Kevin Slack

Associate Professor of Politics

Kendall 105

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“In American political thought, Hillsdale offers, in my opinion, the best selection of classes anywhere.”

Education

B.A. in History, Indiana University, 1999

M.A. in Political Science, University of California–Davis, 2003

M.A. in Political Theory, University of Dallas, 2006

Ph.D. in Politics, University of Dallas, 2009

Courses Taught

POL 101: The U.S. Constitution

POL 214/605: Late Modern Political Philosophy

POL 220: Introduction to American Foreign Policy

POL 308: 20th and 21st Century Public Policy

POL 403: American Progressivism and Liberalism

POL 405/515/752: Post-1960s Liberalism

POL 405/520: Neoliberalism & Identity Politics

POL 405/747: American Colonial Thought

POL 416: Idealism and Historicism: Kant and Hegel

POL 416: Political Theory in Action: John Rawls to the Present

POL 416/597: 20th and 21st Century Political Thought

POL 416/514: Kant & Hegel

POL 597: Empire, Nationalism, Republicanism

Interviews

Post-60s Progressive Culture. The Charlie Kirk Show, September 28, 2022.

Benjamin Franklin as Statesman. The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, July 21, 2022.

Benjamin Franklin as Moral Lawgiver. The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, May 5, 2022.

Benjamin Franklin as Enlightenment Philosopher. The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, April 7, 2022.

Benjamin Franklin. The Hugh Hewitt Radio Show, April 9, 2021.

Books

War on the American Republic: How Liberalism Became Despotism, Paperback, with a new Foreword by the Author. (New York: Encounter Press, 2024).

War on the American Republic: How Liberalism Became Despotism. (New York: Encounter Press, 2023).

Benjamin Franklin, Natural Right, and the Art of Virtue. (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2017).

Selected Publications

"Philip Rieff, Leo Strauss, and Martin Heidegger: Sacred Sociology and a Prophecy of a New Social Order," in The Philosophy of Philip Rieff: Cultural Conflict, Religion, and the Self, eds. William G. Batchelder IV and Michael P. Harding (New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming).

"The Politics of Thomas More's A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation," Moreana 61, iss. 1 (June 2024): 42-63.

"The Crucial Decade: Benjamin Franklin's Political Theory in the 1730s (with Some New Attributions)," Pietas 3, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 33-79.

"New Attributions to the Franklin Canon," Pietas 3, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 80-88.

"Review: DG Hart. Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant," Church History 92, Iss. 4 (December 2023): 995-998.

"The Unraveling of Wyoming Catholic College," Pietas 2, no. 1 (Spring 2023): 142-149.

"The Dilemmas of Pluralism," Pietas 1, no. 1 (Fall 2022): 90-103.

"Benjamin Franklin and the Reasonableness of Christianity, Church History 90, iss. 1 (March 2021): 68-97.

"Susan Sontag Was Not the Sole Author of Philip Rieff's Freud: The Mind of the Moralist," VoegelinView (May 2020).

"Review: Thomas Jefferson and the Science of Republican Government: A Political Biography of Notes on the State of Virginia, by Dustin Gish and Daniel Klinghard," H-FedHist (June 2019).

"Machiavelli's Thoughts on Venice," Ramify, Symposium in Honor of Leo Paul de Alvarez (Fall 2019): 51-66.

"Thomas Hobbes and the Defense of Liberalism," in Trump and Political Philosophy: Leadership, Statesmanship, and Tyranny, eds. Marc Sable and Angel Jaramillo Torres (New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2018): 107-130.

"A Foucauldian Study of Spanish Colonialism," The Latin Americanist 62, iss. 3 (September 2018): 433-457.

"Benjamin Franklin's Last Prayer," The American Thinker, September 17, 2017.

"Review: Jessica Choppin Roney. Governed by a Spirit of Opposition: The Origins of American Political Practice in Colonial Philadelphia," American Political Thought 5, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 326-329.

"The False Genealogies of Neo-Progressivism," Anamnesis (August 2013).

"Liberalism Radicalized: The Sexual Revolution, Multiculturalism, and the Rise of Identity Politics," Heritage First Principles Series, No. 46 (2013).

"On the Origins and Intention of Benjamin Franklin's 'On the Providence of God in the Government of the World,'" Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 137, no. 4 (October 2013): 345-379.

"On the Sources and Authorship of 'A Letter From Father Abraham to His Beloved Son,'" New England Quarterly 86, no. 3 (September 2013): 467-487.

"Benjamin Franklin's Metaphysical Essays and the Virtue of Humility" American Political Thought 2, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 31-61.