Josh Bowman leads a discussion of Aristocratic Voices: Forgotten Arguments about Virtue, Authority, and Inequality (Lexington Books, 2025) co-edited by Richard Avramenko and Ethan Alexander-Davey. Ethan joins us for the talk along with two chapter authors, Luke Sheahan and Michael Harding.
Our conversation covers a lot of ground, considering the thought of W.H. Riehl, Robert Nisbet, and Nietzsche, as well as some discussion of Hegel, Cicero, Tocqueville, Burke, Philip Rieff, the French Revolution and much more.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/aristocratic-voices-9781666933147/
The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Panel and paper proposals are due September 1, 2025.
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0:00 Introduction
3:37 Three Implications of Inequality
13:41 Nisbet's Diagnosis
19:42 Bureaucracy as New Elite?
23:07 Nietzsche
36:37 Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl
47:27 Lack of Courage
53:22 Tarantulas, Eternal Recurrence
59:52 Nisbet & Civic Associations
1:08:08 Next Research Steps
Chapters
- (00:00:00) - Introduction
- (00:03:37) - Three Implications of Inequality
- (00:13:41) - Nisbet's Diagnosis
- (00:19:42) - Bureaucracy as New Elite?
- (00:23:07) - Nietzsche
- (00:36:37) - Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl
- (00:47:27) - Lack of Courage
- (00:53:22) - Tarantulas, Eternal Recurrence
- (00:59:52) - Nisbet & Civic Associations
- (01:08:08) - Next Research Steps
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