What is Populism?
“Christopher Lasch once famously declared that the professions ‘came into being by reducing the layman to incompetence.’ [Emanuel] Haldeman-Julius’s idea was to do the opposite—to undermine elites…
Aristotle, Tocqueville, and “Populism Rightly Understood”
Daniel Mahoney is someone I have known for over 30 years, after meeting him at the MPSA’s book lobby at the Palmer House in Chicago in April…
Populism and the Crisis of the Knowledge Elite
When the French Revolution abolished the Estates General and appeared to usher in the Enlightenment virtues of egalitarianism, the accepted liberal historical view was that the age…
Philosopher, Populist, and Prophet: A Review of Christopher H. Owen’s “Heaven Can Indeed Fall: The Life of Willmoore Kendall”
Christopher H. Owen. Heaven Can Indeed Fall: The Life of Willmoore Kendall. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021. In this age of resurgent populism on the right,…
Academic GIFts: Academia and Populism – Irreconcilable Differences?
Please see Claudia Franziska Bruhwiler's and Katherine Goktepe's animated video based on their forthcoming article. It is available here.
Conservatism and Our Constitutional Inheritance
The essential question confronting American conservatism is what, precisely, it aspires to conserve. The ascension of Donald J. Trump not just to the Oval Office but also…
Democratic Tyranny and the Need for Responsible Elites in American Politics
Populist waves have been a constant in American politics at least since the Jacksonian era of the early nineteenth century, and traces of populist sentiment can be…
The Resentful Politics of Populism
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker. Katherine J. Crammer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. What is Populism? Jan-Werner Müller.…