This post is an essay by Beverly Gage published recently in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. In it, she draws on Richard Hofstadter's 1963 book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, to show how this is not the first time that American universities found themselves the target of political attacks. Let's not forget the … Continue reading Beverly Gage: The American University Is in Crisis. Not for the First Time.
This post is an essay by David Brooks that appeared in the Atlantic in 2020. Here's a link to the original. He takes advantage of the Covid hiatus in college commencements to give the kid of commencement advice that he could never deliver in front of the parents, faculty, and students assembled there. Things like: Use … Continue reading David Brooks — A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person
This post is an essay by Yascha Mounk from a recent issue of Persuasion. Here's a link to the original. The issue he raises is that there are worse things than having an inherited leadership class. The much-maligned WASP aristocrats, who long dominated leadership positions in the US, at least had the decency to take … Continue reading Yascha Mounk — The WASPs Are Gone
My new post is an essay by a philosophy professor who has adopted the handle Hilarius Bookbinder for his Substack Scriptorium Philosophia. Here's a link to the original. The point he's making is that just because something is a stereotype doesn't mean that it's wrong or useless. Sure, a lot of stereotypes are simple prejudice. … Continue reading Hilarius Bookbinder — Stereotypes as Heuristics
My new post is an essay by David Brooks that provides one of the best analyses I've read about the Trump victory. It appeared right after the election in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. It explores some of the themes that I developed in my slide-show post 10 days ago. Voters … Continue reading David Brooks: Voters to Elites — Do You See Me Now?
This post is about how the last election can be understood as a rebuke to America's leaders in the Democratic Party. As David Brooks put it in the headline of his first column after the election: Voters to Elites: Can You See Me Now? I want to explore this issue at two levels, arguing that: … Continue reading Voters Give a Big Thumbs Down to America’s Leaders
This post is a smart and timely essay by Johann Neem, which was recently published in The Hedgehog Review. Here's a link to the original. As we wait for the Supreme Court to issue its ruling on the Harvard admissions case, it's a good time to think about how elite universities manage the makeup of … Continue reading Johann Neem — The Model Minority Might Be Too Good at the Game
This post is a recent essay by Eric Levitz, which was published in New York Magazine in October. Here's a link to the original. He explores an issue that has been a major concern of mine in recent years, the role that higher education has had in exacerbating political divisions in the US and elsewhere in … Continue reading Eric Levitz — The Diploma Divide
This post is about an overlooked classic of American literature, which I stumbled upon by accident through an old essay by Tom Cox. It's the debut novel by Evans Connell, Mrs. Bridge, which was published in 1959. It's unlike anything I've ever read. The sheer simplicity of Connell's prose is paralleled by the simplicity of … Continue reading Mrs. Bridge — On the Quiet Desperation of Ordinary Life
This post is a reflection on Dutch philosopher Johann Huizinga's classic 1955 work, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. In this stunning book, Huizinga argues that play is central to civilization, that in fact it precedes and forms the basis for human culture. At the start, of course, he needs to define … Continue reading Johan Huizinga on the Centrality of Play
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 