Illiberal Liberalism
This book review of Is Democracy Possible Here?: Principles for a New Political Debate by Ronald Dworkin originally appeared in First Things.
The Right Stuff
This essay originally appeared on The Politico.
Polls indicate that Rudy Giuliani — the thrice-married, twice-divorced, pro-choice and civil-union-supporting former New York City mayor — has become the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. In key states, Giuliani is polling even with or ahead of likely Democratic challengers. Meanwhile, commentators, particularly on the left, are forecasting with increasing confidence the coming of a conservative crackup. (more…)
A Reply to Dinesh D’Souza
Read the entire symposium, “The Enemy D’Souza Knows,” at NRO.
In Excommunication for Thee…, I gave reasons for agreeing with Boston College professor Alan Wolfe, who, writing in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, concluded that Dinesh D’Souza’s The Enemy at Home was a deeply flawed and incendiary book. At the same time, I defended D’Souza against Wolfe’s call for conservatives to excommunicate him. (more…)
Excommunication for Thee…
This essay originally appeared in The Weekly Standard.
Alan Wolfe is a distinguished public intellectual. He is professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. He is a longtime contributing editor to the New Republic. He is a frequent contributor to the Sunday New York Times Book Review. And over the course of many years, he has earned a reputation for overcoming political cant and scholarly rigidities to write penetratingly for the public about American political ideas and institutions. (more…)
Oy Vey!
This essay originally appeared in The Weekly Standard.
Herzliya Pituach, Israel
Last Wednesday night, beleaguered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert delivered the dinner speech that capped the seventh annual Herzliya Conference on Israel’s security. (more…)
New Media and Old
This book review originally appeared in Policy Review.
Mark Halperin and John F. Harris. The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008. Random House. 454 pages. $26.95
The pre-election message, pronounced separately by a trio of distinguished professors but reflecting broader anxieties among Democratic Party activists and media elites, was grim. (more…)
The Longer Way
This essay originally appeared 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
This essay originally appeared in Policy Review.
This essay is 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. (more…)
Against Relativism
This book review originally appeared in The Weekly Standard.
Neoconservatism: Why We Need It by Douglas Murray, Encounter, 200 pp., $25.95
Never much admired in the academy, in literary circles, or among fashionable journalists since its emergence in the 1960s and ’70s, neoconservatism in the post-9/11 world has, particularly in polite society, come into especially ill repute. (more…)
Peter Berkowitz 