central place that he occupied in his own time."
Paul Rahe, Hillsdale College
"This volume shows that political history is alive and vital, with much work still to do." Andrew Shankman, Rutgers University, Journal of American History
AHI Cofounder Publishes Parable on the Academy
The New Criterion, the finest journal of arts and culture in the United States, has published an article ,"The World We Have Lost: A Parable on the Academy," by Robert Paquette, one of the three founders of the AHI. Paquette speaks on the implications of the Duke lacrosse case and of the collapse at Hamilton College of the original agreement to establish an "enduring edifice of learning devoted to American ideals and institutions."
This special issue, which is devoted to education, includes related essays on the state of the academy by an all-star class of commentators: Roger Kimball, Alan Charles Kors, James Piereson, Charles Murray, and Victor Davis Hanson.
AHI Fellow Edits Book on Marriage
AHI is pleased to announce the publication of Marriage: The Dream That Refuses to Die (ISI Books, May 2008), by the distinguished historian and literary critic Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1941-2007). Professor Fox-Genovese, a friend of and mentor to two of the AHI's founders, was the Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities and founding director of the Institute of Women’s Studies at Emory University. A member of the Governing Council of the National Endowment of the Humanities and a recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2003, Professor Fox-Genovese was at the time of her death working on expanding for publication a series of lectures on marriage that she had presented as the Charles E. Test, M.D., Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
The AHI's Inaugural Colloquium
Topic: "Liberty and Slavery: The Civil War between Gerrit Smith and George Fitzhugh"
Held: April 10-13, 2008, Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, New York
Opening Banquet Proceedings and Keynote Address by John Stauffer
View videos of Opening Banquet
Part 1 - J. Hunter Brown, Robert L. Paquette, Carl B. Menges, James Bradfield
Part 2 - James Bradfield (continued), Douglas Ambrose
Part 3 - Douglas Ambrose (continued), John Stauffer (keynote address: "Gerrit Smith and the Ambiguities of Social Reform")
Part 4 - John Stauffer (continued)
Sessions
2. Christianity and Slavery - Listen (mp3)
3. The Meaning of Freedom - Listen (mp3)
4. The Idea and Institution of Property - Listen (mp3)
5. Capitalism and its Alternatives - Listen (mp3)
6. Race and Slavery - Listen (mp3)
Charter of the Alexander Hamilton Institute
A heritage, at its most basic level, speaks to the journey of persons from there to here. It identifies the signposts, monuments, and ruins left behind by human beings as they sought individually and collectively to define who they are and what they aspired to be. The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) proceeds under the premise that the reasoned study of Western civilization, its distinctive achievements as well as its distinctive failures, will further the search for truth and provide the ethical basis necessary for civilized life. The AHI aspires to create an educational environment of the highest standards in which evidence and argument prevail over ideology and cant.