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Contact Information & Background:
Associate Professor of Government
Ladd 316, Phone: 580-5247
E-Mail: tburns@skidmore.edu
Ph.D & M.A. recieved from University of Toronto
B.A. recieved from Boston College
Published Works
After History? Francis Fukuyama And His Critics. Rowman & Littlefield, 1994.
Articles and Book Chapters
“The Rationalism of Father Brown," Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2005), 37-45.
“Ancient and Modern Political Rationalism in the Thought of Leo Strauss,” in Gladly To Learn and Gladly To Teach, Douglas Kries and Michael Foley, editors. Lexington Books, 2002, 145-162.
“The Liberal Uses of Religion” Review essay of What’s God Got To Do With The American Experiment? E.J. Dionne Jr. and John J. Diiulio Jr., eds. (Brookings Institution Press, 2000). First Things, May 2001
“Bowling With Strangers,” Review Essay of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), Philanthropy, August 2000.
“Virtuous Liberalism” The Political Science Reviewer, March 1999, 272-314
“Friendship and Divine Justice in Homer’s Iliad” in Poets, Princes, and Private Citizens: Literary Alternatives to Postmodern Politics. J.Knippenberg & P. Lawler, eds. Roman and Littlefield, 1996
“Modernity’s Irrationalism,” After History? ch. 9, 177-234.
Book Reviews
Review of Republican Theory in Political Thought: Virtuous or Virtual? by Bill Brugger (New York: St. Martin’s press, 2000), The American Political Science Review, December 2000.
Works Under Review or in Progress
“The Life of Thucydides,” by Marcellinus. Translation of the Greek text (hitherto untranslated)
"Xenophon and Machiavelli"
Thucydides Answer To Homer Manuscript in progress.
Select Professional Presentations
Michigan State U. Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy Conference on “Religion in Modernity,” April 16-18, 2009
Discussant, “Philosophical Foundations of the Modern Project of Secularization.”
Augusta State College, Augusts, Georgia, March 10, 2008
Invited Lecture, “The Melian Dialogue”
Skidmore College, Department of Theater, August 29, 2008.
“Christianity or Political Life: Shakespeare’s Richard II”
Northeastern PSA Annual Meeting, November 14-16, 2008, Boston, MA
Chair, “Xenophon and Plato on Leadership and Virtue”
Discussant, “Piety in the Leadership of Xenophon,” Eric Buzzetti, Concordia University
Southern PSA Annual Meeting, January 4 2007.
Discussant, “The Passion for Honor and Justice: Aristotle’s Account of Political Ambition,” by Susan Hamilton, Harvard U.
N.E. PSA Annual Meeting, April 23, 2007
“Thomas Pangle’s Leo Strauss: An Introduction To His Thoughtand Intellectual Legacy”
Skidmore College Annual Jon Ramsey Honors Forum Lecture, Feb. 16, 2007
“Honor, Cynicism, and Liberal Education”
American PSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, September 2007
“What War Discloses”
The University of Texas at Austin, October 19, 2007
Invited Lecture, “Brasidas and the Limits of Politics”
Southern PSA Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, January 2006
Chair and discussant, “Classical liberalism and the theory of the American Constitution.” Papers delivered by Steven Kautz and Thomas Powers. Chair, “The Revival of the Theologico-Political Question in Weimar,”
Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting,
New Orleans, LA., January 2005
“A New Perspective on Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil”
Remarks on papers on panel, “The Political Thought of Leo Strauss,” Papers delivered by Werner Dannhauser, Angel Jaramillo, and Rafael Major.
2004 Southwest PSA annual meeting, March 2004.
“Machiavelli’s Political and Literary Intention in his Re-presentation of Xenophon’s Cyrus.”
American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL August 27, 2004.
“Modernity’s Atheistic Project”: Remarks on papers by Paul Carrese and Judd Owen
Southwest SSA Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, April 17, 2003
“Divine Justice in Strauss’ Interpretation of the Anabasis.”
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
Two Lectures on Thucydides. March 11 and 12, 2002
American PSA Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, August 29, 2002
Comment on “Plato’s Protagoras: Anti-naturalism, Sophistry and the
Political Art” by David N. McNeill., and“The Star to Every Wand’ring
Bark–––Platonic Eros as a basis for Ethical and Political Naturalism” by
Laurence D. Cooper.
American PSA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 30-Sept 3, 2001
“Thucydides’ Answer to Homer” (Thucydides 1.1-1.23)
“To Philosophize Without Growing Soft” (Thucydides 2.35-54)
American PSA Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Aug 28-Sept 2, 2000
“Freedom and Necessity: Debate Over the Death Penalty for Mytilene”
Midwest PSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 27-30, 2000
“The Courage of Thucydides’ Brasidas”
American PSA Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, Sept 5, 1999
“The Melian Dialogue and the Tragedy of Athens”
American PSA Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, Sept 4, 1998
Comment on Panel, “Cicero’s Political Philosophy”
Northeast PSA Annual Meeting, Worcester, MA, May 1-2, 1998
Panel Commentator: “Three Views of Nietzsche’s Purpose”
New England PSA Annual Meeting, May 3, 1997
Comment on Russ Muirhead’s “Proud Work and Citizenship”
Harvard University, Department of Government, February 21, 1997
“Reflections on Modern Political Rationalism”
The Catholic University of America, Department of Philosophy, Jan. 31, 1997
“Neocons v. Theocons: John Courtney Murray and Catholic Liberalism”
Institute for the Study of Politics and Religion, Boston College, Sept. 20, 1996
“Some Doubts About the Modern Soul.” Response to R. Velkley’s “The Forgotten Modern Soul: On Reconstructing Kant and the Liberal Tradition”
Canadian PSA Annual Meeting, St. Catherines, Ont., June 4, 1996
“Teaching Statesmanship with Thucydides”
Southern PSA Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL, Nov. 4, 1995
Panel Commentator: “Love and Democracy: Tocqueville and Walker Percy”
American PSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Sept. 3, 1995
Commentary on Paper by J. Laursen, “Skeptical Ataraxia in Political Life”
Southwest SSA Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX, March 17, 1995
Commentary on Papers by Cecilia Rodriguez, “Allan Bloom’s Jane Austen” and by E.Wiggenbach, “Hobbes and Linguistic Ambiguity”
Northeast PSA Annual Meeting, New Haven, CT, Nov. 10-12, 1994
"Nobility and Friendship in Homer’s Iliad”
American PSA Annual Meeting, NY, NY, Sept. 2, 1994
“The Classical Republicanism of Periclean Athens”
Midwest PSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 14-16, 1994
“The Problem of Divine Justice in Thucydides”
Southwest SSA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 17-20, 1993
“St. Augustine and MLK, Jr.: Conflicting Views of Civil Disobedience”
Southwest SSA Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, March 18-21, 1992
Commentary on Papers by S. Forde, “International Realism and the Science of Politics,” and A. Tessitore, “Courage And Comedy In Plato’s Laches”
Southwest SSA Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, March 28-29, 1991
“Democracy and Anger”
Panel Commentator: “Odysseus in Plato’s Republic”
Southwest SSA Annual Meeting, Fort Worth, TX, March 29, 1990
Commentary on Paper by J. Mitchell: “Luther And Hobbes on the Question, ‘Who Was Moses, Who Was Christ?’"
American PSA Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, Sept. 1, 1989
Commentary on Paper by R. Ruderman: “Ancient Religion and Politics: Xenophon’s Anabasis”
“Academic Integrity,” Talk given to Dean of Students’ Staff, March 9, 2005
“Liberal Education and Honor,” Talk given at First-Year
Orientation, September 6, 2004
“Misology and Liberal Education,” Pi Sigma Alpha induction
ceremony remarks, April 2004
Faculty Who Have Made A Difference: Periclean Honor Society Annual
Wine and Cheese Reception, April 3, 2003
“Handling Academic Integrity Board Violations,” David Karp’s
IB Training Session (with T. Levith and G. Burton), November 1, 2002
“Student Bill of Rights Forum,” November 11, 2002
“Shades of Gray,” December 5, 2002
“An Evening With Christopher Hitchens,” (organized by Bob Boyers)
November 29, 2001
“Plato’s Crito” Liberal Studies1, November 28 and 29, 2000
“The Melian Dialogue” Classics 200:The Classical World
(Dan Curley’s class), February 14, 2000
“Why IR Realists Are Wrong about Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue,”
International Affairs 101 (Marc Wisemann’s class), March 28, 2000
Grants Awarded
Grant to Attend Seminar on the thought of Leo Strauss, Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, (Siemens Foundation, Munich), 2002
Grant to fund Student Leadership Conference, Pi Sigma Alpha
National Office (with Matthew Slater), 1999-2000
Aristophanes and Political Philosophy, Seminar Grant from The
Morton Seminar Foundation, 1999
Civic Responsibility and Higher Education: A Symposium. Texas Committee for the Humanities. Humanities Advisor, 1995
The Civitas Project: Educating For Citizenship, Part I
Texas Committee for the Humanities. Project Director, 1995
