On Classical and Civic Education

The Golden Thread (Substack), March, 25, 2026 By kind permission of Matthew Schmitz and Compact , the online magazine, we are able to offer our subscribers access to the full text of my article published on December 29, 2025, under the title “ Why I’m Leaving Harvard .” It was published hard on the heels of a viral article in the same outlet by Jacob Savage which had raised the issue of widespread institutional discrimination against white males, citing credible facts and fig

The Golden Thread (Substack), March 13, 2026 You don’t have to go very far into the extensive literature devoted to the “defense of the humanities” before you find the proud claim that the humanities teach “critical thinking.” What this ordinarily means, when it comes to reading books, is that students are taught a discipline of taking a text apart and seeing how it ticks, as though it were a machine. In more benign examples of criticism this might amount to rhetorical analys

Compact, December 29, 2025 Two weeks ago I gave my last lecture at Harvard, where I have been a history professor for forty years. My four decades of experience at one of the world’s leading universities have given me a unique vantage point to trace the replacement of Western history by global history. This change is part of the reason why the younger generation finds itself in a state of moral and intellectual disorientation. My decision to retire was not a sudden one. I am

The American Mind , August 15, 2025   Andrew Beck argues that America needs to revive the ideal of assimilation if our country is to...

First Things , June 23, 2025 The research pursued these days in university humanities departments does not, as a rule, enjoy high esteem...

Law and Liberty , May 15, 2025 The first hundred days of the second Trump presidency have brought unprecedented challenges to the...

The Wall Street Journal , April 24, 2025 In recent reports about the Trump administration’s assault on Harvard, the statistic is often...

Compact , January 15, 2025   During its annual meeting earlier this month, the American Historical Association, the oldest and most...

Law and Liberty , November 21, 2024   The policies of the incoming administration with regard to the federal role in education, despite a...

Law & Liberty, October 17, 2024 As Election Day approaches, I’ve been listening, though as little as possible, to our candidates for...

Law & Liberty, September 11, 2024 When confronted with confusing or appalling new events—and the last few years have surely had plenty of...

First Things , September 10, 2024 I have to admit to a tendency for my eyes to glaze over when people talk about a crisis in the...

Law & Liberty, June 3, 2024 Harvard has had a very bad year. It began last summer with the Supreme Court’s verdict in Students for Fair...

Law & Liberty, March 18, 2024 Tacitus at the beginning of his Annals , after brilliantly summarizing all of Roman history in the space...

The Harvard Crimson , January 29, 2024 If you are a Harvard undergraduate, the question in my title might not be top of mind. In the...

The Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2023 Claudine Gay, the president of my university, is under attack for academic dishonesty. She is...

First Things, November 15, 2023 Recently a book of mine underwent a perplexing treatment in the New York Review of Books. Normally one is...

Law & Liberty, November 2, 2023 Harvard, which FIRE recently ranked near the bottom for academic freedom among leading US universities,...

Public Discourse, August 3, 2023 We need to study history as a subject in its own right, acquiring a deep appreciation for the story of...

The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2023 In my 38 years teaching at Harvard, I have only twice met members of Harvard’s governing boards,...