John Randolph Club Returns to San Antonio

The Rockford Institute and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture present

The 20th Annual Meeting of the John Randolph Club
“The Future of America: Hell or Texas?”
November 13-14, 2009
San Antonio, Texas

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Join Us in Québec This Fall!

The Rockford Institute and Chronicles present a North American Convivium, September 3-8, 2009

“Enduring Québec”

The story of Québec is an amazing tale of cultural survival. Continue Reading »

The American West: An Invitation to Summer School in Rockford

[Click here for more registration information, or call (800) 383-0680 to register today.]

When I was growing up, Masterpiece Theater was standard Sunday-night fare on our 13-inch color Zenith.  We also watched Monty Python and Mystery.  It is not that we never watched American programs, but we believed that Brits had it all over us when it came to television.  You can imagine my surprise when my family visited London in 1978.  The rage over there was a brand new show called Dallas, and the girl behind the front desk at our hotel was nonplussed on learning I had never seen an episode.  I later understood that European enthusiasm for American pop culture becomes full-blown fascination when the topic is even remotely associated with the American West.  Over the years, I’ve met Europeans who, while praising John Ford films, argue that the brutal life of America’s inner cities is a legacy of our “lawless frontier.”

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The American West: Summer School 2009

Join us in Rockford, Illinois, the headquarters of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, for The Rockford Institute’s 12th Annual Summer School: “The American West.”

Theme

Robert Frost held that Americans only became American in the process of fighting wars and moving west.  So much of the American identity, in fact, finds its origins in the frontier experience, that the mythology that resulted thrived in fiction and film long after the frontier disappeared.  The stories from “America’s Homeric age” are tales of conflict: the conflict of man against nature, of course, but also the North-South conflict explored in Owen Wister’s The Virginian and played out in the real-life escapades of the Jameses and Youngers and in the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  Films such as High Noon, Shane, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance explore the conflict between families establishing communities and the individualism and anarchy of bold and rootless men escaping their past.  Finally, a more thorough understanding of the American identity can come from consideration of ethnic conflicts in the West and of conflicting religious visions.  Alongside all of these are the gunfighters, gamblers, con artists, and gold-mining millionaires, and the writers and humorists who have grappled with the West and contributed to its legends: Bret Harte, Owen Wister, Mark Twain, Frederick Jackson Turner, Francis Parkman, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Continue Reading »

Winter School 2009: Tuscany

Tuscan CountrysideAttention Students of All Ages and Budget-Minded Travelers!
See Florence as it used to be, without mass-tourists!

Join Chronicles editor Thomas Fleming, Gail Fleming, and Rockford Institute vice president Christopher Check for The Rockford Institute’s Fourth Annual Winter School

Tuscany: The Crucible of Christian Europe
January 22-29, 2009
Florence, Siena, Pisa

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Islam Lecture at William & Mary, April 8

Srdja Trifkovic will speak about what the West should know about Islam. Trifkovic is a notable historian, writer for the magazine Chronicles, and expert on Balkan politics. Has written The Sword of the Prophet, which is a book about the history and theology of Islam.

Date & Time: April 8, 2008; 8:00PM-10:00PM
Location: Small 113
Contact: jrkenn@wm.edu
Website: http://www.wm.edu/events.php

John Randolph Club 2008—Philadelphia

The Rockford Institute and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture present

The 19th Annual Meeting of the John Randolph Club
“A Republic, If You Can Keep It”
September 12-13, 2008

Join Thomas Fleming, Srdja Trifkovic, and Aaron D. Wolf along with special guests David Hartman, Taki Theodoracopulos, Peter Brimelow, Claude Polin, Donald W. Livingston, and others at

The Sofitel Philadelphia*
120 South 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
*tripadvisor.com’s top-rated Philadelphia Hotel! Continue Reading »

Trifkovic on Panel: “Russia: Friend or Foe,” April 7

Russia: Friend or Foe

Srdja Trifkovic, Igor Zevelev, Nicolas Gvosdev, one more speaker TBA

When: Monday, April 7, 7:00-10:00 PM
Reception with light fare and open bar at 7:00, program begins promptly at 8:00

Where: The Boulevard Woodgrill, 2901 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201

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Panel on Kosovo in Toronto

The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies and The Rockford Institute—Center for International Affairs cordially invite you to a symposium and debate:

KOSOVO: A DISPUTED SECESSION

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 12 Noon—4 PM
Royal Canadian Military Institute (Main Lounge)
426 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5G 1S9
Free entry; complimentary lunch and refreshments provided

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Summer School 2008: The Crusades

CrusaderThe story of the Crusades is one of idealism and courage but also of greed and treachery, of chivalrous Christian knights, cynical Norman warlords, and self-seeking Venetian merchants. Within the gaudy pageant, there are more than enough heroes and plenty of villains, but the current attack on the Crusades as nothing more than European imperialism and looting expeditions is a reflection of multiculturalism, whose true name is Western self-hatred. If you like great stories of high adventure, appreciate brilliant writing and profound theology, then you will not want to miss this Summer School. Continue Reading »

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