Mark Bauerlein is Senior Editor at First Things and Professor of English at Emory University, where he has taught since earning his PhD in English at UCLA in 1989. For two years (2003-05) he served as Director of the Office of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. His books include Literary Criticism: An Autopsy (1997), The Pragmatic Mind: Explorations in the Psychology of Belief (1997), and The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (2008). His essays have appeared in PMLA, Partisan Review, Wilson Quarterly, Commentary, and New Criterion, and his commentaries and reviews in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Weekly Standard, The Guardian, Chronicle of Higher Education, and other national periodicals.
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Mark Bauerlein
When I read this story on the University of Tennessee Office for Diversity and Inclusion asking students and teachers to stop imposing gendered pronouns on one another, I didn’t think about the silliness of trying to create linguistic change by bureaucratic fiat. Or about one more exercise in . . . . Continue Reading »
The Donald Trump phenomenon continues, and so does the commentary upon it. In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens termed the latter “a parade of semi-sophisticated theories that act as bathroom deodorizer to mask the stench of this candidacy.” Rusty Reno took note of Stephens’s . . . . Continue Reading »
My friend Tom visits Martha's Vineyard every summer, where his family has owned a cottage for decades. Things have changed since his childhood, as was clear last week when President Obama and candidate Hillary Clinton joined other guests at the Farm Neck Country Club for the 80th birthday of . . . . Continue Reading »
This morning at the 3 West Club in New York City, Senator Marco Rubio gave a speech and answered questions on American foreign policy. He focused on Cuba and Iran, and the discussion turned mostly on specific policy actions the Senator might take if he does win the White House next year. Continue Reading »
Ryan Anderson’s new book Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom now has 157 comments at the Amazon page. The average rating in the “Customer Reviews” section is 3.5 stars out of 5, a score that would cast it as a middling effort in ordinary circumstances. But . . . . Continue Reading »
The final paragraph of Justice Kennedy's decision is being hailed as an eloquent and humane expression that identifies what was really at stake in the marriage case: not the Constitutionality of traditional marriage laws, but the dignity and happiness of a particular group. Here is the full . . . . Continue Reading »
Did you know that “Religious liberty has an important place in American society, to be sure”?That’s the opening sentence of the final paragraph of a summary in The New York Review of Booksof the gay rights vs. religious liberty debate. Continue Reading »
In the next year and a half, the question is going to be asked again and again until the Republican candidates come up with a winning answer. If Jeb Bush is at one podium and Hillary Clinton at another, we may be sure that George Stephanopoulos will begin with it: Governor Bush, do you think . . . . Continue Reading »
For nearly five decades, Morris Dickstein has been a recognized figure in the New York intellectual scene and the academic humanities. This well-known cultural historian and critic has now written a memoir of his life leading up to that professional maturation, covering his childhood and early . . . . Continue Reading »
The latest issue of the Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Atlanta Archdiocese, announces a new pastoral plan aimed at expanding and unifying the congregation. The plan is the result of a survey that drew nearly 15,000 responses, followed by delegate sessions in ten deaneries and a Convocation of Priests. Initially, four hundred recommendations came in, which have now been refined to fourteen key issues. Continue Reading »
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