Anthony Grafton inaugurates the 2026 McKeon Center Lecture
The Rhetorical Tradition and Conjectural History in Early Modern Europe
Tuesday, March 31
4:30 to 6:00 PM
David Rubenstein Forum - Room 801
Reception: 6:00 to 7:00 PM
In the inaugural McKeon Center Lecture, Professor Anthony Grafton examines the question of conjectural history before the Enlightenment. He argues that, prior to the Enlightenment, humanist scholars used the tools of rhetoric to reason boldly about the past. Their work laid the foundations for everything from philology to modern social thought. While most intellectual historians trace conjectural history to eighteenth-century Scotland, Professor Grafton claims that its roots stretch much further back: to the writings of Lorenzo Valla and the Roman curia, to the Jesuit historian José de Acosta, and to the English antiquarians William Dugdale and Thomas Browne. These figures not only recovered lost methods from antiquity but fundamentally reshaped how later generations would read and interpret the historical record.
Lecture Registration
Anthony Grafton Seminar:
The Rhetorical Origins of Conjectural History
Thursday, April 2
3:00 to 5:00 pm
Gates Blake 133
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to read and discuss the role of rhetoric in conjectural history with Anthony Grafton, the Henry Putnam Professor of History at Princeton University.
Following his inaugural McKeon Center Lecture — “The Rhetorical Tradition and Conjectural History in Early Modern Europe” — at the David Rubenstein Forum on Tuesday, March 31, from 4:30–6:00 PM, Professor Grafton will explore the rhetorical foundations of conjectural history through a close reading of Natural and Moral History of the Indies, Book 6, by Jose de Acosta and Anthony Grafton’s Towards a Conjectural History of Conjectural Histories.
Seminar Registration
The McKeon Center will convene an annual conference that brings together leading scholars to engage with pivotal questions surrounding both Richard McKeon’s enduring legacy and the future of liberal arts education. This event will focus on two central themes: first, a critical assessment of McKeon’s achievements during his long tenure at the University of Chicago; and second, the exploration of innovative teaching initiatives capable of carrying forward the spirit of McKeon’s ideas within the College and the broader University community. Dates and details will be shared here when available.