In 1509, while traveling from Italy to England, the famed Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus composed one of the strangest and most enduring works of the Renaissance. In Praise of Folly (Moriae Encomium) was written partly for amusement, perhaps out of a self-deprecating boredom to break up the neurasthenia that was synonymous with long-distance travel in the early sixteenth century. As...

　　The Iran war is the theater for the most expansive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms to date. Some have even called it the “AI War.” Of the five leading AI programs employed in the war, two take their names from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The most important of those platforms is Palantír, which raises the...

　　In May 2019, a man robbed a credit union in Virginia, made off with $195,000, and vanished. Witnesses noticed only one odd detail: as he approached the bank, he appeared to be talking on his cell phone. Weeks later, with the trail cold, police tried something unimaginable a generation ago. They asked a magistrate for a geofence warrant—an order compelling...

　　Every generation experiences the same fear: technology is going to permanently displace workers. The spinning jenny was supposed to idle England’s textile workers. The steam engine would hollow out the trades. Electricity would render physical labor unnecessary. The computer and the Internet would finish the job of ending work. Now, artificial intelligence models have assumed the role of civilization-ending technology,...

　　Some of the most persistent problems in American healthcare can be traced to structural features that conceal economic realities from patients, providers, and policymakers. The tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance is one. Over-reliance on third-party payment is another. These features have dulled price sensitivity, inflated spending, and caused patients to disengage from the economic realities of the care they consume....

　　This weekend we mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. On July 2, 1776, the delegates of the thirteen colonies declared them to be “free and independent states,” and two days later signaled their reasons for doing so. Just how free and independent those states are in 2026 is an open question. 　　What is clear is that the anniversary comes...

　　During this 250th anniversary of independence, Americans are presented with a familiar narrative—one grounded more in national myth than historical reality. It goes something like this: the Declaration of Independence cast aside the British origins and institutions of the colonies and created a propositional nation based on equality and individual liberty. To secure these principles, the document birthed a unitary...

　　The Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara extended birthright citizenship to almost any person born in the United States—including the children of undocumented immigrants and of mothers who enter the country for the sole purpose of giving birth here. In so ruling, the court made some serious legal and historical mistakes. 　　But miscalculations by the Trump administration contributed to...

　　Modern political philosophy and modern politics brought “the State” to the fore in novel and contentious ways. Leo Strauss argued that Machiavelli’s concept of “lo stato” was an essential component of a revolution in human thought and aspiration. The Treaty of Westphalia is rightly said to have inaugurated a new international order in Europe, precisely with its legitimatization of absolute...

　　This weekend, Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence in nationwide celebrations featuring backyard barbecues, fireworks displays, and concerts. President Donald Trump echoed the sentiments of many patriotic revelers and underscored the Declarations centrality to America’s political identity when he described the event. “With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political...

　　Nearly six years ago, in the terrible summer of 2020, I published an article titled “A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor.” In the first paragraph, I wrote that my family and I had “sat around the festive table” a few days before, on the Fourth of July, and “read the Declaration [of Independence] aloud in celebration.” Hardly the...

　　In the end, it wasn’t even close. Andy Burnham, popular mayor of Greater Manchester, won the Wigan-based constituency of Makerfield in a landslide, taking 55 percent of the vote and—crucially—outpolling Reform, Restore, and Tory combined (along with everyone else). Conservatives, LibDems, and Greens all lost their deposits. He not only increased Labour’s vote but increased its vote share by dint...