In 2020, the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI), announced that it would respond to the cancellation and postponement of programmatic activities because of the Covid pandemic by creating reading clusters, open to a national audience, using Zoom. By all reports, AHI’s experiment in remote learning proved successful. In building on this initiative, AHI is pleased to announce the creation of FOUR new reading clusters for the fall semester, 2021.
AHI Resident Fellow David Frisk, a Ph.D. in political science from the Claremont Graduate University, will lead two of the clusters: one on “The Cold War and Its Warriors” and another on David McCullough’s John Adams (2001).
Former Pentagon speech writer Lauren Weiner will lead the third course on “Essays for the Ages,” during which she will explore the question of what makes for excellence in authorship.
Dr. Claudia Nelson, Professor of English Emerita at Texas A&M University, where she was until her retirement in 2019 the Claudius M. Easley, Jr. Faculty Fellow in Liberal Arts, will direct the fourth course, an intensive reading of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1869), one of the most important coming-of-age novels ever written.
Reading Cluster I (Frisk): John Adams
Meeting time: Weekly, Tuesday, September 7 through Tuesday, December 7, 7-8:15 p.m. (EST)
To sign up or for additional information, please contact Dr. Frisk at dfrisk@theahi.org or 202-999-5751. Advanced sign-up is strongly encouraged.
Description: The remarkably candid, courageous, and stubborn Adams was at least as interesting and admirable as any other American founder—and he played roles in our history that were as varied as those of any of his peers.
Our focus will be David McCullough’s classic biography, titled simply John Adams. It tells the full story—from his role as a key advocate of American independence, to his significance as a political thinker who differed from Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison on significant points, to his important diplomacy in Europe and then in Britain during and after the Revolutionary War, through his vice presidency under Washington and his troubled presidency, and continuing well into the 19th century, with his famous reconciliation with Jefferson. Because Adams and others in his family wrote so many letters, McCullough tells much of the story in his, and their, own words.
We ask participants to buy McCullough biography, which is available inexpensively in paperback. In cases of hardship, AHI will purchase the book for the committed participant.
In addition to about 35 assigned pages a week from John Adams, members of the group will be e-mailed a variety of optional short readings that provide additional perspectives.
David Frisk, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University, has taught continuing education courses in history, political science, and political thought at the AHI since 2013. In the past year, he has led four other reading groups for the AHI, on biographies of Alexander Hamilton and Winston Churchill, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, and Richard Hofstadter’s classic The American Political Tradition.
Reading Cluster II (Frisk): The Cold War and Its Warriors
Meeting time: Weekly, Thursday, September 9 through Thursday, December 9, 7-8:15 p.m. (EST)
To sign up or for additional information, please contact Dr. Frisk at dfrisk@theahi.org or 202-999-5751. Advanced sign-up is strongly encouraged.
Description: AHI Resident Fellow David Frisk will offer an online class on the Cold War and some of its leading players, Thursday evenings from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Eastern time, from September 9 to December 9. The group will begin each week with an informal lecture and continue with a discussion.
The conflict between free Western societies—led by the United States—and international communism, led by the Soviet Union, dominated world affairs in the second half of the 20th century. Although it generally wasn’t a ‘hot’ or shooting war, it lasted far longer than any international conflict in our history. It involved deep, extensive, vigorously debated, sometimes completely new questions of political philosophy, global strategy, diplomacy, national spirit and character, military leadership and technology, and defense policy—and, of course, in the nuclear age, mankind’s survival. We will cover the Cold War from its beginnings in 1944-1947 through its aftermath in the 1990s, following the fall of Soviet and Eastern European communism.
Class members will read selections from a diverse range of thoughtful books and articles on many aspects of the Cold War—including several international crises, the Vietnam War, nuclear deterrence and negotiations, espionage, Western and Soviet power (both military and political) in important regions, human rights issues, and various forms of leadership by key individuals in the conflict. The readings, approximately 30 pages per week, will be e-mailed to participants.
David Frisk, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University, has taught continuing education courses in history, political science, and political thought at the AHI since 2013. In the past year, he has led four reading groups for the AHI, on biographies of Alexander Hamilton and Winston Churchill, Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, and Richard Hofstadter’s classic The American Political Tradition.
Reading Cluster III (Weiner): Essays for the Ages
Meeting time: Weekly, Wednesday, September 15 to Wednesday, December 1 (September 29 excepted), 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. (EST).
To sign up or for additional information, please contact Lauren Weiner at lweiner6@gmail.com Advanced sign-up is strongly encouraged.
Description: The essay that combines perception with entertainment, argument with art, is the essay one wants to read, and maybe even reread. Political, literary, and historical essays from the 18th century to our own time will be the subject of this cluster. Though we will stick to authors who write in English, variety will be our watchword, since essays come in so many different shapes and sizes. Some will be of the “manners and morals” type, others will be journalism, and others literary or film reviews. Tentative list of authors: Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Flannery O’Connor, Joan Didion, Christopher Hitchens, Bell Hooks.
A technical element will enter in, as we discuss what makes for excellence in authorship. We’ll try to pin down something elusive: the secret of writing with verve and persuasiveness, which may well help participants improve their own writing.
Electronic copies or links will be provided to the essays.
Lauren Weiner’s writing life has taken her to jobs as an editor, reporter, Capitol Hill staffer, and Pentagon speechwriter. She wrote speeches for former Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) and spent three years as a speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Her articles and reviews have appeared in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, TheFederalist.com, the Weekly Standard, AmericanPurpose.com, the New Criterion, the Washington Times, and the Baltimore Sun.
Reading Cluster IV (Nelson): Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
Meeting time: Weekly, Sunday, September 5 to Sunday December 5, (September 19 and November 28 excepted), 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. (EST).
To sign up or for additional information, please contact Claudia Nelson at claudia_nelson@tamu.edu. Advanced sign-up is strongly encouraged.
Description: Although disproportionately read by a female public, Little Women is an American classic that may be enjoyed from a wide variety of perspectives, drawing as it does on the remarkable richness of its author’s life, earlier texts such as Pilgrim’s Progress, expectations regarding gender and family, and ideas about the nature of creativity in the second half of the nineteenth century. This novel has had a lasting impact on American culture and has inspired numerous adaptations and imitations at home and abroad.
We ask participants to buy Anne Hiebert Alton’s Broadview Press edition of the book, which provides extensive historical context and is available inexpensively in paperback.
AHI will purchase the volume for anyone who may be in a situation of financial hardship.
The first two meetings of the reading group will assume knowledge only of Part One; as of September 26, we will expand our discussion to include the 1869 continuation of the original 1868 novel.
Dr. Nelson is Professor Emerita at Texas A&M University and an internationally renowned authority on nineteenth-century children’s literature in English. A former president of the Children’s Literature Association (ChLA) and a former editor of the ChLA Quarterly, she is the author of six award-winning monographs on children’s literature and/or nineteenth-century literature and culture and has edited or co-edited an additional six book-length works.
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