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Taylor Hines

Harold Ickes's Watchful Eye

Harold Ickes's Watchful Eye

Harold Ickes—FDR’s Interior Secretary and director of the Public Works Administration—was a contradictory figure: a true believer, consummate cynic, loyal public servant, and fiercely independent malcontent. We’ll need many more bureaucrats like him if we want large, effective public programs again.

The Pitfalls of Polemic, or How to Criticize the Crankiest Class of Critics

The Pitfalls of Polemic, or How to Criticize the Crankiest Class of Critics

A review of Catherine Liu’s <em>Virtue Hoarders</em>.

Let’s Not Get Sentimental

Let’s Not Get Sentimental

Hate is an element of political organizing we are encouraged to disavow. But liberal sentimentality only leads to repetitive acting-out of the dynamics of dehumanization.

I Can’t Relate

I Can’t Relate

Left populism and its vicissitudes With the continued breakdown of the neoliberal order, “populism” has gained renewed importance in contemporary political discourse. Many leftists see great promise in populism, arguing that the left should take advantage of the affective politics that today are considered the domain of the right. Conjuring

The Return of the Lonely Crowd

The Return of the Lonely Crowd

How David Riesman's theory of traditional, inner, and other-directed character types helps explain the new range of psychological symptoms hobbling today’s young people.