Intellectual portrait series

Ralph McInerny is among the most noted Catholic philosophers and authors of our day. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame since 1955, and has written a number of important works on St. Thomas Aquinas. He helped found Crisis magazine, a publication that addresses problems facing contemporary society from the standpoint of the Catholic tradition. Alongside his academic work, McInerny authored the best-selling Father Dowling mysteries, and was appointed to President Bush's Council for Arts and the Humanities.

The relationship of the individual and the state is the central theme of Anthony de Jasay's distinguished career. Here he discusses the concepts of power, politics, and freedom that led to such seminal works as The state.

One of our most distinguished contemporary cultural historians, Jacques Barzun reflects on his long academic career and the movement of ideas he helped to shape through his seminal writings on liberal education in America.