This post is a reflection on Max Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation,” which he gave in 1919 at Munich University. “Science as a Vocation” is the other famous speech he gave at Munich in 1917, which I posted here a few years ago. Compared to the science lecture, it’s very long — 23,000 words — so … Continue reading Reflections on Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation” and the Role of the Professor
This post is an op-ed by Jon Zimmerman that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Here's a link to the original. A Trump Voter Walks Into My Office It’s no joke—universities impoverish themselves by suppressing conservatives. By Jonathan Zimmerman Despite what you might have read about left-wing monoculture in academia, we really do … Continue reading Jon Zimmerman — A Trump Voter Walks Into My Office
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 focused on an excerpt from a recent essay by Walter Russell Mead, which appeared in online magazine Tablet. Here's a link to the original. To me, it captures something important about the presidential election -- the way in which the contest turned out to be a referendum on the character of America's … Continue reading Walter Russell Mead: American Leadership Has a Versailles Problem
This post is an essay by Francis Fukuyama that recently appeared in Persuasion. Here's a link to the original. Societies are built on trust, and the most successful ones have the broadest foundation of trust. The US has long been seen as a high-trust society, from the time that Tocqueville toured the country. But, as … Continue reading Francis Fukuyama — The Crisis of Trust
This post is an essay by Jennifer Morton that recently appeared in the online magazine Aeon. Here's a link to the original. I have been posting every Monday and Thursday on this blog for four years, but I feel the need to stick in this post out of sequence because the election date is so near, … Continue reading Jennifer Morton — The Specter of Insecurity
This post is a recent piece by A. O. Scott from the New York Times about the muddled way in which we have long treated the concept of being "middle class." Here's a link to the original. The ‘Middle’ Is a Muddle Everybody loves the middle class. Nobody wants to be mid, or middling. “Middle” … Continue reading A. O. Scott: On the Muddle of the Middle Class
I'm posting today one of the greatest speeches ever given, from that master of rhetoric, Frederick Douglass. It demonstrates the power of language to make arguments and change hearts. In a time like ours, when rhetoric is used to promote the worst social ills, it's gratifying to see what it can do in the right … Continue reading Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July”
This post is an essay by Gordon Wood that was published recently as in op-ed in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. His focus is on why the American colonies produced such a remarkable set of republican thinkers and leaders. And he attributes of lot of this to their modest position in … Continue reading Gordon Wood: What Explains the Genius of the American Founders?
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 