articles * essays * reviews
Political Philosophy
The New Progressivism: Same as the Old Progressivism?
Pajamasmedia.com, Jan. 21, 2010
Universal Questioner
Speech delivered at the May 2009 Oslo Freedom Forum
Hoover Digest, Winter 2010
Alive and Well
A review of Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism by George H. Nash
The Weekly Standard, Dec. 28, 2009
A Exaggerated Death
A review of The Death of Conservatism by Sam Tanenhaus
National Review Online, Sept. 3, 2009
Conserving
A review of The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History by Patrick Allitt
Policy Review, Aug./Sept. 2009
Conservatism and the University Curriculum
The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2009
God and John Rawls
A review of A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith by John Rawls, edited by Thomas Nagel.
Policy Review, June/July 2009
His Liberal Hour
A review of The Future of Liberalism by Alan Wolfe
The Weekly Standard, May 25, 2009
Pragmatism Obama Style
The Weekly Standard, May 4, 2009
The European Left and Ours
Policy Review, Dec. 2008/Jan. 2009
Towering Ivories
A review of Save the World on Your Own Time by Stanley Fish
The Weekly Standard, Nov. 3, 2008
Leviathan Then and Now
Policy Review, Oct./Nov. 2008
Bookends: 11/9 and 9/11
A review of America Between the Wars‚ From 11/9 to 9/11: The Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Start of the War on Terror by Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, and The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan
World Affairs, Fall 2008
The Persistence of Religion
A
review of A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
The Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2008
On Toleration
A
review of Pernicious Tolerance: How Teaching to "Accept Differences" Undermines Civil Society by Robert Weissberg, and Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire by Wendy Brown
The American Interest, Mar./Apr. 2008
What Is a University for?
A review of Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life by Anthony T. Kronman
Policy Review, Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008
Contested Authority
A review of The Stillborn God by Mark Lilla
The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 15, 2007
American Creed
A review of Americanism: The Fourth Great American Religion by David Gelernter
The New York Post, July 15, 2007
Spinoza's Religion
A review of Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity by Rebecca Goldstein
Policy Review, June/July 2007
PDF version
The Conservative Mind
The Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2007
Proudly Liberal
A review of Freedom's Power: The True Force of Liberalism by Paul Starr
Policy Review, Apr./May 2007
PDF version
Illiberal Liberalism
A review of Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate by Ronald Dworkin
First Things, Apr. 2007
Excommunication for Thee
The Weekly Standard, Feb. 26, 2007
The Longer Way
in Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys, ed. Mary Eberstadt (Simon and Schuster, 2007)
Liberal Education, Then and Now
Essay based on a lecture originally titled John Stuart Mill's Idea of a University, and Our Own, delivered at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Sept. 15, 2006, at a symposium honoring the 200th anniversary of Mill's birth and the address on liberal education he delivered there in 1867.
Policy Review, Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007
PDF version
Partisan Freedom
A review of Whose Freedom: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea by George Lakoff
Policy Review, Oct./Nov. 2006
PDF version
War-Torn Democrats
A review of With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty, ed. Will Marshall, and The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again by Peter Beinart
Policy Review, Aug./Sept. 2006
PDF version
When Liberalism Was Young
A review of John Stuart Mill: A Biography by Nicholas Capaldi
The Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2006
Gentlemen Revolutionaries
A review of Revolutionary Characters: What Made The Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood
Policy Review, June/July 2006
The Ambiguities of Rawls's Influence
Perspectives on Politics (Vol. 4/No. 1), Mar. 2006, pp. 121-127
Democratizing the Constitution
A review of Active Liberty: Interpreting our Democratic Constitution by Stephen Breyer
Policy Review, Dec. 2005/Jan. 2006
Democracy's Challenge
An introduction to Democracy Dialogues, a Web site produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs
The Court, the Constitution, and the Culture of Freedom
Policy Review, Aug./Sept. 2005
Laws of Nations
A review of A New World Order by Anne-Marie Slaughter, The Limits of International Law by Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner, and Law without Nations? Why Constitutional Government Requires Sovereign States by Jeremy Rabkin
Policy Review, Apr./May 2005
Enlightenment Rightly Understood
A review of The Roads to Modernity: The British, French and American Enlightenments by Gertrude Himmelfarb
Policy Review, Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005
Tabloid Scholarship
A review of Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire by Anne Norton
The New York Post, Oct. 3, 2004
Liberalism and Power
in Beyond Power and Paradise, ed. Tod Lindberg
New York: Routledge, 2004
Lubavitchers and Liberals
A review of Lubavitchers as Citizens: A Paradox of Liberal Democracy by Jan Feldman
Policy Review, Aug./Sept. 2004
The Liberal Spirit in America
Policy Review, Aug./Sept. 2003, pp. 29-47
The Demagoguery of Democratic Theory
Critical Review, vol. 15, nos. 1-2, Winter-Spring 2003
What Hath Strauss Wrought
The Weekly Standard, June 2, 2003
The Academic Liberal
The Weekly Standard, Dec. 16, 2002
Reasonable Doubts
A review of Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Modern Philosophy by Susan Neiman, and Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy by Bernard Williams
The Washington Post, Dec. 15, 2002, p. BW04
Byron at Ground Zero
A review of Romantics at War: Glory and Guilt in the Age of Terrorism by George P. Fletcher
The New Republic, November 4, 2002, pp. 31- 37
The Pathos of the Kass Report
A review of Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry, a report by the President's Council on Bioethics
Policy Review, Oct./Nov. 2002, pp. 71-78
Beyond Good and Evil
A review of Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography by Rüdiger Safranski, trans. Shelley Frisch, and Zarathustra's Secret: The Interior Life of Friedrich Nietzsche by Joachim Köhler, trans. Ronald Taylor
The Washington Post, p. BW15, Aug. 18, 2002
Fish Story
The New Republic Online, June 28, 2002
After Autonomy
A review of Liberal Pluralism: The Implications of Value Pluralism for Political Theory and Practice by William Galston
The Weekly Standard, June 17, 2002, pp. 35-39
In Praise of Balance
A review of The Ship of State by Norma Thompson
The New Republic, May 20, 2002, pp. 41-45
John Rawls and the Liberal Faith
The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2002, pp. 60-69
Giving Sophistry a Bad Name
The Weekly Standard, Dec. 31, 2001/Jan. 7, 2002, pp. 18-19
Money and Love
A review of Economic Sentiments by Emma Rothschild
The New Republic, Oct. 1, 2001, pp. 41-45
Questioning America
A review of Moral Freedom by Alan Wolfe
The Weekly Standard, June 25, 2001, pp. 34-37
Virtue and Poverty
A review of Fighting Poverty with Virtue by Joel Schwartz
The Public Interest, Summer 2001, pp. 116-120
Complex, My Dear Holmes
A review of Law without Values by Albert W. Alschuler
Times Literary Supplement, May 25, 2001, p. 14
Puppy Love
The New Republic Online, Mar. 8, 2001
Ethicism
A review of Conflict of Interest in American Public Life by Andrew Stark
The New Republic, Mar. 5, 2001, pp. 40-44
Freedom and the Vulnerabilities of Virtue
45 American Journal of Jurisprudence 51, 2000, pp. 55-63
And Lofty Flowed the Don
A review of The Cunning of Unreason by John Dunn
The New Republic, Nov. 13, 2000, pp. 42-45
Wooed by Freedom?
A review of Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar, ed. Amy Kass and Leon Kass
The Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 2000, pp. 128-133
Sensitivity Isn't Enough
A review of Virtue, Reason and Toleration by Glen Newey
The London Review of Books, Sept. 7, 2000, pp. 17-18
Easy Virtue
A review of Sovereign Virtue by Ronald Dworkin
National Review, August 28, 2000, pp. 43-45
Liberty at War with Itself?
A review of In the Name of Liberalism: Illiberal Social Policy in the United States and Britain by Desmond King
The Times Literary Supplement, August 25, 2000, p. 28
The Futility of Utility
A review of Law and Social Norms by Eric A. Posner
The New Republic, June 5, 2000, pp. 38-44
Giving Liberalism Its Due
Institute of United States Studies, University of London, 2000
Hobbes and Rousseau in Israel
A commentary
in The Jewish Political Tradition, vol. 1, ed. Michael Walzer
Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 497-500
The Principle Problem
A review of The Trouble with Principle by Stanley Fish
The Weekly Standard, Mar. 20, 2000, pp. 27-31
Liberalism's Discontents
A review of The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control, ed. Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball
The Weekly Standard, Feb. 21, 2000, pp. 33-35
Other People's Mothers
A review of A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation by Peter Singer, and Practical Ethics (2nd edition) by Peter Singer
The New Republic, Jan. 10, 2000, pp. 27-37
Response and Restatement
Symposium: Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism
The Yale Journal of Ethics, Dec. 1999, pp. 5-15
Feminism vs. Multiculturalism? The Liberal Project at Odds with Itself
A review of Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? by Susan Moller Okin and respondents, eds. Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard and Martha C. Nussbaum
The Weekly Standard, Nov. 1, 1999, pp. 40-43
Reduction and Betrayal
A review of The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory by Richard A. Posner
The New Republic, August 23, 1999, pp. 38-45
The Pearl Diver
A review of The Attack of the Blob: Hannah Arendt's Concept of the Social by Hanna Fenichel Pitkin
The New Republic, June 14, 1999, pp. 44-52
Toward a More Complex Liberalism
A review of The Virtues of Liberalism by James Kloppenberg
The Boston Book Review, Oct. 1998, p. 25
Fear and Thinking
A review of Political Thought and Political Thinkers by Judith N. Shklar, ed. Stanley Hoffmann; and Redeeming Political Thought by Judith N. Shklar, eds. Stanley Hoffmann and Dennis F. Thompson
The New Republic, July 13, 1998, pp. 34-39
Can Liberalism be Saved?
A review of Achieving our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth Century America by Richard Rorty
Commentary, June 1998, pp. 75-78
The Reason of Revelation
A review of Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity: Essays and Lectures in Modern Jewish Thought by Leo Strauss, ed. Kenneth Hart Green
The Weekly Standard, May 25, 1998, pp. 31-34
Book Review
A review
of Free Markets and Social Justice by Cass R. Sunstein
The American Political Science Review, Mar. 1998, pp. 213-214
Book Review
A
review of The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche, eds. Kathleen Higgins and Bernd Magnus
The Philosophical Review, Mar. 1998, pp. 340-342
Liberalism Strikes Back
A review of The Era of the Individual: A Contribution to a History of Subjectivity by Alain Renaut, trans. M.B. DeBevoise and Franklin Philip
The New Republic, Dec. 15, 1997, pp. 32-37
Between Principles: Liberal Democracy and the Communitarian Challenge
in Democracy: The Challenges Ahead, eds. Yossi Shain and Aharon Klieman
London: MacMillan, 1997, pp. 19-29
Saving Liberalism's Soul
A review of The Growth of the Liberal Soul by David Walsh
First Things, Nov. 1997, pp. 47-52
The Politic Moralist
A review of Hypocrisy and Integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the Ethics of Politics by Ruth W. Grant
The New Republic, Sept. 1, 1997, pp. 36-40
Thou Shalt Not Kill
A review of The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism by Regina M. Schwartz
The New Republic, June 23, 1997, pp. 41-45
Beyond Pangloss
A review of Leibniz' Universal Jurisprudence: Justice as Charity of the Wise by Patrick Riley
The New Republic, Apr. 7, 1997, pp. 38-41
The Styles of Modern Politics
A review of The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism by Michael Oakeshott
First Things, Apr. 1997, pp. 38-42
Book Review
A review of Spinoza, Liberalism, and the Question of Jewish Identity by Steven B. Smith
The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1997, p. 103
The Debating Society
A review of Democracy and Disagreement by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson
The New Republic, Nov. 25, 1996, pp. 36-42
Liberalism's Virtue
Perspectives on Political Science, Fall 1996, pp. 183-191
The Arrogance of Compassion
A review of The Politics of Meaning by Michael Lerner
The Jerusalem Report, Sept. 19, 1996, pp. 59-61
Science Fiction: Postmodernism Exposed
The New Republic, July 1, 1996, pp. 15-16
The Art of Association
A review of The Fragility of Freedom by Joshua Mitchell
The New Republic, June 24, 1996, pp. 44-49
The Religion of Democracy
A review of John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism by Alan Ryan
The Public Interest, Winter 1996, pp. 133-139
Communitarian Criticisms and Liberal Lessons
A review of Communitarianism and Its Critics by Daniel A. Bell, Looking Backward by Derek Phillips, and Liberals and Communitarians by Stephen Mulhall and Adam Swift
The Responsive Community, Fall 1995, pp. 54-64
Friends of Liberalism Should be Grateful
A review of Passions and Constraint by Stephen Holmes
The Boston Book Review, Sept. 1995, pp. 5-6
Rediscovering Liberalism
A review of An Intellectual History of Liberalism by Pierre Manent
The Boston Book Review, Mar. 1995, pp. 12, 14
Liberal Zealotry
A review of The Anatomy of Antiliberalism by Stephen Holmes
Yale Law Journal 103, pp. 1363-1382
Nietzsche's Ethics of History
Review of Politics, Winter 1994, pp. 6-27
Book Review
A review of We the People, Vol. 1: Foundations by Bruce Ackerman
Eighteenth Century Studies, Summer 1993, pp. 692-697
The Correspondence of I and Thou
A review of The Letters of Martin Buber, eds. Nahum N. Glatzer and Paul Mendes-Flohr, trans. Richard and Clara Winston and Harry Zohn
The Forward, Nov. 20, 1992, pp. 9, 11
Book Review
A review of Nietzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism by Bruce Detwiler
Political Theory, Nov. 1991, pp. 683-687
Toward a Feminist Orthodoxy
A review of Toward a Feminist Theory of the State by Catharine MacKinnon
Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 3, pp. 301-314
On the Laws Governing Free Spirits and Philosophers of the Future
Yale Law Journal 100, pp. 701-722
Reconstructing Nietzsche as Progressive
A review of Nietzsche and Political Thought by Mark Warren
Review of Politics, Fall 1989, pp. 623-628