Jenna Mo

Liberal Education Is a Condition of the American Republic

Shilo Brooks, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, argues that America’s 250th anniversary should be treated as a test of civic formation, not an exercise in commemoration. In a conversation with the Aspen Institute’s Todd Breyfogle, Brooks makes the case that self-government depends on liberal education: citizens reading seriously, examining their own false convictions, practicing moderation, and learning to argue without contempt. His warning is that civic ignorance is not just an educational failure but a constitutional problem for a republic in which the people are meant to rule.