Press Release
Claremont Institute Awarded Prestigious National Humanities Medal
As one of America’s leading think tanks, the Claremont Institute has made invaluable contributions to the history of American conservative thought. Claremont educates, reminds, and informs Americans about the founding principles that have made our country the greatest nation anywhere on earth. Through publications, seminars, and scholarships, they fight to recover the American Idea—I know it well—by teaching about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the writings of Abraham Lincoln (whose bedroom is right above us). The Claremont Institute helps preserve our national traditions for generations to come. — President Donald J. Trump
Claremont, CA, November 18, 2019—The Claremont Institute is pleased to announce that it has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious National Humanities Medal. This high honor, bestowed by the President in consultation with the National Endowment for the Humanities, honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.
“We are humbled by this honor and grateful to President Trump and NEH Chairman Peede,” said Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams. “The medal is more than anything a testament to 40 years of teaching and writing about the history and intellectual traditions of the American founding and their application to our politics today—and to our teachers, students, staff, and supporters whose dedication these past four decades has been essential to our work, success, and most importantly, to promoting and defending American greatness.”
Along with the Claremont Institute, which is only the second think tank to ever receive this high distinction, the President recognizes educator and philanthropist Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, chef Patrick J. O’Connell, and author James Patterson. Past recipients of the medal include luminaries such as Allen Bloom, Ken Burns, Tom Wolfe, Richard Peck, Thomas Sowell, Joseph Epstein, Harvey Mansfield, Victor Davis Hanson, and David McCullough.
Since its founding in 1979, the Claremont Institute’s mission has been to “restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.” Claremont serves this mission in part through its four annual fellowship programs—Publius, Lincoln, John Marshall, and Speechwriters—which engage the most promising young thinkers and statesmen by examining the historical arc leading from the American Founding to today’s progressivism. Alumni of these prestigious programs today total more than 700, with many now in prominent positions in government, academia, and journalism. Claremont also provides the most thoughtful intellectual debate on the right through its flagship publication the Claremont Review of Books, a journal of political thought and statesmanship, and The American Mind, an online publication examining the ideas that drive American political life. Finally, we bring the natural law constitutionalism of the Founding to America’s courts through our Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
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