Contributing writer
Henry N. Brooks
Latest Content
Why Harvard?
You’ll find yourself a recent graduate, head still halfway full of Shakespeare or Marx or Joseph Conrad, wondering whether it’s worth venturing your partial answer to the eternal question – “Why Harvard?” — for whichever undergraduates might happen to lend an ear.
What’s In a Story?
I worry that by foreclosing on conventional journalistic wisdom like interviewing all sides in a story, we expose ourselves to a far more pernicious danger than the chance of a one-time snitch or even the brief, suspicious gaze of the state.
The God of American Public Life is Dead
The God of today’s GOP is an impoverished divinity — little more than a signal of the right’s confirmation bias.
Give Left-Capitalism a Chance
Call it left-capitalism: an economic system that democratizes the benefits of the marketplace. That — more than socialism — is the new dominant philosophy of the Democratic Party.
How America’s Empire Got the Upper Hand
Rana’s reading of history is a powerful one for the present day, when politics forces us to choose, falsely, between two visions of America: one that ignores our national sins and another that cannot forgive them.
The Border Wall is Already Built
We live in a paradoxical time when the mythos of the “immigrant nation” seems ever more politically potent, even as we continue to surveil actual, present-day immigrants.
Writing is Becoming the Lost American Art Form
Whatever the causes, the cultural effects of our departure from writing are quickly becoming apparent.
After a Hellish Month in Virginia, Democrats Have Some Explaining to Do
I never expected what I saw these past weeks. In many ways it reflects a deeper problem of partisanship in American life at the moment.
How Past Generations Thought Differently about the Economy
Are we missing something important about the quality and dignity of labor in the American economy, as so many Democrats — particularly from the party’s progressive wing — would have us believe?
We Are Failing as a Moral Republic
We should again strive to be an exemplar country with a unique civic consensus neither racial nor religious, but human.
Hope after the Midterms
This cohort of blue-state Republicans signals a kind of possibility that I find encouraging. I call it the possibility of collective progress.
Borders Everywhere Are Becoming Real — and Deadly
If we can’t defuse the bomb of nationalism, the risks might be unprecedented.
Trump’s Monetary Policy is Economically and Ethically Confused
Trump's critique of the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate hike reveals a split democracy: One for the people; the other for the shareholders.
‘For a Socialist Future’ Posters Deserve Our Skepticism
I’m skeptical of the “socialist future” advertised around campus. I don’t imagine common-sense reform is their priority, nor am I convinced that justice requires class-based organizing.
