The New Republic

by Alan WolfeI've recently returned from the American Political Science Association meeting. While there I attended two plenary sessions. One, on the future of American democracy, featured Bob Kuttner, Walter Membane, Paul Pierson, and Jacob Hacker. The other, on the clash of civilizations, presented Frank Fukuyama, Steve Walt, Ben Barber, and James Kurth. (An announced Sam Huntington was, alas, unable to attend.) So which topic and cast of characters drew the larger crowd? It was not even close. READ MORE >>

September 1--the day Nazi stormstroopers overran Poland in 1939, igniting World War II--seems an appropriate day to meditate on fascism, the word President Bush used yesterday in a major speech to explain to Americans whom we are fighting against. The word was given a place of honor in a sentence summoning up the worst hobgoblins of the past century: READ MORE >>

Today's NYT report that high-school students in China will no longer need to learn about the details of the Communist Revolution or the words and deeds of Mao Zedong raises a number of intriguing questions: Has any other powerful nation, especially one with an authoritarian government, ever made a similar move to de-emphasize nationalist renderings of history? Now READ MORE >>

When thinkers I admire like Paul Berman first started noting the links between Al Qaeda's murderous, anti-enlightenment ideas and those of Fascist Europe, I thought the term Islamo-fascism seemed like a reasonable effort to define an ideology for which we had (and still have) no consensus name. But Ted Widmer's post is one among several recent comments that have made me reconsider. READ MORE >>

Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong wander across Michael Kazin's turf, and DeLong isn't being nice about it: READ MORE >>

Whether you're a surfer in the blogosphere, a TNR junkie, or a fan of one of the many intellectuals who make up our illustrious contributor list--welcome! We hope you'll bookmark us and come back to visit as we get up and running. READ MORE >>

Franklin Foer TNR has always prided itself on serving as a land-bridge connecting academia to the reading public. And that's the spirit that we hope will infuse this blog. It will be a space where the magazine's contributors and friends in the professoriate comment on current events, bring their expertise to bear on Topic A, and discuss the academic issues of the day. READ MORE >>

Since this blog is called "Open University," I might as well start my own contributions with a pop quiz. Question: Which American state has an official state song that praises the Confederacy, denounces Abraham Lincoln as a "despot" and "tyrant," and refers to the citizens of the Union as "northern scum"? Hint: it's not in the deep South. Yes, it's none other than my own home state of Maryland. READ MORE >>

A few years ago, I was involved in some studies that uncovered a funny fact: When Republican-appointed judges sit on three-judge panels with other Republican appointees, they show unusually conservative voting patterns. So too, Democratic-appointed judges on three-judge panels show especially liberal voting patterns when sitting with fellow Democratic appointees. In short, like-minded judges show a pattern if "ideological amplification." READ MORE >>

Hello, everyone. This week marks for me two landmarks in the twenty-first-century academic career--joining a group blog with fellow scholars, and playing TV critic--no, HBO critic--in a respected periodical of higher education. You can read what I've had to say about the recently late and heartily lamented series "Deadwood" in Scott McLemee's excellent (as usual) discussion here. Warning, "Deadwood"-esque language, which means colorful Anglo-Saxonisms. READ MORE >>