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Author
Charles R. Kesler
Charles Kesler is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, Editor of the Claremont Review of Books, host of Claremont’s The American Mind video series, and the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.
Dr. Kesler also teaches in the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellows Program and Lincoln Fellows Program. He received his B.A. in Social Studies and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. From 1989 to 2008, Dr. Kesler was director of CMC’s Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.
He is the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Bradley Prize, a high honor bestowed upon distinguished individuals who have influenced American scholarship and debate.
From September 2000 to March 2001, he served as vice chairman of the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Congress’s James Madison Commemoration Commission.
He was selected in June 2000 as a member of the Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Issue sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society.
Dr. Kesler is the author of Crisis of the Two Constitutions: The Rise, Decline, and Recovery of American Greatness (Encounter Books) and I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism (Broadside Books); the editor of Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding (Free Press); co-editor, with John B. Kienker, of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Ten Years of the Claremont Review of Books (Rowman & Littlefield); and co-editor, with William F. Buckley, Jr., of Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought (HarperCollins). He has written extensively on American constitutionalism and political thought, and his edition of The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics) is the best-selling edition in the country.
Articles by Charles R. Kesler
American higher education cannot go on as it has.
The New War Between the States
Trumpism has enjoyed a second life at the state level.
Two New Rights Do Not Make a Wrong
Today's New Right can learn something from yesterday's new conservatives.
The Red Wave Reconsidered
The Republican presidential debate has begun.
Voting Rights and Wrongs
Three generations of voting rights are enough.
Annus Mirabilis
So far, it’s been a very good year.
The Supreme Court Leak
The overturning of Roe v. Wade will intensify the battle between the progressives’ constitution and the founders’ Constitution.
Alien Nation
Will we have to choose between the anti-Americans and the post-Americans, or is a republic graced by thoughtful American patriots still possible?
Has America Gone Coup Coup?
You win some, you lose some.
Who Lost Afghanistan?
Bitter defeat.
Betting Against America
Parsing Biden's first speech to a joint session of Congress.
The Age of Biden
It’s hard to compromise when almost every issue presents you with a choice between two visions of justice.
After January 6th
The future of Trump and Trumpism.
A Mostly Peaceful Debate
A normal candidate or a normal country? Choose wisely, America.
Facing Mount Rushmore
It’s the statues you put up, not the ones you pull down, that define a great nation.
An Abundance of Caution
How much liberty are Americans prepared to renounce, or defer, in this moment?
Beyond the Impeachment
Even with Trump's acquittal, impeachment remains a potential electoral stumbling block.
Trump and Our Political Stalemate
Despite what his detractors and even some of his admirers say, Donald Trump is a normal president for our times.
The House at Poo Corner
Our homeless population and our grandfathers’ diverge in many ways.
The CRB Interview
Norman Podhoretz on Trump, Never Trumpers, Iraq, immigration, 2020 predictions, and more.
God Bless America
In the 21st Century gratitude has gone out of style, along with all sense of proportion.
2020 Foresight
The Trump Administration needs to keep its eye on the argument, if it intends to win the vote.
The Little Engine that Could
Socialism is not the cure for all that ails us.
Harry V. Jaffa at 100
Remembering 100 years of Harry Jaffa.
Faking It
The First Amendment guarantees the press freedom, not respect.
Thinking about Trump
Morality, politics, and the presidency.
Among the Never Trumpers
Never Trump after year one.
Draining the Swamp
Draining the swamp might require a presidential commission.
A Decade of CRB
A decade of CRB?.
The Health Care Schmozzle
One big disorderly mess.
The Old New Left and the New New Left
How today’s campus radicals differ from their ’60s forebears.
The Hundred Days Hustle
How did he do?
Big Barack Candy Mountain
Hope and change.
The Republican Trump
Donald Trump, meet Calvin Coolidge.
The Good War
Americans never shy away from a good fight.
Moderation in Pursuit of Trump
A response to John Marini's "Donald Trump and the American Crisis."
Change-Makers
The state of play in the 2016 election.
Trump and the Conservative Cause
The politically incorrect candidate.
War Without Victory
Can we end our wars without winning them?
The Outsiders’ Appeal
The good news is that the outsider faction remains keen on the Constitution that underlies these miscreant branches. The bad news is that it is not so keen on the conservative movement in its existing, and maybe not even in its best, form.
You’re Fired!
I never thought reality TV was going to work out well.
The Obama Transformation versus the Reagan Revolution
The great contest in 2016.
I’m Offended
Scott Walker, Unplugged
Red Tide Rising
Mount Rushmore Expansion Plans on Hold
The Apology Game
The Tea Party and the Constitution
The original Tea Party was neither a political organization nor a populist movement.
Hello, Berlin!
President Obama doesn't understand that the more he speaks the less people listen.
Editor’s Note
How Low Can We Go?
The Age of Obama?
Romney’s Dilemmas
The Crisis of Liberalism
Is it on its last legs, or about to be reborn?
Promises, Promises
Change, Change, Change
Debating the Debates
You Can Learn a Lot From Libya
The Wilderness Years Conclude
The Stakes of Obamacare
Did We Win?
Are People Being Nice?
It's commencement speech season.
The Tea Party Spirit
The Tea Party sees the threat of despotism in the Obama Administration's policies.
The Politics of Repeal
Everything depends on health care reform.
The Red Beating Heart
The Conservative Challenge
The Reagan Revolution vs. the Obama Revolution.
The New New Deal
Obama and American capitalism.
The New Patriotism
Charles Kesler reviews President Obama's first inaugural address.
The Audacity of Barack Obama
Taking the Democratic nominee seriously.
A Righteous Wind
The Lincoln-Douglas debates set a bad example for American politics.
Buckley’s Legacy
We honor Buckley by taking up the work of defending and restoring the Republic.
Indecision 2008
The uncertainty of the Republican primary of the 2008 presidential race.
Forcing the Spring
What comes after the surge?
No Euphoria Yet
Have we learned anything from the Iraq War?
Iraq and the Neoconservatives
Beyond the Bush doctrine.
Bring Back the Constitution
Bringing the Constitution back would lend the 2008 race a presidential seriousness and focus.
Business as Usual
George W. Bush, decider-in-chief.
After the Thumping
Conservatism moving forward.
Our Predicament
How America can sustain a coherent foreign and military policy for the Long War.
Hard Questions
Hard questions that conservatives will soon have to confront.
Practical Atheists
Only in latter-day America is "Merry Christmas" a politically incorrect affront to polite norms.
The Crisis of American National Identity
Should America be defined by Anglo-Protestant culture?
Bush’s Philosophy
What is Bush's judicial philosophy?
Bookless in America
Once liberals' faith that history is necessarily on their side is shaken, they are left bookless.
Bursting the Chains
All roads lead to democracy, or so it seems.
Democracy and the Bush Doctrine
Exporting compassionate conservatism.
The Chief Justice and the Constitution
Hoping for recovery of both Chief Justice Rehnquist and the U.S. Constitution.
Teach Them A Lesson
President Bush has staked his presidency on his administration's conduct of the war on terrorism.
For the Gipper
Remembering Ronald Reagan.
The War President
The last thing George W. Bush wanted was to become a foreign policy president.
Bipartisan Dreams
Politics means disagreement, and no amount of enlightenment or good will can abolish that.
Recalling Political Science
It's a shame that bad political science can't be recalled as easily as the California governor.
Republican Triumphs
Nation building doesn't happen in a day, a year, or even a decade.
Hail, Columbia
Space represents a second chance for mankind, a new world where we may start over and avoid our earthly mistakes.
Misunderestimating Bush
A Republican electoral realignment would have to challenge the premises of liberal Democratic government.
Remembering 9/11
The political meaning of 9/11 has been less clear than one might have expected.
Big Government Conservatism?
The last thing America needs is for conservatives to make their peace with bad government.
Our Friend Tom
Remembering Tom Silver
The Genteel Decline of America’s First Dynasty
The age's general challenge to American ideals becomes more of a genteel story of the accumulating burden of the past within the family Adams
Why We Fight
What will be the shape of our victory?
Getting Right with Lincoln: Why Lincoln’s Conservative Critics Are Wrong
Lincoln's critics on the Right are legion, but they couldn't be more wrong.
A New Birth of Freedom
Forty years after Crisis of the House Divided, Harry V. Jaffa fulfills his promise of a sequel with a new commentary on Lincoln's political principles.
In Defense of Constitutional Democracy
New calls to abolish the Electoral College system are simple, appealing, and a threat to constitutional government in the United States.