Indianapolis, Indiana — 220 students and professors representing over 60 universities participated along with business leaders and local community members in ISI's 2004 Leadership Conference: "The Twisted Tree of Liberty: F.A. Hayek and The Road to Serfdom." Highlighted by historian George Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, the conference was covered in part by C-SPAN Book TV.

Students and faculty traveled great distances to be a part of this 60th anniversary celebration of Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. Some participants traveled from China, while others drove from Texas, Florida, New York, Michigan, and Virginia. With so many universities represented, the conference yielded one of the most intellectually diverse ISI audiences ever.

George Nash

Participants were treated to an opening lecture by George Nash, who placed Hayek's life and work in the context of the early beginnings of the conservative movement in America. Offering up seldom-heard anecdotes coupled with the detailed understanding of Hayek's intellectual journey to America, Nash left many wanting more. One student from Princeton University noted, "It's rare to find an historian with such breadth of knowledge about subjects beyond their specialization."

Bruce Caldwell

Intellectual historian Bruce Caldwell, author of Hayek's Challenge and editor of the forthcoming The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, delivered the luncheon lecture. "Hayek is a puzzle. Certainly he started out as one for me, now some twenty-odd years ago," he noted. Professor Caldwell answered a number of questions and signed copies of his current book made available to the participants by ISI.

The conference also featured lectures by Doug Bandow on "Markets Yield Spontaneous Order: Can They Give us a Moral Order Too?," Walsh College professor Harry Veryser on "Belloc, Orwell, and The Road to Serfdom," and Gary Scott on "Hayek and Modern Education Leadership." In his lecture entitled "Citizenship as Vocation," Princeton professor Patrick Deneen reminded students that "education and intellectual inquiry does not end on commencement day."

Charles Murray

The conference concluded with a special lecture by famed social scientist Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve and more recently Human Accomplishment. Dr. Murray, speaking on his recent work, reasoned, "We each have a vocation to add what we can to the sum of human achievement so far by seeking truth, beauty and the good—the three transcendental goods. But in addition to being inspired by a higher purpose, the culture must also permit effective individual action. And this is where Western culture has proved more successful than some others." The lecture's popularity was evident by the discussion that overflowed into the reception that followed during which Dr. Murray answered questions and signed books.

Its not too early to plan your trip to ISI's 2005 Leadership Conference in Indianapolis entitled: "The Quest for Community: Robert Nisbet and the Shaping of American Culture." For more information please contact (800) 526-7022 or e-mail conferences@isi.org.

See the 2004 Indianapolis Leadership Conference schedule and brochure.