The following list is an ongoing series of posts (from oldest to newest) collecting essays I wrote as an undergraduate and graduate student. I hope you find them interesting or useful. Read the first post in the series for a more detailed, yet still brief, explanation.
College Essays Series 
- College Essays Series · April 9, 2011I wrote a ton of essays in college, both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. My degrees are in political science, philosophy, and history, after all. They range in length from one single-spaced page to five double-spaced pages and beyond. I’m going to start putting some of these online as part of a new ...
- Ancient vs. Modern Political Thought · April 9, 2011First installment in my new college essays series: This is one of the essays I wrote during the political theory general exam for my PhD. The exam was an approximately 15-hour marathon session, involving 6 out of 12 essay questions, for a final total of 33 double-spaced pages written without access to any notes ...
- The Cycle of Decline of Regimes in Plato’s Republic · April 13, 2011Part of my college essays series: This is one of the essays I wrote during the political theory general exam for my PhD. The exam was an approximately 15-hour marathon session, involving 6 out of 12 essay questions, for a final total of 33 double-spaced pages written without access to any notes or sources. The ...
- Is Libertarianism a Gnostic or Utopian Political Movement? · April 24, 2011This post is excerpted and adapted from the concluding chapter of my dissertation (so I suppose it might qualify as part of my college essays series), wherein I addressed two related objections to libertarianism in general and to my account of Aristotelian liberalism in particular: utopianism and gnosticism, the latter being sort of a theological version ...
- Hermeneutical Interpretation and Techniques · May 5, 2011Part of my college essays series: This is one of the essays I wrote during the political theory general exam for my PhD. The exam was an approximately 15-hour marathon session, involving 6 out of 12 essay questions, for a final total of 33 double-spaced pages written without access to any notes or sources. Some ...
- American Liberty · May 27, 2011Part of my college essays series: This is one of the essays I wrote during the political theory general exam for my PhD. The exam was an approximately 15-hour marathon session, involving 6 out of 12 essay questions, for a final total of 33 double-spaced pages written without access to any notes or sources. In ...
- Transcending Dichotomies: Freedom in Community and the Poet Philosopher · February 23, 2012Part of my college essays series: This is one of the essays I wrote during the political theory general exam for my PhD. The exam was an approximately 15-hour marathon session, involving 6 out of 12 essay questions, for a final total of 33 double-spaced pages written without access to any notes or sources. In this ...
Other Essays (PDFs)
- “On the Relation between Values and Virtues for Rand.” TAS/TOC 2007 Grad Student Summer Seminar Writing Assignment.
- Shays’s Rebellion, the Anti-Federalists, and the Consolidating Constitution (Incorporated into my poli sci M.A. thesis.)
- The Fateful Compromise on Slavery in the Federal Convention of 1787 (Incorporated into my poli sci M.A. thesis.)
- Making Democracy Work in Iraq: Can it be Done? (This was a take home final exam that my professor ended up sending to one of his friends, an army officer and provincial governor in Iraq.)
- The State and War: An Austrian Political Economy Model (Just a paper I wrote for a class to help me learn Austrian economics.)
Reaction Papers (PDFs)
Written for in-class presentation, these were generally written in a rush the day before and/or late at night. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in these (anymore) but they are interesting.
- Machiavelli and Voegelin vs. “Machiavellianism”
- On John Milton’s Areopagitica
- On Algernon Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government
- Feudal and Canon Law vs. Liberal Law
- On Liberty
- Platonic Idealism: Too High a Standard for Political Activity (Upon reflection, perhaps unrealistic standard would be more apt.)
- Roman Imperialism and the Murder-Suicide of Classical Civilization
- On Roman Liberty, Virtue, and Eudaimonia
- On Tyranny, Virtue, and Habituation to Subjection
