Virtue & Power
Reflect on the ethical dilemmas implied by the pursuit of power.
In the second week of Political Studies, fellows will consider the proper education of the ambitious soul.
Our first seminar will explore Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus, among the greatest books on leadership ever written, but woefully understudied and deeply misunderstood. The book is fictional—a historical novel of sorts—yet philosophic in the depth and complexity of its treatment of politics and ambition. It is a profound portrait of the life of grand politics that features adventure, intrigue, betrayal, conquest, love, justice, beauty, freedom, tyranny, and death. No less an authority than Niccolò Machiavelli suggests that aspiring princes should exercise their minds by reading Xenophon and striving to imitate “the life of Cyrus.”
Our second seminar will focus on The Tempest, the story of how the Dukedom of Milan was lost and regained. Prospero’s study of the liberal arts contributes to his fall from power, but it also helps him preside over the small society of strange creatures on the remote island where the action of the play takes place. Through close study of one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, students will meditate on the kind of education we need to engage well in political life.
Shilo Brooks on making great statesmen
This course is part of our residential Political Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars and meet prominent men and women in public life over afternoon and evening sessions. Up to 32 fellows will be selected.
Faculty
Shilo Brooks
Shilo Brooks is Executive Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and Lecturer in the Department of Politics. He is author of Nietzsche’s Culture War, in addition to scholarly and journalistic articles on a variety of topics in politics and the humanities. His teaching and research interests lie in the history of political philosophy, politics and literature, and statesmanship.
Shilo Brooks
Shilo Brooks is Executive Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and Lecturer in the Department of Politics. He is author of Nietzsche’s Culture War, in addition to scholarly and journalistic articles on a variety of topics in politics and the humanities. His teaching and research interests lie in the history of political philosophy, politics and literature, and statesmanship.
He was previously Associate Faculty Director of the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization and Faculty Director of the Engineering Leadership Program at the University of Colorado. Brooks has also held appointments as Visiting Professor of Government at Bowdoin College, Fellow in the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy at the University of Virginia, and Fellow in the James Madison Program at Princeton. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Boston College and his B.A. in liberal arts from the Great Books Program at St. John’s College, Annapolis. He is an alum of the Political Studies Program.
Jenna Silber Storey
Jenna Silber Storey is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department at the American Enterprise Institute. She is the co-author of a book with Benjamin Storey: Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment.
Jenna Silber Storey
Jenna Silber Storey is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she concentrates on political philosophy, civil society, classical schools, and higher education. She is also the co-organizer of a conference series on the future of the American university. Dr. Storey is concurrently a research professor at Furman University, where she was previously assistant professor in politics and international affairs and the executive director of the Tocqueville Program. For the 2022–23 academic year, Dr. Storey is also an alumni-in-residence at the University of Chicago.
In addition to Furman University, Dr. Storey has taught at the University of Chicago; the Buckley Program at Yale University; the Hertog Summer Studies Program in Washington, DC; and the Tikvah Fund in Princeton, New Jersey. Earlier she worked as executive assistant to the superintendent for the Boston University–Chelsea Schools partnership. She served as a board member of Veritas Preparatory School in Greenville, South Carolina, from 2019 to 2021.
Dr. Storey is the coauthor, with her husband, Benjamin Storey, of Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment (Princeton University Press, 2021). Together, the Storeys are working on a book titled The Art of Choosing: How Liberal Education Should Prepare You for Life.
Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session
Xenophon's Education of Cyrus
Session I
Session II
Session III
Session IV
Session V
The Tempest
Session I
Readings:
- Act I
Session II
Readings:
- Act II
Session III
Readings:
- Act III
Session IV
Readings:
- Act IV
Session V
Readings:
- Act V
