The End of the University

Universities exist to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and culture that will prepare them for life, while enhancing the intellectual capital upon which we all depend. Evidently the two purposes are distinct. One concerns the growth of the individual, the other our shared need for . . . . Continue Reading »

We Can Win

This issue marks our twenty-fifth anniversary. Our grand adventure in intellectual journalism began in March 1990. Back then, there was reason for optimism. The Roe decision was not yet twenty years old. The Reagan victories in the 1980s demonstrated that political liberalism could be defeated, at . . . . Continue Reading »

Irving Kristol's God

Having long been regarded as the godfather of neoconservatism, Irving Kristol is well known for his political writings. Less well known are his essays on religion. And yet, the more one reads of his work, the more apparent it becomes that this is in some sense the wrong way around. Though Kristol . . . . Continue Reading »

Kristof’s Imperial Liberalism

Nicholas Kristof’s blatant use of a tired liberal trick astounds me. What does it say about our liberal institutions that a regular columnist at the New York Times can combine a call for tolerance and understanding with crude denunciations of Christian conservatives? Continue Reading »

Taking the Long Way

And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them through the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearer. —Exodus 13:17 For many decades now, America’s political life has been divided between people who call themselves “conservatives” . . . . Continue Reading »

Liberalism’s Parochialism

I remain struck by the character of the many responses I’ve read to my postings on women and politics (as well as those on race and violence). There’s been a strong tone of horror and denunciation. Of course, when it comes to social media and blogging, there’s a bias in favor of shrillness and extremism. But what I’ve been reading accords with my experiences in higher education where certain thoughts trigger an almost primitive response from liberal intellectuals. Continue Reading »

Liberalism Against Humanity

In his Blood and Belonging, Michael Ignatieff offers this remarkably frank assessment of liberalism:“If I had supposed, as the Cold War came to an end, that the new world might be ruled by philosophers and poets, it was because I believed, foolishly, that the precarious civility and order . . . . Continue Reading »