Selected Older
On Political Correctness
Power, class, and the new campus religion. The American Scholar, Spring 2017.
Where Have You Gone, Annie Dillard?
Annie Dillard, The Abundance. The Atlantic, March 2016.
Their Struggle
Elena Ferrante, The Neapolitan Novels. The Nation, October 12, 2015
Controlled Rapture
Adam Begley, Updike. The New Republic, September 15, 2014.
Solitude and Leadership
An address at West Point. The American Scholar, Spring 2010.
Faux Friendship
What is social media doing to our friendships? The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 6, 2009. (This essay has also appeared as “The Death of Friendship.”)
The End of Solitude
Thoreau weeps. The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 26, 2009.
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
The essay that grew into Excellent Sheep. The American Scholar, Summer 2008.
Recent
Birthrights
Growing up Jewish, and identity more broadly. Liberties, Winter 2022.
Disenchantment and Dogma
On the limits, and virtues, of secularism. Salmagundi, Fall 2021-Winter 2022.
Human History Gets a Rewrite
A review of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. The Atlantic, November 2021.
Wokeness on Campus: The Reign of Stupidity
Nexus 87, Fall 2021.
What’s a Master’s Degree Really Worth?
On master’s degrees and why people do them. New York, August 17, 2021.
The Individual Nuisance
On Harold Rosenberg, my latest intellectual infatuation. Liberties, Spring 2021.
Stages of Grief
What the pandemic has done to the arts economy. Harper’s, June 2021.
The Death of the Artist, Excellent Sheep
An interview about my work. Salmagundi, Spring-Summer 2021.