A Good Time Was Had . . .

I made it back from what will go down as one of the bestest events ever -- ISI's Liberty, Community and Place in the American tradition conference in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend. Having traded my Newton for magic beans and failed to bring a note-pad, I lacked the means to document all of the events, but I will offer a brief impression of the event.

Allan Carlson spoke in the morning about of the transformative effect of the Second World War while a Bill Kauffman led panel in the afternoon on . . . , well Kauffman led an excellent panel in the afternoon. In between, Jeff Taylor talked about William Jennings Bryan and Alan Pell Crawford talked about Jefferson, and most everybody talked about Wendell Berry. While all of the formal talks and panels were good, from my limited experience at these events, the informal gatherings are even better. This event was no different.

The guests and speakers included Reason managing editor Jesse Walker, Chronicles contributing editor Kate Dalton Boyer, Daniels Larison and McCarthy , Caleb Stegall editor of the (much lamented) New Pantagruel.

UPDATE: I discovered via Daniel McCarthy that another conference speaker, Patrick Deneen of Georgetown has a blog.