On Thursday March 13, our older students were privileged to attend Dr. Walter McDougall’s spellbinding lecture at the Foreign Policy Research Institute at the Union League on his new book, Throes of Democracy: America in the Civil War Era, 1829–1877 (HarperCollins), sequel to McDougall’s Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585–1828.  Walter A. McDougall is Co-chair of FPRI’s History Institute for Teachers and Co-chair of FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West. He is also the Allyn-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago in 1974 and is a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Last Monday, our students had the privilege of attending a lecture by George Weigel, entitled Faith, Reason, and the War against Jihadism. The lecture was sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and was given at the Union League of Philadelphia. George Weigel is a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington. Mr. Weigel is very concerned about American “cultural self confidence,” and whether Americans know enough about our country to be convicted that the American system is worth preserving. Mr. Weigel was heard on Thursday being interviewed by WNTP radio host Dennis Prager, about the deplorable state of law in Britain where enclaves of muslim sharia law has been protected, including allowing “honor killings” of young women who do not wear the veil, etc.

On Monday, January 14, students from grades 7-12 attended a special Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) lecture, entitled Hizballah’s Military Strategy.  The lecture was presented by Andrew Exum of King’s College, London.  From the FPRI website:

Andrew Exum served in the US Army from 2000-04, leaving active duty as a captain. He was decorated for valor in 2002 while leading a platoon of light infantry in Afghanistan. Subsequently, he led a platoon of Army Rangers into Iraq in 2003 and into Afghanistan in 2004. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he has lived in Beirut, where he studied at the American University. He is author of This Man’s Army: A Soldier’s Story from the Front Lines of the War on Terrorism (Gotham, 2004).