Author Archive | Jacob Levy

Chris Brooke is plugging Sankar Muthu’s excellent book Enlightenment against Empire. I’ve mentioned it before, as well, but thought I’d take the occasion to mention the upcoming conference “Colonialism and Its Legacies” I’m cochairing with my colleague Iris Young April 23-25. (That’s the same weekend that APA Central is in Chicago– philosophers coming to town […]

I’ve been putting off writing this post, thinking that I was going to have one last burst of blogging– about the Red Sox or APSA, most likely, since I’ve certainly got nothing useful and original to say about either the current, unpleasant, stage of the presidential election or the current, worse than unpleasant, state of […]

Much of my day was taken up with two long, fun, and very intellectually productive conversations. I acquired the fancy new computer I’m getting to use for the duration of my fellowship over the next academic year– my first flat-screen ever! My wife and I got to meet the beautiful new Drezner baby. It was […]

The paper I’ve been writing this summer instead of blogging (where are my priorities?) is now online (DOC, PDF.) [UPDATE: Links fixed.] “Beyond Publius: Montesquieu, liberal republicanism, and the small-republic thesis” Abstract: The idea that republicanism as a form of government was only suitable for small states, given its definitive 18th-century formulation by Montesquieu, rested […]

This John Quiggin post at CT revisits the perennial question of why minor parties fare so poorly in the U.S. I can’t model this in a convincing way, but looking at the comparative cases– much stronger two-party dominance in the US than in federal Australia or Canada or Germany, unitary France or (until recently) Britain, […]

TNR online republishes a 1983 Wieseltier review of Milosz’ The Witness of Poetry.

Other than Michael Young over at Hit & Run, very little blog-reaction so far to the death of Czeslaw Milosz at 93. (One of the century’s great anti-Communists, democrats, defenders of intellectual freedom, and poets seemed like a natural candidate for an outpouring of blog-obits: Oxblog? Crescat? MR? Eugene?) So instead of reading the pieces […]

A big NYT article about my hometown, and one of my favorite places, Portsmouth, NH. And, unlike most mentions of Portsmouth in the national press, it’s not about the presidential primary, and so it gets to write about Portsmouth at its summertime best rather than in the bleak midwinter. It’s a good article that hits […]

So it looks like Barack Obama (disclaimer I’ve disclaimed before: my state Senator as well as a University of Chicago faculty colleague) will have a Republican opponent after all; Alan Keyes is reportedly going to run. An out-of-stater who denounced Hillary Clinton’s carpetbag run as an assault on federalism, a very, very religiously conservative black […]

A number of commentators have linked this passage from Barack Obama’s speech: t’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one. Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and […]

A very reassuring post from Matthew Yglesias on Laura Tyson’s convention discussion of Kerry on trade. Relatedly, see his post at the Prospect’s convention blog (“We still need to know which advisors will have Kerry’s ear if he gets into the White House. So far, most indications I’ve seen indicate that the free traders have […]

1) Y’know, a speech isn’t any less negative just because the convention organizers leak the information that they’re not allowing any negative speeches– or, for that matter, because the speaker tells us that it’s not negative. 2) … but man, can Bill Clinton make you believe that it does. His speech was hardly if at […]

I’m looking, on a tight deadline, for Oregon lawyers with expertise in both criminal law and civil rights/ racial bias litigation, whether private practitioners or public interest/ non-profit attorneys. Any leads or contact information would be much appreciated; further details can be discussed via e-mail.

Can we please not put all this weight onto the performance of Catwoman? The first African-American to win an Oscar for best actress — for the 2001 film “Monster’s Ball” — [Halle] Berry has now become the first African-American actress to headline an expensive, effects-laden production, this one about a meek graphic artist who turns […]

This week’s New Yorker has a mostly very good article by Burkhard Bilger about the summer residential academic camps run by Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth– “nerd camp,” as he calls it in a move that would be cute two or three times but becomes kind of odd when he uses it every time. […]