The New York Times
Islam Experts Off On a Wild Ride, Willing or Not
‘It’s been a roller coaster,” said Okbar S. Ahmed, a Pakistani scholar who had just started a new teaching job at American University in Washington this fall when the terrorist attacks hit the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. ”I had just finished a quiet year of research at Princeton and then suddenly I was…
Continue readingSuddenly, Americans Trust Uncle Sam
The titles of the new releases say it all: “The Trouble with Government,” “Disaffected Democracies” and “Why People Don’t Trust Government.” This fall a host of new books with a variety of new theories tried to explain a well-established, generation-long trend: Americans’ steadily declining trust in government. Then September’s terrorist attacks turned prevailing ideas about…
Continue readingGlobalization Now, A Sequel of Sorts
”The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth. . . . He could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion…
Continue readingAdding Up the Costs Of Cyberdemocracy
As Cass Sunstein, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, saw himself being skewered on various Web sites discussing his recent book, ”Republic.com,” he had the odd satisfaction of watching some of the book’s themes unfold before his eyes. On the conservative Web site ”FreeRepublic.com,” the discussion began by referring relatively mildly to…
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