James Hankins
James Hankins
is Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida and an emeritus professor of Renaissance history at Harvard University. He is the author of several books, including Virtue Politics (2019) and Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy: The Virtuous Republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena (2023). A winner of the Serena Medal in Italian History and the Marraro Prize, he has been elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (2014) and a Member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (2024). In 2026, he was awarded the Bradley Prize. His latest book, The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, co-authored with Allen C. Guelzo, is out now from Encounter Books.
“A monumental work of reclamation and survival.”
"With graceful language and a splendid array of maps and photographs, the book makes plain how the operating assumptions of the West – equality under the law and the dignity of all persons, for example – so suffuse the air around us that we may forget that these truths are self-evident only to those within our cultural tradition."
"The Golden Thread comes as a history, an argument, a treasure hoard. Happy is the student who will have a semester to study this magnificent book. Happy, too, is the general reader who stands, as one on the threshold of the Louvre, preparing to enter the shining galleries that lie ahead."
Read me on Substack:
The Golden Thread
I write a Substack newsletter with my friend and co-author Allen C. Guelzo. Read our inaugural post.