James Davison Hunter

Why efforts to create a scientific basis of morality are neither scientific nor moral In this illuminating book, James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky trace the origins and development of the centuries-long, passionate, but ultimately failed quest to discover a scientific foundation for morality. The “new moral science” led by such figures as E. O. Wilson, Patricia Churchland, Sam Harris,...

From "the nation's leading cultural historian" (David Brooks, New York Times), the long-developing cultural divisions beneath our present political crisis Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions—most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realised in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an...

From "the nation's leading cultural historian" (David Brooks, New York Times), the long-developing cultural divisions beneath our present political crisis. Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions—most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realised in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an...

For most of America's history, schools were established to furnish more than just academic training: They were founded to form young people of strong character and civic conscience. We rarely think of our schools that way now. Ironically, we bicker over test scores, graduation rates, and academic standards, even as we are besieged by news stories of gratuitous misconduct and...