Wilfred McClay
Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization, Hillsdale College
Wilfred M. McClay is Professor of History at Hillsdale College, where he holds the Victor Davis Hanson Chair of Classical History and Western Civilization. His book The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America received the 1995 Merle Curti Award of the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American intellectual history. Among his other books are The Student’s Guide to U.S. History; Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America; Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in the American Past; Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Public Life in Modern America; and the award-winning bestseller, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.
He served for eleven years on the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is currently is a member of the U.S. Commission on the Semiquincentennial, which has been charged with planning the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Academy of Education, and he received the Bradley Prize in 2022. He is a graduate of St. John’s College (Annapolis) and received his Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University.
Talks and Topics
The Place of Religion in the Revolutionary Mind
An examination of the role played by religious conviction, especially reformed Protestantism, in the making of the American Revolution.
Why Religion Should Be Protected in American Life
The five or six essential reasons why a liberal culture needs the check and ennoblement of religion to remain healthy and viable
The Jewish Roots of American Liberty
An examination of the ways that ideas and stories from the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish practices have played an important role in making America what it is.
A Revolutionary Tradition?
Some thoughts about the role of tradition in the way Americans think of ourselves, and the ways that tradition shapes our lives, both because of and in spite of our “revolutionary” commitments.
Why (and How) We Teach American History in Faith-Based Schools—and Teach About Religion in Secular Public Schools
Exploring the ways in which faith is intertwined with secular education in America, and properly should be.
