Articles
Featured Article
When Government Works Its Magic
The article discusses the vital role of civil servants in a functioning democracy, emphasizing that politics is about collective action for a common purpose. It critiques the poor treatment and recognition of public officials, which undermines meaningful political life. The Sammie awards, designed to honor exceptional federal employees, are presented as a way to address this problem by highlighting the critical contributions of public servants, often overlooked despite their role in solving significant challenges.09-08-2024
Articles
The Right Danger
Roger BerkowitzJonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner argue that the real danger to American Constitutional democracy comes from the failure of conservatives to stand up to former President Donald Trump’s attempt to undermine a presidential election.
01-22-2022
The Political Rise of the Family Business
Roger BerkowitzMelinda Cooper argues that the Trump Republican Party represents the "insurrection of one form of capitalism against another: the private, unincorporated, and family-based versus the corporate, publicly traded, and shareholder-owned.”
01-22-2022
Against Memory
Roger BerkowitzNicolas Tenzer looks at attempts to destroy “Memorial,” a group founded by the dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov that sought to expose Stalin’s crimes.
01-22-2022
Power to the Politicians
Roger BerkowitzThe voting reform agenda seems dead in Congress. One can argue about the quality of the two bills being proposed. And one can argue about the filibuster. Lawrence Lessig reminds us that the real problem is the untethered pursuit of partisan political power that has taken over our political system.
01-16-2022
Why A Mugging?
Roger BerkowitzAdam Shatz, who has taught with me at Bard and spoken at Arendt Center Conferences and events, writes about his being assaulted, beaten up, and mugged in New York last month.
01-16-2022
The Multiracial Anti-Woke Candidate
Roger BerkowitzSimon van Zuylen-Wood has a profile of J.D. Vance that looks beyond the diatribes and tries to understand Vance’s evolution and his popular appeal. He argues that Vance represents an “alienated worldview” that appeals not only to disaffected white voters, but increasingly to multiracial working-class voters.
01-09-2022
American Values
Roger BerkowitzSabrina Tavernise does a deep dive into the way the pandemic has intensified a larger fight over what it means to be an American.
01-09-2022
Literally Unmentionable
Roger BerkowitzProfessor David Bleich of the University of Rochester has been suspended from teaching because he spoke aloud the n-word while reading from a short story.
12-03-2021
Hard to Take
Roger BerkowitzRobert Zaretsky looks back to Arendt’s account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann to help make sense of our own failures in thinking through the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.
11-26-2021