Ashbrook Center

Ashbrook Center Educating students, teachers, and citizens in the history and Founding principles of our country. Follow us on twitter

The Ashbrook Center, located on the campus of Ashland University, seeks to restore and strengthen the capacities of the American people for constitutional self-government. Through undergraduate, graduate, and civic programs, the Ashbrook Center is the nation’s largest university based educator in the enduring principles and practice of free government in the United States. Dedicated in 1983 by Pre

sident Ronald Reagan, the Ashbrook Center is an independent center governed by its own board and responsible for raising all of the funds necessary for its many programs.

In April, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais that quietly rewrote the rules connecting...
05/27/2026

In April, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais that quietly rewrote the rules connecting race, redistricting, and the Voting Rights Act. Sixty years of legal architecture, the kind that runs underneath every congressional map in the country, just shifted.

This week's episode of The American Idea unpacks how a 1965 civil rights law became the framework for drawing legislative districts, the unlikely political coalition that produced the maps we know today, and what the Court is now asking states to do. The full effects will not be visible for a few election cycles, which makes this a good moment to understand what actually happened.

Link in the comments.

Most people assume school choice is a recent policy experiment. The actual history stretches back centuries — to colonia...
05/20/2026

Most people assume school choice is a recent policy experiment. The actual history stretches back centuries — to colonial communities that funded religious schools with pooled resources, to the Supreme Court cases that affirmed parents' authority over their children's education, to the unlikely bipartisan coalition that launched the first voucher program in Milwaukee in 1990. Today's episode covers all of it, including why COVID accelerated the movement and what 220,000 Texas families on a waiting list tells us about where things are headed. Link in comments.

The American Revolution is central to how Americans understand themselves. In Britain, it's barely taught at all — omitt...
05/13/2026

The American Revolution is central to how Americans understand themselves. In Britain, it's barely taught at all — omitted from school guidelines, absent from the national conversation, and quietly set aside as a chapter that doesn't fit the preferred story. Today's episode of The American Idea explores what the Revolution looked like from London rather than Philadelphia: why the colonists' victory shook the foundations of the British Empire, how the two countries have been defining themselves against each other ever since, and what it means to share a history that only one side finds it useful to remember. Link in comments.

New episode out now. The Declaration of Independence didn't sit quietly on parchment after 1776. It became the most cont...
05/06/2026

New episode out now. The Declaration of Independence didn't sit quietly on parchment after 1776. It became the most contested document in the fight over racial equality in America. Professor Peter Myers joins us to walk through the whole arc: abolition societies forming within years of the signing, Frederick Douglass reclaiming the Constitution as a liberty document, Lincoln refusing to let "all men are created equal" be reduced to "some men," and the sharp disagreements over what the Declaration's promises actually require that continue right now in 2026. Drop your reaction in the comments after you listen.

Link in the comments.

New episode dropping this week. The Declaration of Independence didn't just announce a new nation. It launched a 250-yea...
05/04/2026

New episode dropping this week. The Declaration of Independence didn't just announce a new nation. It launched a 250-year argument over who gets to share in its promises. Professor Peter Myers joins us to trace that argument from the first wave of abolition in the 1770s through Frederick Douglass's fierce defense of the Constitution, Lincoln's insistence that "all men" really does mean all men, and the competing visions of civil rights that still shape our politics today. If you've ever wondered whether the founding actually planted the seeds of equality or just paid it lip service, this one is for you.

Link in the comments.

From "A Time for Choosing" in 1964 to his farewell address in 1989, Ronald Reagan made a consistent argument: that the D...
04/29/2026

From "A Time for Choosing" in 1964 to his farewell address in 1989, Ronald Reagan made a consistent argument: that the Declaration of Independence wasn't a historical relic but the most reliable guide to self-government ever produced. Host Jeff Sikkenga and political scientist Gregory McReer trace that conviction through Reagan's domestic policy, his Cold War foreign policy, and his little-discussed warning about the dangers of uninformed patriotism.

Link in the comments.

The Constitution is remarkably specific about how a president hires senior officials. It says almost nothing about how a...
04/22/2026

The Constitution is remarkably specific about how a president hires senior officials. It says almost nothing about how a president fires them. That silence has produced one of the longest-running constitutional disputes in American history, from the First Congress in 1789 all the way to today's fights over independent regulatory agencies.

This week's episode of The American Idea traces the separation of powers from its philosophical roots through the checks and balances debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and into the modern controversies over removal power, war powers, and the independent prosecutor. If you think separation of powers is a settled question, this one will change your mind. Out now.

Link in the comments.

Most of us learned about separation of powers in school and never thought much harder about it. But here's something wor...
04/20/2026

Most of us learned about separation of powers in school and never thought much harder about it. But here's something worth sitting with: the founders didn't just separate the branches to prevent tyranny. They did it because legislating, executing, and judging are fundamentally different activities that require different kinds of institutions and different kinds of people.

This week's episode unpacks why that distinction still matters, from the removal power fight that's been raging since 1789 to the war powers standoff that no president or Congress has been willing to let the courts resolve. If you've ever wondered why the branches seem to be fighting all the time, this one explains why they're supposed to be.

Subscription link in the comments.

This one's timely.Did you know Chrysler once built missiles alongside sedans? That Goodyear made radar? That the entire ...
04/17/2026

This one's timely.

Did you know Chrysler once built missiles alongside sedans? That Goodyear made radar? That the entire structure of American defense manufacturing flipped in the span of a generation, from a broad industrial base integrated with the commercial economy to a handful of firms that sell exclusively to the Pentagon?

If you haven't caught this week's episode of The American Idea yet, do yourself a favor. It covers how the country that won the Cold War ended up struggling to replace basic munitions, why the newest American drone on the battlefield was reverse-engineered from an Iranian design, and what rebuilding actually looks like. You'll come away understanding something most people never think about until it's too late.

Link in the comments.

Chrysler used to make cars and missiles. Goodyear built radar. General Mills had an aerospace division. That world is go...
04/15/2026

Chrysler used to make cars and missiles. Goodyear built radar. General Mills had an aerospace division. That world is gone, and what replaced it is a defense sector cut off from the commercial economy and struggling to innovate.

Today's episode of The American Idea looks at how decades of bureaucratic centralization hollowed out America's defense industrial base, why the average new weapons system takes 17 years from drawing board to deployment, and what it would actually take to rebuild the capacity to produce what the country needs.

Whether you follow defense policy closely or just assumed the Pentagon had this covered, this one is worth your time. Episode link in the comments.

🚨 New episode of The American Idea drops tomorrow.Jeff Sikkenga sits down with Madeline Hart, deployment strategist at P...
04/15/2026

🚨 New episode of The American Idea drops tomorrow.

Jeff Sikkenga sits down with Madeline Hart, deployment strategist at Palantir and co-author of Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III.

They discuss why industrial capacity and production speed—not just battlefield performance—may determine whether the U.S. can deter and sustain major conflicts, and what reforms could restore faster innovation and stronger manufacturing.

A link to subscribe to the show is in the comments.

Address

401 College Avenue
Ashland, OH
44805

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14192895411

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ashbrook Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The University

Send a message to Ashbrook Center:

Shortcuts

Share

Category