"Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition." By David Nirenberg. 610 pp. $35

Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,

And everybody hates the Jews.

So sang Tom Lehrer in his satirical song "National Brotherhood Week." It's no...

In April each year I post something about college choice, and I've revised my annual blog just a bit for 2013. Campuses like mine this time of year welcome hundreds of visitors who move around campuses with assurance but also with plenty of questions. These are the newly admitted members...

As we marked the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, over the last month many stories emphasized the false pretenses under which we entered the conflict, the surprising rapidity with which American armed forces deposed Saddam Hussein's regime, and our extraordinary lack of preparation for the ensuing conflicts among Iraqi...

This is cross-posted from Inside Higher Education.

Just before the semester began, I traveled to Beijing to deliver a lecture entitled "Why Liberal Education Matters" at the Institute for Humanistic Studies at Peking University. I didn't quite know what to expect. It was intersession there, and I was...

WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST? An Existential Detective Story. By Jim Holt. Liveright. 309 pp. $27.95

Jim Holt likes to pursue questions -- big questions. And he does so with a sincerity and light-heartedness that draw his readers along for the ride. He's written for the New...

In the middle of the 1490s, Leonardo da Vinci was given the task of painting a religious scene on a wall in a church refectory where Dominican friars took their meals. His boss was Lodovico Sforza, the duke of Milan. The artist certainly didn't view this as a plum assignment...

As a young professor, I traveled to Vienna to visit a friend. Knowing that I'd written my first book on psychoanalysis and history, he sent me off to Freud's old apartment and office, which had been converted to a museum. One rang a doorbell to be admitted, and I was...

The images and firsthand accounts from Newtown during the last few days have been wrenching. The specter of vicious violence turned against the very young makes us gasp for breath, makes us question the very fabric of our society. If this kind of thing can erupt in communities like ours,...

These days, when our slow recovery from recession seems like a full-employment program for pessimistic pundits, it's great to have a new book from Chris Anderson, an indefatigable cheerleader for the unlimited potential of the digital economy. Anderson, the departing editor in chief of Wired magazine, has already...

In my Modern and Postmodern class at Wesleyan this week, we are reading thinkers who offered deep criticism of the West's narrative of progress. Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, on the one hand, and Michel Foucault on the other, re-describe modernity as a "triumphant calamity," in which apparent...

As Election Day draws near, I find myself thinking back to Barack Obama's 2008 Commencement Address at Wesleyan University. He was just candidate Obama then, coming to the end of a tough primary fight, substituting for Ted Kennedy at our graduation ceremony. I was just finishing my first year as...

Earlier today Coursera announced that Wesleyan University is joining its partnership of schools offering MOOCs -- massive, open, online classes that often enroll tens of thousands of people. MOOCs are not uncontroversial. Some see them as triggering watershed changes in higher ed,...

This is a video of my remarks to the parents of incoming students at Wesleyan University. The families were about to leave campus having helped install their sons and daughters in the residence halls, and I tried to give them some sense of the kind of education for which they'd...

The news of Rick Levin's retirement as president of Yale surprised me. True, the tenures of university presidents are notoriously short, and the dangers of burnout are great for even the most well trained administrators. But Levin was the great exception. He'd been President at Yale for 20 years, and...

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely is a funny guy on a mission. As director of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, he insists on a commitment to absurdity, but there is nothing cynical about his approach to human behavior.

In his previous book, Predictably Irrational, Ariely exposed our...

I've spent much of the summer not far from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the hometown of one of the central figures of American intellectual history, W.E.B. Du Bois. Born shortly after the end of the Civil War, Du Bois came into his own as another black public intellectual, Booker T. Washington,...

Carlin Romano has a story to tell about philosophy and about America. Romano, a critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chronicle of Higher Education, relates how philosophy long ago took the wrong path by seeking ultimate Truth, and how this quest has led academic philosophers to become increasingly detached...

Recently I've been reading early 20th century essays by Jane Addams, the dynamic activist, social reformer and anti-war crusader. Addams is best known as one of the founders of Hull House, a vital educational community center for civic engagement and neighborhood improvement in Chicago. Addams was a powerful force for...

I've been so impressed by the consistent links between education and freedom that run through American intellectual history. As we celebrate America's birthday, let me share just two.

The first is from Frederick Douglass, the great orator, and activist. Douglass often described the epiphany he experienced as a young slave:...

From Michael Roth's commencement remarks at Wesleyan, May 27, 2012.

When most of you began your Wesleyan education in the fall of 2008, the world was in a precarious state. It was an odd time to be investing in the future. But that's what education is: a hopeful investment in...