The Powerline Show

My final conversation with authors of new books about the Declaration of Independence before this Saturday's formal observance features the co-authors of Divided Over the Declaration: How an Enduring Debate Sustains the Vision of America .  The authors of Divided Over the Declaration are David J. Bobb and Tony Williams, who are colleagues at the indispensable Bill of Rights Institute.  Bobb and Wi...

Most of the books I have been featuring in this series highlight the philosophical and political background of the Declaration, going all the way back to antiquity in some cases, as well as dilating the ongoing controversies about several key aspects of the Declaration, such as the nature of "self-evident truth" or "all men are created equal."  This week's featured book takes a different tack. It...

This week's spotlight on new books about the Declaration of Independence features Hilldale College historian Bradley Birzer, whose book is The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty , just out last month from Stone House Press.   Prof. Birzer's book has a somewhat shorter time frame than some of the other books we have discussed in this series, which often take the run-up to...

We're now only a month away from the July 4 semiquincentennial of the founding of our country, but there's still time to acquire and read through some of the new books appearing to mark the auspicious occasion.  And one of the very best of the very large field of contenders is from Timothy Sandefur, whose day job is Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center...

Today's entry in the many books I am featuring in this series is Michael Auslin's National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America. Misha, as his friends know him, assures me he didn't actually name the book after the Nic Cage potboiler, but rather thinks the Declaration deserves to be regarded as more than just an important political or merely historical document. And Misha's b...

Margaret Thatcher once remarked that “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.” What she had in mind here was the strain of thought that considered America and its founding thought as predominantly a product of enlightenment-era rational philosophy, especially as it crystalized in the work of John Locke. Hence the view of America as a "creedal" nation, founded on reason.  ...

Between now and July 4th I'll be doing a series of podcasts with authors and thinkers who have worthy things to say about the Declaration of Independence on the occasion of its 250th anniversary.  I can hardly keep up with the flood of new books on the subject, and so this series my well extend beyond July 4.  I'm delighted to begin this series with Lucas Morel of Washington and Lee University, th...

Yep, it's happening. I'm getting the band back together, and reviving the Power Line Classic Podcast format, featuring me in conversation with individual guests of note, though from time to time we may get the Power Line Gang itself to appear on some special legacy episodes.  This has been a while in the making, partly by popular demand from listeners who liked our interviews. Among other things,...

Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow and director of of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, joins us today to talk about his timely new book, Lawless: The Miseducation of America's Elites . While America's judiciary has moved to the right in recent years along with the revival of constitutional originalism, our law schools, always left of center, have been moving steadily further to left. Sh...

When the history of civil rights in our time is finally written—though no history is ever “finally” written of course—honest writers will mark the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative action admissions cases as a key turning point in restoring the principle of equal rights as understood by the founders.  Further, the better histories will note the...