Acton Vault

On September 11th, 2001 terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth hijacked airliner was crashed in a field near Shanksville, Penn., after a group of passengers rushed the cockpit to take the plane back. The attacks resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans. This attack challenged the way we celebrate our fundamental freedoms here...

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse describes how the socialist ideal of equality has played an independent role in the breakdown of the family, arguing that socialism has attacked the family directly and has adopted policies that have led to demographic collapse.  This presentation was delivered as part of the 2008 Acton Lecture Series.  Bio | Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph. D The Ruth Institute   Acton Lecture...

In this episode, we're bringing you a plenary session featuring a conversation with Fr. Robert Sirico and Michael Novak which was delivered as part of Acton University 2012. The life of Novak has been a story of intellectual exploration, with philosophy, Roman Catholic theology, and economics as the pillars of his career. Novak has changed the hearts and minds of millions to rethink how we approac...

In this episode, we're bringing you a plenary speech given by Joel Salatin which was delivered as part of Acton University 2015. Salatin is a full-time, third generation alternative farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. He speaks on defending small farms, local food systems, and the right to opt out of the conventional food paradigm.   His farm, Polyface Inc, the “Farm of Many Faces” has been fe...

For over half a century America has been suffering from a growing but strangely overlooked crisis: a flight from work by men in the prime of life. Just before the COVID-19 crisis, almost 7 million men 25-54 were neither working nor looking for work. Employment rates for prime aged U.S. men mirrored those near the end of the Great Depression. In the wake of the COVID-19 shock, America's 'men withou...

Communism took power in Cuba through deceit and intrigue in 1959. While Fidel Castro denied he was a communist, promising to restore democracy in the island, he began consolidating totalitarian rule and exporting revolution in Latin America and Africa.  As the totalitarian dictatorship became evident, Cuba's democratic resistance defied the Castro regime in two phases: 1959-1966 (violent resistanc...

For decades, the race to space was the domain of the state.  Today space is rapidly becoming commercialized, opening vast opportunities for entrepreneurs.  The commercialization of space also brings challenges.      In this episode, we're bringing you a panel discussion featuring Daniel Britt, PhD., Joel Sercel, PhD., and Paul Stimers, PhD., that was delivered as part of Acton University Online 20...

In January 1982, Marina Nemat, then just sixteen years old, was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death for political crimes. Until then, her life in Tehran had centered around school, summer parties at the lake, and her crush on Andre, the young man she had met at church. But when math and history were subordinated to the study of the Koran and political propaganda, Marina protested. Her teach...

Saul Alinsky might be called the "anti-Acton". As Lord Acton warned that power corrupts, Saul Alinsky, the father of modern "community organizing", rejoiced that corruption empowers. Decades after Alinsky's death his ideas and teaching continue to shape the American political and social landscape. This lecture given by Joseph A. Morris, President of The Lincoln Legal Foundation, supplies an overvi...

In this episode, we're bringing you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2021 Acton Lecture Series featuring Dr. Carl Trueman on his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. In this timely work, he explores the development of the sexual revolution as a symptom—rather than the cause—of the human search for identity. Trueman surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives...

The greatest civilization of ancient times expired more than 1,500 years ago but the lessons to be learned from its experience are eternal. In this lecture, Lawrence W. Reed focuses on the Roman Republic—the key features, personalities and events that defined its rise as well as those that caused its decay in the First Century B.C. into an imperial autocracy. Many of the trends of our day echo tho...

In this episode, we're bringing you a presentation that was delivered as part of the 2021 Acton Lecture Series featuring Jessica Hooten Wilson speaking on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his fight against propaganda using art to force "even an opposing heart to surrender." Through fiction, Solzhenitsyn provides a way to love our so-called enemies, encourage conversation rather than silencing, and, even...

In this episode we bring you an Acton Lecture featuring Dr. Patrick Gerry as he addresses the false promise of big government.  The debate over the size and scope of the federal government has raged since the New Deal. So why have opponents of big government so rarely made political headway? Because they fail to address the fundamental issue. Patrick Garry is a law professor with a Ph. D. in const...

Beginning with a conversation prompted by African American scholars like Dr. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard Medical School, to the current Black Lives Matter movement, there has been much debate about what led to the death of George Floyd as well as other systemic challenges that undermine black thriving.  Anthony Bradley provides a distinctly Christian perspective on what is needed for black communit...

On June 17th, 1997, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the keynote address at the Acton Institute's 7th Annual Anniversary dinner. His remarks were entitled "On Interpreting the Constitution."   Justice Scalia was arguably the Supreme Court’s most famous originalist in interpreting the Constitution. Scalia was equally known for using a textualist approach to sta...

Today, we’re bringing you a conversation from our recent Business Matters 2021 conference. Business Matters brought together leading experts and CEOs to address some of the most critical issue and biggest challenges facing businesses in these volatile times. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest, and political turmoil, we have seldom seen a more uncertain time for our businesses and for the...

In this episode, we’re bringing you an Acton Lecture Series event from December of 2016, featuring Ilya Shapiro speaking on judicial abdication and the growth of government. Ilya Shapiro is the director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute and publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review. In this discussion, Shapiro recounts the fight for the Supreme Court du...

In this episode, we’re bringing you the most recent presentation from our Acton Lecture Series program, featuring the recipient of the Acton Institute’s 2020 Novak Award, Dr. Gregory Collins. Named after distinguished American theologian Michael Novak, this honor rewards new, outstanding scholarly research concerning the relationship between religion, economic freedom, and a free and virtuous soci...

Today, we’re bringing you a presentation from our Acton Lecture Series program from January 2020 with Adam MacLeod, professor of law at Faulkner University, explaining the rise of morality in public discourse. According to MacLeod, our most contentious controversies today are moral. Political neutrality has failed. We disagree not only about questions of efficiency and democracy but also about wha...

On December 2nd, 2020, the economist Walter E. Williams passed away at the age of 84. Williams worked his way out of grinding poverty in the Philadelphia housing projects to chair George Mason University’s economics department. Over his career he authored 10 books and more than 150 other publications, and become one of the most recognized commentators on our American public life of the last four d...

In this Acton Lecture Series program from December 3rd, 2020, founder of the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation Justin Beene addressed the topic of transformational leadership in a time of crises.  Today’s “new normal” demands authentic leaders who are grounded and yet reflective. Many of us go through life without a rhythm of both reflecting and discerning. Beene discusses how leade...

In this Acton Lecture Series program from November 5, 2020, Acton Institute's Eric Kohn spoke with David French, senior editor at The Dispatch, about the outcomes of the 2020 election and his new book, “Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” In “Divided We Fall,” French surveys the landscape of a politically and culturally polarized America, examining the true...

It might come as a surprise, but poverty rates in the developing world are dropping dramatically. In fact, economic growth in developing nations has far outpaced the growth of high income countries. Thus, not only has the world experienced a historic reduction in poverty over the last twenty-five years, but global income today is much more equal than at any time in the last 100 years. This event p...

How Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg forged a consensus that helped make the American Century. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As one of only two presidents to have never formally joined a church, people have wondered just how much Abraham Lincoln himself was under God when he said that the United States should consider itself as such as it strove for a new birth of freedom. However, the Civil War shifted the ground decisively under Lincoln's feet. In the cauldron of war, he discovered that God was not merely a remote for...