We are excited to see you on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at our Linda L. Bean Center from 6-8 PM! Please come dressed in business casual attire.
Join Us for the 2025 Henry and Anne Paolucci Conservative Book of the Year Award Reception & Ceremony!
Join us for an evening of recognition and celebration at our Linda L. Bean Center on Wednesday, March 19, as we honor the Conservative Book of the Year!
The ceremony will commence with a cocktail hour from 6–7 PM that offers attendees a chance to mingle and discuss the thought-provoking works of our finalists. The award ceremony and acceptance speech will follow from 7–8 PM.
The event is business casual so please come dressed accordingly.
Sean McMeekin: Our Winner for 2025
The winner of the 2025 Conservative Book of the Year Award is Sean McMeekin for his book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism.
Sean McMeekin currently serves as the Francis Flournoy Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College in New York.
In To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, Sean McMeekin examines the transformation of Communism from an ideal of a classless society to the doctrine underpinning tyrannical regimes. He traces its development from Marx’s theoretical foundations to its implementation under Stalin in the USSR, Mao in China, and the spread of Communist policies globally in the twenty-first century. McMeekin argues that, despite its persistence, Communism remains widely unpopular as a political system, consistently emerging through force wherever it has taken hold
“The story of communism is more accurately read as a history of violence than as a history of ideas. Mr. McMeekin bears this out vividly, drawing on a deep well of knowledge about a story of human depravity that deserves to be told. It is well worth reading.”
Wall Street Journal
Honoring Important Contributions to the Conservative Intellectual Tradition
Each year, ISI’s community of thoughtful readers puts together a list of the most significant contributions to the conservative canon published in the past year. A panel of judges then selects one author who will receive ISI’s prestigious Paolucci Book Award and a $10,000 cash prize.
To be considered for the Conservative Book of the Year award, a book must:
1. Have been published during the previous calendar year, up to and including December 31
2. Advance our understanding of conservative principles
3. Make an outstanding contribution to the literature of the subject
4. Avoid factional or partisan argumentation
Recent winners of ISI’s Conservative Book of the Year award include Chris Rufo for America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything, Victor Davis Hanson for The Dying Citizen, Yuval Levin for A Time to Build, Wilfred M. McClay for Land of Hope, Yoram Hazony for The Virtue of Nationalism, and Rod Dreher for The Benedict Option.
About the Award
ISI honors the Conservative Book of the Year with the Paolucci Book Award. The award is named in memory of Henry and Anne Paolucci, distinguished scholars, teachers, and writers who exemplified the ideal of the public intellectual.
The award winner’s lecture is routinely aired on C-SPAN’s Book TV. See links below for previous broadcasts. Past winners of the award include:
Henry Paolucci was a prolific scholar of classical politics and literature. He was a professor of government and politics at St. John’s University and also taught ancient Greek and Roman history at Iona College, Brooklyn College, and the City College of New York, as well as a graduate course on Dante and medieval culture at Columbia University. Dr. Paolucci wrote or edited more than 30 books and was a frequent contributor to national magazines and newspapers. He is well known for his studies of the political thought of Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Machiavelli, and Hegel.
The founding president of the Walter Bagehot Council on National Sovereignty, Dr. Paolucci served for many years as vice chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State. In 1964 he ran as the Conservative candidate for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Robert F. Kennedy and the Republican incumbent, Kenneth Keating.
Anne Paolucci, PhD (1926–2012)
Anne Paolucci displayed a wide range of intellectual interests in her long and distinguished scholarly career. Born in Rome, she settled with her family in New York at the age of eight and went on to earn a PhD from Columbia University. Dr. Paolucci taught English at the City College of New York before joining the faculty of St. John’s University as its first University Research Professor. A prolific writer on Renaissance drama, dramatic theory, Hegelian aesthetics, Spenser, Dante, Machiavelli, and classical and Shakespearean tragedy, she was perhaps best known for her work on the plays of Pirandello and Edward Albee.
Dr. Paolucci was the founding president of the Council on National Literatures. For nearly a decade, she served on the National Council on the Humanities, and she became the first woman to chair the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY).
Details
March 19, 2025 6:00-8:00pm
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington
,
DE
,
19807
Please come dressed accordingly in business casual attire.
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