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Make 'em laugh
What Is Sophistication?

American Jewish humor, born of the ultimate border-crossing culture, has become the comedy of the global elite.

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Religion in America
Gloomy and Cheerful Evangelicals

The Evangelical ritual of judgment, repentance, and forgiveness dominates the American moral imagination.

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higher education
Why Pick on Middlebury?

Millions of students graduate from college each year, fretting more about jobs than politics. So why is Middlebury treated as a microcosm of American higher education?

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democracy
South Africa Is News Again

The resurgence of democracy in South Africa stirs up memories of the collapse of Apartheid—as seen up close and in person.

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Ethics and Politics
The Sadness of Princes

Angela Merkel finds herself in a Machiavellian dilemma: caught between moral compulsion and the reasons of state.

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Sex and Secularism
So What’s With All This Solemnity?

It’s easy to exaggerate the importance of secularism in America, though the values of sexual life have certainly been secularized.

Global Culture
Victims International

America has exported many a cultural influence around the globe, including its victimology.

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Broken Vessels
300 Years of Theodicy

How can God, who is all-powerful, refrain from stopping the suffering of the innocent? The question is perennial.

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The New Reality
Bernie Sanders’s Nightmare

President Trump doesn’t exist in the real world. He only exists in Bernie Sanders’s mind.

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When Britannia Ruled
Thinking about the British Empire

British power, both “hard” and “soft,” helped shape the modern world.

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