online archive

Political theory and economics, science and education

Daniel H. Nexon and Thomas Wright (Georgetown): What’s at Stake in the American Empire Debate pdf. Illiberal Liberalism: Peter Berkowitz reviews Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate by Ronald Dworkin. New Theology, Old Economics: How are we to explain a book like Theology and the Political: The New Debate, a 2005 volume that captures some of the world's best theologians in a compromising relationship with the economic left? Are the anti-global Marxists Negri and Zizek really more useful interlocutors than, say, Douglass C. North, one of the developers of what has come to be called New Institutional Economics?

From Financial Times, under the hammer Online experiments show the problem with auction theories: we’re not rational enough. Economist Bryan Caplan argues that voters are biased, irrational, manipulable and plain ignorant. Is democracy dangerous? From the ivory tower to the barricades! Radical intellectuals explore the relationship between research and resistance: Excerpts from Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations, Collective Theorization. An interview with Paul Mason, author of Live Working or Die Fighting, on the importance of writing about workers' history. Form Radical Middle, an article on re-inventing American history.

From NYRB, Lee Smolin reviews The Other Einstein Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson; Einstein: A Biography; "Subtle Is the Lord": The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein; The Private Lives of Albert Einstein; Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance; Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps: Empires of Time; Einstein on Politics; and Einstein on Race and Racism. Steven Pinker reviews The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier (and an excerpt).

From First Things, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn on Reasonable Science, Reasonable Faith; an essay on Faith and Quantum Theory; Richard John Neuhaus on A University of a Particular Kind; and an essay on Schooling at Home.

From The Village Voice, Student Loan Xploited: Columbia reels after stock allegations; and city leaders want kids out of large schools and into smaller ones. Now one Brooklyn high school is fighting the mandate to close its doors. A review of A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South by Adam Fairclough. Standardizing the Standards: A good nationwide test of students’ abilities would a) help kids learn, b) encourage teachers to innovate, c) save money or d) all of the above. And on decoding your kid's report card: It is the kind of comment that makes parents long for the brutal clarity of A's, B's and F's