Articles
Featured Article
Elite Failure
Discover why Donald Trump’s political comeback is more than just another election win—it's the embodiment of a powerful movement fueled by everyday Americans demanding real change. This article dives deep into the growing resentment toward an elite establishment and uncovers how Trump has harnessed a collective sense of frustration and urgency, reshaping American politics as he challenges the power of longstanding institutions.Articles
The Human Condition Today: The Challenge of Science
An essay in Arendt Studies by Roger Berkowitz (2018) written for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958) was recently republished in The Abstract Elephant, a publicly available journal.What We're Reading: Justus Rosenberg
By Samantha HillBard College Professor Justus Rosenberg has written a book about his Time in the Pyenees: Walter Benjamin, Heinrich Mann, and More, working with the Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee.
What We're Reading: George Steiner
By Samantha HillWhen Hannah Arendt went to study with Martin Heidegger, he was known as the “magician from Marbach,” because he made Plato and Aristotle come to life. As Arendt later reflected, people went to study with Heidegger to learn how to think. In an insightful and graceful essay, George Steiner takes on Hannah Arendt’s relationship with Martin Heidegger, in a review essay of their correspondence: “The Magician in Love.”
Propaganda and Cynicism
By Roger BerkowitzMcKay Coppins created a fake Facebook account and dived head first into the world of Donald Trump’s propaganda machine. What he found surprised him. And yet, it is exactly what Hannah Arendt argued 70 years ago about the nature of modern propaganda. The point of propaganda is not to make people believe it.
The Need to Be Right
By Roger BerkowitzJon Baskin in The Point identifies a disturbing tone in liberal culture. He recalls Lionel Trilling’s 1947 admission of his “deep distaste for liberal culture.” While Trilling identified with liberalism, he wrote that too often...
Winning Chess, Winning Politics
By Roger BerkowitzGarry Kasparov argues that those who oppose President Trump from all sides need to come together to defeat him. He warns that, “As much as opposing ideologues may hate each other, there is no one they despise more than those who try to make peace between them.” Witnessing the rise of radicalism on all sides, he writes, “Rage...
What We're Reading: Standing On His Own
By Roger BerkowitzGeorge Packer won the 2010 Hitchens Prize given annually in honor of Christopher Hitchens. In his acceptance speech, Packer explores why it is highly unlikely that another writer like Hitchens might emerge in our time. “Why is a career like that of Christopher Hitchens not only unlikely but almost unimaginable? Put another way: Why is the current atmosphere inhospitable to it?...
Oikophilia
By Roger BerkowitzRoger Scruton died earlier this month. In obituaries, he was frequently called a conservative philosopher. The Guardian wrote that he “was a philosopher and a controversial public intellectual’ who “dedicated himself to nurturing beauty, “re-enchanting the world” and giving intellectual rigour to conservatism.”
What We're Reading: A Monumental Effort
By Roger BerkowitzUlrich Baer writes that three new sculptures by Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu, and Kara Walker offer a new and important way to engage the debates about what to do with historically meaningful but offensive monuments.