Ricochet: "Listing Conservative Braniacs"

Ricochet.com ^ | 9/28/10 | Peter Robinson

[hillsdale1]

By way of Twitter, this just in from Uncommon Knowledge viewer Travis Lindsay:

Peter, if you had to make a list of the top conservative intellectuals today who would make your list?

A lovely question. We’ve come a long way since Lionel Trilling’s 1950 declaration that “[i]n the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominate but even the sole intellectual tradition.” Our side has brilliant scholars, think tanks, intellectual ferment. Of any number who belong on this long list, three who come immediately to mind:

[JWinNC]

Good list start...

I would add Robert P. George.

[Psalm 73]

Victor Davis Hanson
Richard Brookhiser

[antiRepublicrat]

Way back when, liberalism meant a conservative/libertarian viewpoint on economics and government along the lines of John Locke and Adam Smith. We now call it “classical liberalism.”

[bolobaby]

Bolobaby

[Prokopton]

Antonin Gregory Scalia

[avg_freeper]

The three they list are:

1. Historian....... Paul Rahe
2. Economist....... John Taylor
3. Classicist....... Victor Davis Hanson

[Wiser now]

“Bran”iac? Are we listing cereal lovers here?
All right, I’ll behave.

Thomas Sowell

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Don't forget Charles Murray.

I can't understand why Thomas Sowell's name hasn't already been mentioned, but it will.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Also, the Manhattan Institute has a lot of very intelligent and thoughtful analysts including: Nicole Gelinas

[ProvenWays]

If they don’t have to be living I would say Russell Kirk.