February 5th, 2012

Conservative British Historian Niall Ferguson Quits Great Britain in Favor Of America: For US Conservative Intellectualism

Posted by: Barry Secrest
Published on February 5th, 2012 @ 11:39:07 pm , using 349 words

Posted in Events and Issues: Credible Resources

Cr edit note: And folks, it's not for the academian intellectualism, here, but rather it's for the True Conservative intellectualism that exists in America in spades, often called "Common sense" by other varied names.

Truly welcome, Niall, is, by the way, at least for Conservatives.

I have read much of his work, and quite frankly, he belongs here.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/3/15/1300192716233/Niall-Ferguson-007.jpg

UK Telegraph

By Richard Eden

Niall Ferguson was regarded so highly by his fellow Scotsman Michael Gove that the Education Secretary invited him to advise on the development of a new history syllabus.

Ferguson has, though, returned the compliment by announcing that he is quitting this country because its intellectual life is so shallow.

“My future is in the US,” declares the presenter of such television programmes as The Ascent of Money. “My son will be a US citizen. That is where I and my wife are probably heading.”

Ferguson married Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born critic of Islam in a ceremony attended by Henry Kissinger in September.

“I’m fulfilled by my job at Harvard," he says. "As a financial historian, I was quite isolated in Oxford – British historians are supposed to write about kings – so the quality of intellectual life in my field is much higher at Harvard. The students work harder there.”

In an interview with The World Today magazine, he adds: “In general, I have felt more at home in the US than I ever felt in England. When I first came to Oxford, I struggled to feel comfortable in an Anglican, public school-dominated institution. Proper Protestants are more at home in New England than old England.

“I’m over-industrious, so I don’t feel quite such a deviant in America as I did in England. The time I spent in England now begins to feel like a detour. I realised last year I was never going to come back here to live.”