What is and to what end do we study Universal History?

In 1789, the world was electrified with an idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. If this proposition be true, then the entire paradigm of government practiced since ancient times had to be completely transformed from systems of hereditary power enforcing the rule of might makes…

Towards a Culture of Genius

By David Gosselin In the following poem, Friedrich Schiller turns his thought-poetry towards the question of Genius. The question of what constitutes Genius remains even more elusive in our modern age than it was at the time of Schiller’s writing in the 18th century. In his time, the classical wisdom of previous ages had already…

Paul Robeson and the Battle for the Soul of America

By Matthew Ehret This essay is an accompaniment to a lecture delivered by the author honoring the life of Paul Robeson as an unfinished symphony “Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made…

A Pax Americana or A Republic If You Can Keep It?

By Cynthia Chung “Fortune thus blinds the minds of men when she does not wish them to resist her power.” – Livy It seems quite evident to many that the United States has been consumed by the same ambition and thus fate with that of the Roman Empire. That one of the most notorious periods…

Classics & Classics : The Three Kingdoms… Tempus, Kairos & Chronos

In this presentation delivered by the Rising Tide Foundation’s resident China expert Dr. Quan Le, the heart and soul of Chinese civilization is explored through the portal of the great Confucian classics and the deeper moral, philosophical and even geopolitical lessons contained in the 14th century historical novel by Luo Guanzhong titled ‘The Romance of…

The Mind, Life and Insights of Confucius

While all living beings are mortal, only human kind has access to the self-awareness of its own mortality. With this knowledge of our own finiteness, we may become cynical and fearful pessimists wallowing in despair and nihilism or we may choose to embrace a higher set of goals and principles for the identity we shape…

Edgar Allan Poe and the Search for the Supernal

By David Gosselin That little time with lyre and rhymeTo while away—forbidden things!My heart would feel to be a crimeUnless it trembled with the strings. -“Romance,” Edgar Allan Poe Is it possible that much of the world remains captive to a false Poe mythology? Whether in respect to his fiction, prose, or poetry the typical…

RTF Review: Ballet’s Secret Code

By Nicholas Jones Ballet’s secret code is a documentary about the Origins and principles behind Maestro Enrico Cecchetti’s lifetime of work and devotion to the Classical humanist art form: Ballet. Madam Julie Cronshaw takes us through the depths of his character, education and philosophy and his work as a Ballet Master under Diaghilev for the…