The College Fix

Let me start with a statement of fact: frats have a reputation. Today, it’s generally a poor one, and culturally, we identify their stately houses more with Animal House than high culture. Even the language we use to speak about them has changed, morphing from gentlemanly “fraternity men” to rowdy “frat boys.”

And within a culture of progressivism that necessarily views every change as part of a broader societal  “advancement,” the decline and degradation of fraternity culture provides just one of the obvious rebuttals to the idea that the arc of mankind naturally bends toward betterment.

So what made fraternities — and greek life more broadly — so tremendously important and successful from the early days of the Republic up until the onset of the Animal House culture in the 1970s and ’80s?

I spoke with Dr. Ben Novak, fraternity man, veteran-soldier, attorney, and trustee on the history — the “glory days” — of the fraternity system. Let’s explore this together:

Watch the full episode on InsideAcademia.tv, and check out my show notes and take-aways.

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