Originally broadcast at 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday, July 20, 2021.

David French is a senior editor at The Dispatch and a columnist for Time. A New York Times best-selling author, his most recent book is Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation, which begins with a stark opening line: “It’s time for Americans to wake up to a fundamental reality: the continued unity of the United States of America cannot be guaranteed.” French will guide the Chautauqua audience through the book’s call for courage and pluralism, and the hope that “no matter the depth of our national division, there is no point where it is too late to show those virtues” of justice, mercy and humility.

French previously wrote for National Review and served as a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a former constitutional litigator and a past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. He is a former major in the United States Army Reserve and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

This program is made possible by David and Wendy Barensfeld Lectureship Fund.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.