Meditations: Vol. 2, Issue 2
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In this issue of Meditations:
- Vital Remnants Podcast: Dr. Gary Gregg on"Leadership Lessons in Machiavelli's The Prince: Session II"
- Student Perspective: McConnell Scholar Benjamin Whitlock on "Men Worthy of Emulation"
- For Your Bookshelf: Aeschylus' The Oresteia recommended by Dr. N. Susan Laehn
- Featured Video: McConnell Center Forum on Political Statesmanship: "George Washington"
We are just 10 days out from welcoming our sixth cohort of Strategic Broadening Seminar participants to the University of Louisville's McConnell Center. It's hard to believe that another year is behind us and a new one is about to begin.
In this moment of transition, we reflect on the journey you have helped inspire and hope that our continuing online education newsletter is of use to you and your colleagues. We ask you to please share this widely and encourage others to subscribe to our monthly offering.
In this issue, you'll find several familiar SBS faculty and faces guiding us to new ideas and readings. Faculty member Dr. N. Susan Laehn recommends that we add Aeschylus' The Oresteia to our bookshelves. This collection of Greek plays predates Plato's work and offers a poetic lens through which to consider justice, passion and the soul.
Former SBS intern and McConnell Scholar alum Benjamin Whitlock points to three men he found worthy of emulation.
McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg continues his walk through leadership lessons from Machiavelli's The Prince in our latest Vital Remnants podcast.
For those interested in learning more about America's first commander-in-chief and his role in shaping the institution of the presidency, we present a video of the McConnell Center's first forum on political statesmanship. The event featured four presidential experts, including SBS faculty Dr. William Allen and Dr. Gregg.
We hope you remember your time with us fondly and invite you to join us in spirit as we soon welcome the next SBS cohort to the McConnell Center. All of our best to you around the world.
GlyptusAnn Grider Jones, Editor
In this installment of the Vital Remnants podcast, Dr. Gary Gregg guides readers through the first five chapters of The Prince, identifying eight keys to leadership from the reading. These include lessons on assuming roles of power, learning before you lose and engaging problems before they become too large to remedy. Gregg also wrestles with the modern-day application of Machiavelli’s ideas.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ON:
{Student Perspective}
Men Worthy of Emulation
McConnell Scholar Benjamin Whitlock ('15) identifies Teddy Roosevelt, Cato the Younger and Lt. Gen. Josiah Bunting (a former SBS faculty speaker) as three men worthy of emulation.
{Book Recommendation}
Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides
By Aeschylus (David Grene, editor, and Richmond Lattimore, editor & translator)
Recommended by Dr. N. Susan Laehn
Most students of political philosophy will point to Plato as the father of occidental philosophical inquiry, and rightly so. However, many of the themes contained in his work—the definition of justice, reason and passion, the link between order in the soul and order in the polis—are also found in Greek tragedies that predate Plato’s writings, namely the plays of Aeschylus.
{Worth the Watch}
George Washington: McConnell Center Forum on Statesmanship
In this McConnell Center forum on statesmanship in 2000, four scholars consider the presidential legacy of George Washington and his impact on shaping the institution today. Dr. Gary Gregg (University of Louisville), Dr. Mark Rozell (Catholic University), Dr. Ryan Barrilleaux (Miami University) and Dr. William B. Allen (Michigan State University) weigh in on this panel discussion.
These panelists were all contributors to Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition. Educators can request free classroom sets of the book through the McConnell Center's civic education program.
