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Jon D. Schaff

Jon D. Schaff of Professor of Political Science at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He’s the author of Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy and co-author of Age of Anxiety: Meaning, Identity, and Politics in 21st Century Film and Literature. 

One nerd to rule them all

Jon D. Schaff   |  July 26, 2024

Tolkien

We can all profitably learn from Tolkien’s work lessons that are politically salient, even if they don’t tell us how to vote and even if it means we are nerds.

Follow me!

Jon D. Schaff   |  July 16, 2024

We need to teach young people about our history and institutions. Put me down as in favor. But we also need to teach about character.

Stacks and stacks of books

Jon D. Schaff   |  July 3, 2024

Down with the book-stack shelfies!

The life you save may be your own

Jon D. Schaff   |  June 18, 2024

Our first duty isn’t the great affairs of nations, but to attend to our own soul and the good of our neighbors.

Wollstonecraft, Austen, and femininity

Jon D. Schaff   |  May 30, 2024

Did Jane Austen read Mary Wollstonecraft? If so, what did she learn?

That’s entertainment!

Jon D. Schaff   |  May 22, 2024

We’d be much better off if our politicians stuck to politics and the entertainers to entertainment.

Austen city limits

Jon D. Schaff   |  May 16, 2024

Re-reading Jane Austen is always worth it.

Not-so-fine people

Jon D. Schaff   |  April 24, 2024

By refusing to condemn antisemitic student protests, Biden sounds eerily like the “there were fine people on both sides” statement by Donald Trump in response to White supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

REVIEW: The Last Best Hope

Jon D. Schaff   |  April 17, 2024

Allen Guelzo turns to Lincoln to issue a message to America 

Tangled up in alliances? U.S. involvement in NATO

Jon D. Schaff   |  April 16, 2024

Brian Bengs’ analysis of NATO and collective security is worth thinking about, whether you agree or disagree.

Sellouts

Jon D. Schaff   |  March 21, 2024

Schumer’s call for new elections in Israel is nothing short of cowardly politics.

Toward a heavenly education

Jon D. Schaff   |  March 19, 2024

Art exists precisely because there is more to reality than meets the eye.

Better a slow horse than a show horse

Jon D. Schaff   |  March 12, 2024

The slow horses aren’t always what they seem.

Are smart phones ruining our culture?

Jon D. Schaff   |  February 28, 2024

Ted Gioia’s analysis of our technological culture and its addictive nature is simultaneously disturbing and convicting.

Chicken-fried democracy

Jon D. Schaff   |  February 15, 2024

South Dakota’s legislative Cracker Barrels show democracy at its best.

Is Biden really behind? A response to Dan Williams

Jon D. Schaff   |  February 9, 2024

Three caveats in response to Dan Williams’s analysis earlier this week.

Preaching to the converted: Anti-Trumpism in 2024

Jon D. Schaff   |  January 30, 2024

A periodic reminder of Trump’s deleterious influence on American democracy is necessary. But must we have the constant drumbeat?

Of missiles, dinosaurs, and disease

Jon D. Schaff   |  January 12, 2024

We need elected officials who are able to take in competing suggestions, assess them, consider various goods, and use practical wisdom to come to a decision. This is yet another argument for a liberal education.

If you want to view Paradise

Jon D. Schaff   |  January 10, 2024

In a comparison between the new Willie Wonka film and the old, there is a clear winner.

The wretched scum and villainy of higher education

Jon D. Schaff   |  December 15, 2023

As I write, the pressing controversy in higher education is the uneasy status of three presidents of elite universities, Elizabeth Magill of Penn, Claudine Gay of Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth of MIT. They are in the hotseat due to the […]

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