Russell Jacoby is a professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Stories by This Author
The Review
The relationship between political diversity and intellectual diversity is, at best, tenuous.
The Review
In an era of one-stop thinking and instant commenting, we’ve lost the slow work of reflection.
The Chronicle Review
Cultural and theoretical studies of everyday things aren’t really that new. And the new ones aren’t really that good.
The Chronicle Review
At 50, the onetime upstart New York Review of Books has become a staid, insular empire of its own.
The Chronicle Review
Confronted by social upheaval, conservative scholars tend to blame other scholars. That’s a dangerous game.
The Chronicle Review
In an age of insufferable pundits and bland academics, Hitchens was passionate, committed, and witty.
The Chronicle Review
The “other” scares us. But history shows that it is those most similar to us who are most likely to become our implacable enemies.
The Chronicle Review
Thomas Sowell rakes intellectuals over the coals but ends up burning only himself.
Consider This
A century ago, the unassuming analyst crossed an ocean to introduce big ideas at a small university. Russell Jacoby ponders the impact.
The Review
Could a pot-bellied, snub-nosed, bald-headed actor with bulging eyes who waddles play Socrates in a movie? That is what Socrates supposedly looked like. What about Hegel? He has been described as an unimposing professor who halted and stuttered during lectures. How might he come off on the big…