The Houston-based Terry Foundation is the largest private scholarship provider in the state of Texas. Here’s a history talk with current applications I gave at the 1997 celebration of Terry scholars at the University of Texas at Austin. See last month’s “stump speech” about how concerns over corrupt Anglicanism helped spur American colonists to revolt.

I enjoy pointing WORLD readers to three good choices we now have in overall American history books. Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen’s A Patriot’s History of the United States and Wilfred McClay’s Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story both offer coherent narratives that recognize American exceptionalism and do not bow to liberal pressure groups that demand identity politics. My gold medal goes to Thomas S. Kidd’s American History.

Author and rancher John R. Erickson’s 2005 book Prairie Gothic: The Story of a West Texas Family includes stories of his ancestors and those who played key roles in their lives. Over the next several months, we’ll meet members of his mother’s family, who he first introduced to us in May 2018:

Here’s an excerpt, courtesy of Crossway, from Paul Miller’s J-Curve: Dying and Rising With Christ in Everyday Life, our 2019 Book of the Year in the Accessible Theology category. The shape of the letter J illustrates a simple yet elegant concept: Christians need to go down to come up. Not just once, but again and again. The everyday Christian life is dying to convenience, worldly success, and approval, only to be resurrected into repentance, humility, and hope. Good Friday leads to Easter Sunday.

I’ve given more than 300 speeches in more than 180 cities over the years, but since I’m turning 70 this year it’s time to retire from speechifying. I developed over time about 10 “stump speeches” on various subjects to be used with modifications in different places, and we plan to post a few of them on the first Saturday of the month as part of our Saturday Series. Here’s one, first delivered at Hillsdale College in 1996, about causes of the Revolutionary War.

While Italy, Spain, Iran, and other countries have been overwhelmed, South Korea seems to have flattened out the spread of the coronavirus. South Korea, though, has a deeper trouble: Its culture no longer supports the formation of families and the virtue of having children. The country currently has the lowest fertility rate of any in the world. Its rate of .88 is less than half of the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population. In other words, while South Korea is busy slowing the spread of COVID-19, she is on the path to national suicide.

My book The Politics of Disaster came out in 2006 on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I had sections on what went wrong in New Orleans, what went right, how national disaster policy needed reform, how religious organizations could help, and how the United States could help with disaster abroad. The last section, titled “Disasters to come,” included chapters on earthquakes, nuclear terrorism, and pandemics.