Arthur and Alfred: The Anglo-Saxons
Rockford, Illinois • July 6-11, 2010

Theme

Only a few Americans know that Hengist and Horsa were the legendary chiefs who led the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, but Thomas Jefferson wanted to put the pair on the Great Seal of the United States.  Like many Americans and their English forebears, Jefferson believed that the American love of liberty can be traced directly back to the free Anglo-Saxon farmers, who owned their own land, defended their families and countrymen in battle, and met in local courts and assemblies to enforce the law and make collective decisions.  If it sounds like America in 1790, that is because these Anglo-Saxon customs and traditions were never fully suppressed by the Norman Conquest.

[To enroll, call Cindy Link at (800) 383-0680.]

For Americans today, living under a harsher regime than William the Conqueror ever dreamed of imposing, Anglo-Saxon England represents not only the political patrimony that has been taken form us, but also a thrilling place of brave warriors, stirring epic poetry, and heroic missionaries and scholars who transformed a nation of wild barbarians into civilized Christians who never forgot how to fight.

Read Beowulf in the context of the people who gave birth to this first masterpiece of English, follow Bede’s brilliant account of the Church in England, and examine up-close the institutions of a free people that have set an enduring pattern for all of us who value liberty and understand that the Christian life properly lived is the greatest adventure of all.

Faculty

Faculty includes Dr. Thomas Fleming, editor of Chronicles, and special guests Dr. Frank Brownlow, chairman of the English Department at Mount Holyoke College, Michael McMahon, author of Saints: The Art, the History, the Inspiration, and Dr. James Patrick, chancellor of the College of St. Thomas More in Ft. Worth, Texas.

[To enroll, call Cindy Link at (800) 383-0680.]

Accommodations

Beautiful riverfront accommodations at Rockford’s premier hotel: Cliffbreakers River Suites Hotel

Registration

Registration is limited and is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prices are per student and do not include books on the reading list. Full Registration includes all lectures and events, plus five nights’ lodging at Cliffbreakers with breakfast, daily dinner. For more information, or to inquire about scholarships for full-time students and private-school teachers, contact Christopher Check at (815) 964-5811.

Full Registration

Double Occupancy $795.00 ea
Single Occupancy $895.00 ea

Commuter Registration

Lectures Only $395.00 ea
Plus Dinner $495.00 ea

[To enroll, call Cindy Link at (800) 383-0680.]

This spring, the editor of Chronicles and his lovely wife, Gail, will be motoring from Rockford, Illinois, to San Antonio, Texas. If you live along the way or within driving distance of Tom’s route and would like to be a part of the Message of Hope Tour, call Christopher Check, executive vice president of The Rockford Institute, publisher of Chronicles, at (815) 964-5811.

Tom will be inspiring crowds at receptions, happy hours, lunches, dinners—that is, whatever events you are willing to help us set up—at the following destinations:

Springfield, Illinois
(call for details)

Columbia, Missouri
(call for details)

Kansas City, Missouri

Wednesday, April 7
5:30 PM
Savoy Grill
“Bucking the Trends: Contrarian Reasons To Be Optimistic”

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Friday, April 9
12:30 PM (after the noon Mass)
“It Was Not So in the Beginning: Understanding Christian Marriage”
Holy Family Cathedral

Amarillo, Texas
(call for details)

San Antonio, Texas
(call for details)

Houston, Texas
(call for details)

Preference will be given to readers who call and say, “I’d like to introduce Tom to my ten wealthiest friends who are looking for a thoughtful opinion magazine to which they can leave their estates.”

Slightly less preference will be given to readers who call and say, “I think I have a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the back of my fridge, and I’d be happy to split it with Tom.”

Even if you cannot join Tom and Gail or help us set up an event, you can send a large check to pay for gasoline and Motel 6 rooms.

Please send donations to:

Chronicles
Message of Hope Tour
928 North Main Street
Rockford, Illinois 61103

Later this year, Tom and Gail will be making a Southeast version of this tour, from Rockford to Florida.

Dr. Fleming will deliver a brief talk entitled “Bucking the Trends: Contrarian Reasons to be Optimistic.”

Wednesday, April 7
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Savoy Grill
219 West 9th Street, Kansas City, MO 64105

Ask hostess for Rockford Institute event. Reservations are not required but help organizers know how many are attending.

RSVP: omniabona@gmail.com.

Cheese and fruit will be provided. Guests are encouraged to purchase drinks and/or appetizers.

Dress: Informal / business casual.

You will also have the opportunity to make a tax deductible gift to The Rockford Institute and to subscribe to Chronicles.

Dr. Fleming will deliver a talk entitled: “It Was Not So in the Beginning: Understanding Christian Marriage.”

12:30 PM, (after the noon mass) Friday, April 9
Holy Family Cathedral
122 W. Eighth Street, Tulsa, OK

918-582-6247
www.holyfamily-tulsa.org

Sponsored by The Diocese of Tulsa, Family Life Office

RSVP to: Adrienne Majewski, 815-964-5053 or amajewski@rockfordinstitute.org

This event is free and open to the public. You will also have the opportunity to make a tax deductible gift to The Rockford Institute and to subscribe to Chronicles.

A box lunch will be available to purchase for $10.00.

Applicants should submit an essay answering the question below, as well as a 750-1,000 word prose description of themselves, their interests, and their plans as well as a letter of recommendation from a professor.

Scholarships for the John Randolph Club cover the conference and meals and events from Friday evening though Saturday evening.  Not covered is lodging, transportation, or the pre-JRC cultural program on Texas History.  A minimum of five full and five partial scholarships will be awarded. Full-scholarship students pay nothing.  Partial-scholarship students pay $50.00.

Here is the 2009 JRC Scholarship Question for currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students:

“At a ‘Tea Party’ in April, Governor Rick Perry declared to wild cheers that Texas had the right to secede from the United States.  Was this remark imprudent political posturing, a courageous assertion of States’ rights, or something else altogether?  In 750-1,000 words, defend or attack Perry’s remarks.

Those interested in applying should contact Christopher Check, Exec VP, The Rockford Institute, at (815) 964-5811.

For more information on The 20th Annual Meeting of The John Randolph Club, click here.

Whenever the conversation turns to some fundamental institution of our civilization, we say, “The Greeks had a word for it.”  They did: philosophy and theology, mathematics and geometry, epic, tragedy, comedy, and history, politics, democracy—and demagoguery.  The ancient Greeks invented or elevated all these arts and sciences.  In the writing of history and philosophy, they have never been excelled.  In tragedy and epic, they have never been equaled.

Even Christianity owes a profound debt to the Greeks.  Christian theology is Greek philosophy applied to Revelation in defense of the truth against the attacks of heretics.  The arguments of Augustine and Ambrose, Athanasius and Basil, Thomas and Bonaventure, are inconceivable without the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus.

Join us as we explore the Greek mind and its greatest inventions: responsible self-government and political theory, tragedy and comedy, theology and philosophy.

Faculty include . . .

Thomas and Gail Fleming, Christopher Check, Aaron D. Wolf, and special guest lecturer Fr. Hugh Barbour, O.Praem., Prior of Saint Michael’s Abbey, Silverado, California.

Cost

The price for the Winter School includes:

• seven nights’ (arrive Jan. 20; checkout on Jan. 27) lodging at the
Acropolis Select Hotel, a fully renovated,
three-star hotel within walking distance of the Acropolis

• daily breakfast, five group meals (either dinner or lunch)

• all lectures, discussions, and walking tours

• selected entrance fees to museums

• a motor-coach excursion to Delphi

Early-Bird Rates

Single:  $1,495.00
Couple:  $2,295.00
Shared Double:  $1,195.00

All prices increase $200.00 per person after Oct. 1, 2009.  Registration is limited.  Previous Convivia have sold out. Registration fees are based on current exchange rates; the Institute reserves the right to assess a fee, should rates change significantly at the dollar’s expense.  The Institute will make every effort to help find roommates for students who wish to take advantage of the shared-double rate.  If no roommate is available, the difference between the shared-double rate and the single-occupancy rate will be assessed.

To Register . . .

call (815) 964-5811

Full-time undergraduate and graduate students interested in scholarships,
anyone interested in supporting the Institute’s Scholarship Fund, and anyone
desiring more information should contact: Christopher Check, executive vice
president, at (815) 964-5811.

]]> http://rockfordinstitute.org/events/?feed=rss2&p=40 0 http://rockfordinstitute.org/events/?p=39 http://rockfordinstitute.org/events/?p=39#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:32:38 +0000 TRI Events http://rockfordinstitute.org/events/?p=39 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

[Click here to download and print a registration form.]

THEME

“You may all go to Hell; I will go to Texas,” said David Crockett to the voters before departing for San Antonio and the Alamo, where he, along with Jim Bowie, Buck Travis, and 186 other brave Americans, gave their lives for liberty.  As the entire United States seems bent on following Davy’s instructions, a few brave spirits are going to make their way, once again, to San Antonio to express their love of liberty, though this time the worst risk they will run will be to dine too well and drink too deep.

The JRC is going back to Texas to celebrate our 20th anniversary.  But this is no backward-looking exercise in nostalgia.  Our speakers—Tom Fleming, David Hartman, Peter Brimelow, John Lukacs, Roger McGrath, Bill Murchison, James Patrick, Justin Raimondo, and Aaron Wolf, among many others—will look ahead, beyond the current conservative traps—neocons and theocons and all the rest—to see how best to apply our enduring principles to a rapidly changing national and international scene that looks more and more like socialism without a human face.

Where better to argue for liberty than in Texas, where men and women have always fiercely defended their property, their families, and independence?

The meeting opens with a reception and address on Friday evening, November 13, features panels and discussion all day on Saturday, and concludes with a black-tie-optional dinner banquet and debate on Saturday night.

Plan also to stay for a Sunday afternoon fundraising reception for Chronicles at the magnificent home of one of our Texas supporters.

[Click here to download and print a registration form.]

SPECIAL PRE-JRC PROGRAM: “TEXAS GRIT”

Join us Thursday afternoon, November 12, for an historic San Antonio walking tour followed by a private reception and dinner.  A second sightseeing excursion to the San Antonio Missions on the morning of Friday, November 13, will include lunch.  Both meals will be followed by lectures on the brave Rangers and the bad gunmen—Wes Hardin and Clay Allison—who gave Texas a name for courage: grit!

LOCATION

The Historic Saint Anthony Hotel*, 300 East Travis, San Antonio, TX 78205

*A limited number of rooms are available at the Saint Anthony at the special rate of $139.00 single or double occupancy, breakfast included.  Reservations must be made no later than Monday, October 12, 2009.  Call (210) 227-4392 and mention The Rockford Institute to get the special rate.

**Update: If you are having trouble getting through to the Saint Anthony, please call the Wyndam hotels at (800) 996-3426 and tell them that you would like to book rooms at the Saint Anthony in San Antonio.  (Don’t forget to mention The Rockford Institute.)

PRICES

Pre-JRC Program, “Texas Grit”: $195.00 per person (Includes Thursday afternoon sightseeing, reception and dinner; Friday motor-coach excursion to the San Antonio Missions and luncheon)

John Randolph Club Full Registration: $250.00 per JRC Member; $275.00 per non-member (Includes Friday evening reception and opening address, Saturday panels, Saturday evening banquet and program)

All registration prices increase $50.00 after October 1, 2009.

REGISTRATION

[Click here to download and print a registration form.]

Pay by credit card by calling Cindy Link at (815) 964-5813.

For student rates, panels-only rates, or other information, contact Christopher Check, executive vice president, at (815) 964-5811.

“Enduring Québec”

The story of Québec is an amazing tale of cultural survival.  It begins with brave men—French, English, and American, who fought for Québec, including the gallant Montcalm who died defending the city on the Plains of Abraham and the bold General Wolfe who died in the attack.  Although conquered by England and virtually alone on an English-speaking continent, the Québecois held fast to an identity, culture, and language that were threatened with extinction. Today, there is more French spoken in Québec than there was 50 years ago, but have the Québecois triumphed only to surrender to the myth of multiculturalism and the Marxist internationalism that threatens all small nations?

Speakers include . . .

Thomas Fleming, Gail Fleming, Christopher Check, and special guest Ambassador James Bissett.

Cost:

Single: $1,495
Couple: $2,295 

[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.”

If the European imagination is conflicted about the American West, it may be because it is the place where some of our most cherished values collided.  Self-reliance is, perhaps, the quintessential American virtue, but on the frontier, rootless men squared off against families struggling to set down roots and establish a sense of community and place.  In any case, Europeans are correct in their belief that nothing is more American than the myth of the American West.  Or better, myths, for there is not one story of the American frontier, but many, and as they entertain and inspire they reveal much of what it means to be American.

Join us in Rockford, July 7-12, 2009, for our Twelfth Annual Summer School: The American West.

This year, we welcome Dr. Roger McGrath to our faculty.  He is among our country’s top authorities on the West (a topic on which he consults for the film industry), and you have probably seen him on the History Channel. When he was teaching at UCLA, his classes were always overbooked, and the fire marshals complained about students sitting in the aisles and on the stairs of the lecture halls.  If you appreciate the fire he puts into his Chronicles column, Sins of Omission, you will very much appreciate him in person as he joins us to give four lectures: “The Fur Trade and the Mountain Men,” “California Gold,” “The Cattle Frontier,” and “Gunfighters and Outlaws.”

Joining us for his first Summer School is longtime Chronicles editor and distinguished historian, Dr. Clyde Wilson.  To Dr. Wilson, the moving frontier, which begins in the early 17th century just outside the palisades of Jamestown and ends in the early 20th century in the gold fields of Alaska, has played an immense role in the creation of American character.  The story of that frontier cannot be separated from the story of the conflict between North and South:  Southerners played a predominant role in territorial acquisition, pioneering, and the conquest of a moving frontier, often against the tardiness and obstructionism of the North.  What we know as the West is largely a creation of Southern culture adapted to a different environment.

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

Returning faculty include Dr. James Patrick, Chancellor of the College of Saint Thomas More in Fort Worth and Fr. Hugh Barbour, O. Praem., Prior of Saint Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California.  Dr. Patrick’s lectures will be: “Andrew Jackson and the Invention of the Wild West”; “Prentiss Ingraham, Zane Grey and the Literary Wild West”; and “Overcoming Catholicism:  The Politics of ‘No Popery’ in the American Southwest.”  Fr. Barbour’s lectures will be “The Churchman’s View: California’s Indians, Spaniards, and Yankees”; “Dueling, Divorce, and Civil War: Pastoral Anxieties Out West”; and “Refuge of Sinners: Paleo-Christian Gold Rush Piety.”

The Rockford Institute’s own cowboy, Chilton Williamson, Jr., will speak on Owen Wister, Teddy Roosevelt, and Frederick Remington, and Institute president, Dr. Thomas Fleming, will explain the origin of the duel and tell the story of the James and Younger brothers.  Tom is also planning to stage a re-fighting of the O.K. Corral.  This version will set the record straight.  If you were with us a few years ago when we re-tried Socrates at our Summer School on Ancient Greece, you know you are in for a treat. (Hint: the Earps are not the heroes.)

The lectures and the discussions in the Institute’s classroom are only part of the joy of our Summer School.  We know that you will agree after a week with fellow Chronicles readers gathered around the dinner table (and around the keg and the bottle).  We have so many repeaters that our Summer School has taken on the quality of a family reunion, one into which newcomers are instantly welcomed.

The Summer School is designed for “lifetime students,” from undergraduates to retirees.  For undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for young teachers, we are offering two scholarships for full registration (double occupancy), and five partial scholarships (full registration reduced to $200).  Those who wish to be considered must submit: a 500-word summary of his or her background, education, and interests; a letter of recommendation from a professor or teacher; and an essay of 750-1000 words on the following topic: “Defend or refute: American inner-city violence is a legacy of the violent American frontier.” Applications must be postmarked by April 30, 2009 and include a cover letter that provides the student’s name, address, telephone number, name of current college or university, and email address.  Mail applications to my attention at: The Rockford Institute, 928 N. Main St., Rockford, IL  61103.

P.S.  The Rockford Institute takes seriously its role in forming the next generation of Christendom’s defenders.  You can help us by contributing to the Institute’s Summer School Scholarship Fund.  For a gift of $500 or more, I will send you a complete set of the audiotapes or CDs from the Summer School.

P.P.S.  Last year’s Summer School sold out.  Please do not delay registering.

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

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.

Faculty

Thomas Fleming • Clyde Wilson • Chilton Williamson • James Patrick • Fr. Hugh Barbour • Roger McGrath

Prices

Full Registration
(all lectures and events, five nights’ lodging with breakfast, dinner)
Double Occupancy—$795.00
Single Occupancy—$895.00

Commuter Registration
Lectures Only—$395.00
Plus Dinner—$495.00

Details

Students will enjoy beautiful riverfront accommodations at Rockford’s premier hotel: Cliffbreakers Riverside Resort.

Register early and save!  Students who register by April 15, 2009, may deduct $75.00.

Prices are per student and do not include books on the reading list.

To inquire about scholarships for full-time students, contact Christopher Check at (815) 964-5811.

To register, call (800) 383-0680.