Founded in 1842 and rated today among the top 20 universities in the United States, Notre Dame is renown for excellence in teaching, research, scholarship and service. Dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake, one of Notre Dame's distinctive goals as a Catholic university has been to provide a forum where there can be free inquiry and open discussion of all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and other areas of human scholarship and creativity. The Review of Politics was founded and continues to be published at Notre Dame as a means of extending that inquiry and discussion in the realm of politics, both within and without the university.