Mr. Merten's Class

I am starting one last Marketwatch game for the whole grade. If you want to participate go to this url and use the password classof2020. Please use your real name, and enjoy the friendly competition!

It has been a joy,pleasure, and my honor to teach you all this year. I truly could not have asked for a better group of students, and I hope that I have been able to impact your lives and learning as much as you have impacted mine. Congratulations on graduation, and best of luck going forward!

If you need to contact me, please use the information provided on the Contact Mr. Merten tab.

If you have lost your turnitin code for class, click here.

My name is Mr. Merten and I'm going to be teaching Government and Economics this year. I grew up in New Jersey before I attended Waynesburg University in western Pennsylvania to receive my Bachelors in History. I continued west to Hillsdale College to receive my Masters in Politics and I am looking forward to sharing all that I've learned with you this year.

What I'm reading:

  • Bushido: The Soul of Japan, by Inazo Nitobe

What I've read this year:

  • Kingfish: the Reign of Huey P. Long, by Richard D. White, Jr.
  • The Founders' Key, by Dr. Larry P. Arnn
  • The Portugal of Salazar, by Michael Derrick
  • The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice, by Dr. Laurence M. Stratton and Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
  • Taxation: The People's Business, by Andrew Mellon
  • Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo
  • Liberty and Learning: The Evolution of American Education, by Larry P. Arnn
  • An Introduction to Legal Reasoning, by Edward H. Levi
  • 1L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year Harvard Law Student, by Scott Turow
  • The Conditions of Freedom, by Harry V. Jaffa
  • Saint Thomas Aquinas, G. K. Chesterton
  • American Conservatism and the American Founding, by Harry V. Jaffa
  • A Republic, If You Can Keep It, by Neil Gorsuch
  • Crisis of the House Divided: an Interpretation of the Issues of the Lincoln Douglas Debates, Harry V. Jaffa

Recommendations:

  • The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle; Bartlett and Collins translation
  • The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom, Dr. Thomas G. West
  • The Education of Cyrus, Xenophon, Wayne Ambler translation
  • Coolidge, Amity Shlaes
  • Crisis of the House Divided: an Interpretation of the Issues of the Lincoln Douglas Debates, Harry V. Jaffa
  • Personal Knowledge, Michael Polanyi
  • More upon request.