David Frisk, resident fellow of The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI), is having a busy September.  Using Zoom, he is teaching two courses to a national audience: one on “John Adams,” which began on September 7, and one on “The Cold War and Its Warriors,” which began on September 9, 2021.  Praise for these courses is rolling in, said AHI President Robert Paquette.  “David Frisk has developed quite a following over the years.  Students young and old respect his thoughtfulness and insights.  He is truly interested in cultivating the life of the mind.  Several attendants, especially successful professionals, have already taken the time to write me to praise his handling of the material.”

On September 6, Law & Liberty, an online website devoted to “the classical liberal tradition of law and politics and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons,” published Dr. Frisk’s essay “Turning Texas from Blue to Red.”  He reviews The Republican Party of Texas: A Political History by Wayne Thorburn and explains why “[t]he history of the once-minuscule, now-mighty Texas GOP, is worth knowing,” for it is “one of the Republican Party’s great success stories.”

Thorburn’s book, Frisk writes, “is most useful as a tightly organized, semi-official record of the party’s growth in Texas … More significantly for non-Texans, it’s useful as a stimulus to reflect on the nature of partisan dominance and its potential decay or reversal.”   The book suggests, Frisk argues, that in the “dynamic ‘battle of ideas’” between parties in this country, public opinion may sometimes take second place to the sheer weight of institutions in what we may mistakenly view as America’s freewheeling political marketplace.”

In recent years, on multiple occasions, WUTQ-FM, Utica, New York, has invited Dr. Frisk onto the popular radio talk show “Talk of the Town” to discuss politics and current events.  On September 16, the hosts welcomed him back to obtain his thoughts on two hot-button political issues: proposed COVID vaccination requirements and the increase in surveillance of Americans in the twenty years since the 9/11 terrorist attack.

“David Frisk is an important asset to AHI,” Paquette observed.  “His busy schedule suggests the broad ambit of his interests.  His forthcoming biography of the great political theorist Willmoore Kendall should be an intellectual feast.”