Roger Kimball is Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion and President and Publisher of Encounter Books. His latest book is The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia, forthcoming from St. Augustines Press.
Introduction: the age of discussion (Features) , January 2013, 10
On Walter Bagehot and the progress of civilization.
Future tense, XI: The lessons of culture (Features) , June 2012, 13
On cultures role in the economy of life and the fragility of civilization.
Hilton Kramer & the critical temper (Features) , May 2012, 6
On the life, work, and mindset of Hilton Kramer.
Shorter notice (Books) , February 2012, 76
A review of The Acceptance of Absurdity. Anthony Powell & Robert Vanderbilt Letters 1952-1963, edited by John Saumarez Smith & Jonathan Kooperstein.
Decline or acquiesence? (Features) , January 2012, 13
An introduction to our symposium "Is America in Decline?," held jointly with Englands Social Affairs Unit.
G. K. Chesterton: master of rejuvenation (Features) , September 2011, 26
On the vitality of the Jolly Journalists work.
Liberty vs. benevolence (Features) , February 2011, 3
An introduction to Limited government in an age of uncertainty.
The Anglosphere & the future of liberty: an introduction (Features) , January 2011, 4
“The Anglosphere and the Future of Liberty,” a symposium organized jointly by The New Criterion and London’s Social Affairs Unit, took place on September 24, 2010, in Winchester, England.
Introduction: democratic despotism comes of age (Features) , January 2010, 4
An Introduction to “The New Statism and the Assault on Individual Liberty,” a symposium organized jointly by The New Criterion and London’s Social Affairs Unit.
Exhibition note (Art) , December 2009, 45
On "The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600–1700" at The National Gallery, London.
Tyranny set in stone (Features) , November 2009, 6
Why we must not forget the lessons of the Berlin.
Introduction: The dictatorship of relativism (Features) , January 2009, 4
An introduction our symposium "The Dictatorship of Relativism: Who Will Stand Up for Western Values Now?”
Introduction: What was a liberal education? (Features) , May 2008, 4
An introduction to our special issue on education.
Rudyard Kipling unburdened (Features) , April 2008, 22
On the much-abused imperial poet.
Introduction: saving remnants (Features) , January 2008, 4
An introduction to our symposium on the future of conservatism in Britain and America.
“Openness” & “The Closing of the American Mind” (Features) , November 2007, 11
On the role of ideas of "tolerance" in the intellectual decline.
Why the art world is a disaster (Features) , June 2007, 4
On a visit to Bard College in the Hudson Valley.
Hayek & the intellectuals (Features) , May 2007, 4
On the changing relationship between the Austrian economist and bien-pensant thinkers.
Introduction: utopia vs. nationhood (Features) , January 2007, 4
An introduction to our symposium on the nation state.
The consequences of Richard Weaver (Features) , September 2006, 4
On Richard Weaver, the author of "Ideas Have Consequences."
The forgotten founder: John Witherspoon (Features) , June 2006, 4
On the most unfairly neglected framer.
Shorter notice (Books) , April 2006, 80
On The Moral Imagination: From Edmund Burke to Lionel Trilling by Gertrude Himmelfarb.
After the suicide of the West (Features) , January 2006, 4
An introduction to our symposium, "The real culture war."
“Art in crisis” (Features) , December 2005, 4
Reflections on Sedlmayrs remarkable--and largely forgotten--work.
Leszek Kolakowski & the anatomy of totalitarianism (Features) , June 2005, 4
On the life and work of the philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, who is “well-known without being known well.”
Retaking the university: a battle plan (Features) , May 2005, 4
On some measures for restoring the American university to its founding principles.
Museum note (Art) , February 2005, 45
On The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
Gallimaufry & more: (Features) , January 2005, 4
On the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography edited by H. C. G Mathew & Brian Harrison.
Shorter notices (Books) , December 2004, 82
A review of Weathering the Storm: Inside Winslow Homer’s Gulf Stream, by Peter H. Wood.
Saintly institutions? Notes on a common prejudice (Features) , November 2004, 5
On some “saintly” and “demonized” institutions and individuals.
Shorter notices (Books) , November 2004, 77
A review of T. S. Eliot: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Jewel Spears Brooker.
No Lapham matter (Notes & Comments) , October 2004, 1
On Lewis H. Lapham’s recent article titled “Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill”; a fantasy of disturbing proportions.
Shorter notices (Books) , October 2004, 77
Roger Kimball on The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill, 1952-1973, edited by John Saumarez Smith.
Does shame have a future? (Features) , September 2004, 4
On Professor Martha Nussbaum’s polemic against shame and disgust & why these emotions “are accomplices, not impediments, to that attack on hubris.”
Shorter notices (Books) , September 2004, 76
A review of Multitude, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negris second collaboration.
Shorter notices (Books) , September 2004, 76
On a new printing of Sartres Critique of Dialectical Reason.
Institutionalizing our demise: America vs. multiculturalism (Features) , June 2004, 5
Tenth in the series "Lengthened Shadows."
The rape of the masters (Features) , December 2003, 28
On the trend away from art in art history.
Friends of humanity? (Features) , November 2003, 17
William Godwin, Condorcet, and Malthus: Or, Why benevolence is bad for you.
“Realism coloured by poetry”: rereading John Buchan (Features) , September 2003, 16
An expanded version of the essay on Buchan that appears in the September print edition.
Malcolm Muggeridge's journey (Features) , June 2003, 14
On the British writer, television personality, and moral and religious gadfly Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge at 100.
Minimalist fantasies (Features) , May 2003, 14
“The Dia Generation”: More silliness from The New York Times.
Lessons from Juvenal (Features) , April 2003, 4
On the great Roman satirist.
Vuillard's mysteries (Features) , March 2003, 5
On the enigmatic painter.
Exhibition note (Art) , February 2003, 52
Roger Kimball on “Park Avenue Cubists” at Grey Art Gallery, New York.
Why the West? (Features) , January 2003, 4
Upon the publication of Roger Scrutons The West and the Rest.
Architecture & ideology (Features) , December 2002, 22
Failures of nerve (Features) , November 2002, 4
Introducing a special section, occasioned by the conference on anti-Americanism that was held in Tunbridge Wells, England, October 3-4, 2002.
Undressing the Victorians (Features) , October 2002, 13
On Exposed: The Victorian Nude at the Brooklyn Museum.
The power of James Burnham (Features) , September 2002, 4
An essay on one of the greatest, and most underrated, political and social commentators of the twentieth century.
The fortunes of permanence (Features) , July 2002
The concluding essay of The New Criterions series on The Survival of Culture, revised and expanded for publication in The Survival of Culture: Permanent Values in a Virtual Age.
The fortunes of permanence (Features) , June 2002, 4
The tenth in a series titled “The survival of culture.”
G. C. Lichtenberg: a “spy on humanity” (Features) , May 2002, 20
On the aphorist.
The death of Socialism (Features) , April 2002, 15
George Santayana (Features) , February 2002, 18
On the philosopher, occasioned by the publication of The Letters of George Santayana.
At home abroad (Books) , January 2002, 73
A review of Letters from England by Karel Capek.
Wrong turns (Features) , December 2001, 22
Charles Péguy (Features) , November 2001, 15
On the poet & polemicist, occasioned by the publication of Temporal and Eternal, translated by Alexander Dru.
The new anti-Americanism (Features) , October 2001, 17
On the fashionable current of anti-American sentiment & Empire, by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri.
Exhibition note (Art) , October 2001, 43
On “Czech Cubism, 1912-1916,” at the Rupertinum, Salzburg.
What did Kierkegaard want? (Features) , September 2001, 19
Reflections on the philosopher, occasioned by the recent biography by Alastair Hannay.
Raymond Aron & the power of ideas (Features) , May 2001, 4
Occasioned by the reissue of Aron’s Opium of the Intellectuals.
The perils of designer tribalism (Features) , April 2001, 15
On the bane of “Third Worldism” and Roger Sandalls book The Culture Cult.
Schiller’s “Aesthetic Education” (Features) , March 2001, 12
On Friedrich Schiller’s “On the Aesthetic Education of Man”.
The museum as fun house (Features) , February 2001, 5
Reflections on the changing philosophies of the art museum occasioned by a recent trip to the MASS MoCA.
Plutarch & the issue of character (Features) , December 2000, 4
Tocqueville today (Features) , November 2000, 4
A consideration of Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville.
The genius of Wodehouse (Features) , October 2000, 5
A consideration of the author, occasioned the commencement of the publication of the first uniform series of Wodehouse books.
The difficulty with Hegel (Features) , September 2000, 4
Reflections on the philosopher, occasioned by the recent biography by Terry Pinkard.
Barzun on the West (Features) , June 2000, 5
On From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun
“Strange seriousness“: discovering Daumier (Features) , April 2000, 20
A consideration of the artist upon viewing Daumier, 1808-1879, at the Phillips Collection, Washington,
Little god, big Wilson (Features) , February 2000, 4
On Gods Funeral by A. N. Wilson
Exhibition notes (Art) , December 1999, 51
On Renoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan Phillips, at the Phillips Collection, Washington
The elephant in the gallery, or the lessons of “Sensation” (Features) , November 1999, 4
On Sensation: Young British Artists From the Saatchi Collection, the Brooklyn Museum of Art
A craving for reality: T.S. Eliot today (Features) , October 1999, 18
On Eliots reputation & influence
Exhibition note (Art) , September 1999, 52
On George Stubbs in the collection of Paul Mellon, at the Yale Center for British Art
The permanent Auden (Features) , May 1999, 13
A reconsideration of W. H. Auden occasioned by Edward Mendelsons Later Auden
What the Sixties wrought (Features) , March 1999, 14
The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 by Arthur Marwick
Josef Pieper: leisure and its discontents (Features) , January 1999, 23
On the German philosopher & the meaning of leisure
“One very simple principle” (Features) , November 1998, 4
The third in a series titled The betrayal of liberalism
The greatest Victorian (Features) , October 1998, 23
On Walter Bagehot
Delacroix reconsidered (Features) , September 1998, 9
On Delacroix: The Late Work, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Exhibition note (Art) , September 1998, 45
On Alberto Giacometti at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Emotions of virtue (Features) , June 1998, 5
The tenth in a series titled Reflections on a cultural revolution
The project of rejuvenilization (Features) , May 1998, 4
The ninth in a series titled Reflections on a cultural revolution
A nostalgia for Molotovs: “The New York Review” (Features) , April 1998, 4
The eighth in a series titled “Reflections on a cultural revolution
The politics of delegitimation (Features) , March 1998, 4
The seventh in a series titled “Reflections on a cultural revolution
The new sensibility (Features) , February 1998, 5
The sixth in a series titled “Reflections on a cultural revolution
The liberal capitulation (Features) , January 1998, 4
Being the fifth in a series titled“Reflections on a cultural revolution,”
The marriage of Marx and Freud (Features) , December 1997, 4
The fourth in a series titled Reflections on a cultural revolution
Norman Mailer's American dream (Features) , November 1997, 4
The third in a series titled Reflections on a cultural revolution
The new museum: entertainment or political theater? (Notebook) , November 1997, 77
On the symposium Reimagining Museums for New Art at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts
A gospel of emancipation (Features) , October 1997, 4
The second in a series titled Reflections on a cultural revolution
Virtue gone mad (Features) , September 1997, 4
Being the first in a series titled Reflections on a cultural revolution
Experiments against reality (Features) , June 1997, 4
Being the tenth in a series on The future of the European past
Exhibition note (Art) , June 1997, 55
On The Human Form Divine: William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art
C.J. Herington: an homage (Features) , May 1997, 12
The distinguished professor (Features) , April 1997, 21
On Jane Gallop & her book Feminist Accused of Sexual Harassment
Shorter notice (Books) , April 1997, 74
On The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné by John Rewald
Who was David Stove? (Features) , March 1997, 21
On the Australian philosopher & his work
The importance of T.E. Hulme (Features) , February 1997, 18
On The Collected Writings of T. E. Hulme edited by Karen Csengeri
The Repeal of Reticence (Features) , January 1997, 20
On The Repeal of Reticence by Rochelle Gurstein
Corot in New York (Features) , December 1996, 14
On Corot at the Metropolitan Museum of Art & other recent exhibitions of the artist’s work
David Denby goes to school (Features) , November 1996, 14
On Great Books by David Denby
The Sixties according to Paul Berman (Features) , October 1996, 17
On A Tale of Two Utopias: The Political Journey of the Generation of 1968 by Paul Berman
The killing of History: why relativism is wrong (Features) , September 1996, 22
On The Killing of History by Keith Windschuttle
Will there always be an England? (Features) , June 1996, 10
On the current cultural scene in London
“Diversity,” “cultural studies” & other mistakes (Features) , May 1996, 4
On the science wars & other matters
Whose Enlightenment is it? (Features) , April 1996, 4
Exhibition note (Art) , April 1996, 46
On The Grosvenor Gallery: A Palace of Art in Victorian Englandat the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An update on the culture wars (Features) , March 1996, 8
Exhibition note (Art) , March 1996, 47
On Poussin: Works on Paper, Drawings from the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The qualities of Robert Musil (Features) , February 1996, 10
Clamities of art (Features) , November 1995, 21
On the self-destruction wrought by the Dadaist tendencies of contemporary art.
Shorter notice (Books) , September 1995, 75
The Robert Hughes medicine show (Notebook) , September 1995, 78
On the hypocrisy inherent in the advocacy of Robert Hughes for public arts funding.
What's left of Descartes? (Features) , June 1995, 8
On the complex legacy left to modernity by René Descartes.
Art vs. aestheticism: the case of Walter Pater (Features) , May 1995, 11
On a new biography of Pater by Denis Donoghue.
Christopher Lasch vs. the elites (Features) , April 1995, 9
On Mr. Lasch’s book The Revolt of the Elites.
The grammar of “Dissent” (Features) , March 1995, 8
On Dissent magazine at age 40.
Farewell to the MLA (Features) , February 1995, 5
On the 110th annual convention of the Modern Language Association, in San Diego, California, December 1994.
Exhibition note (Art) , February 1995, 47
On Thomas Cole: Landscape into History at the Brooklyn Museum.
Exhibition note (Art) , January 1995, 45
On John Constable at the Frick Collection, New York.
Philip Johnson: the architect as aesthete (Features) , November 1994, 9
Exhibition note (Art) , October 1994, 51
Charles Reich & America's cultural revolution (Features) , September 1994, 12
A reconsideration of The Greening of America on its 25th anniversary.
Saving the Appearances: Roger Scruton on Philosophy (Features) , June 1994, 10
Among our contemporaries, few have been more successful at maintaining a vigorous and productive balance between wonder and doubt than the English philosopher Roger Scruton.
Four early poems of W.H. Auden (Features) , June 1994, 32
With an introduction by Roger Kimball.
Exhibition note (Art) , June 1994, 44
On Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library.
When reason sleeps: the academy vs. science (Features) , May 1994, 10
On Higher Superstition by Paul R. Gross & Norman Levitt.
Exhibition note (Art) , May 1994, 55
On Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Without rancor: Sybille Bedford's achievement (Features) , April 1994, 11
Exhibition note (Art) , April 1994, 41
On William Bailey: Selected Works at the André Emmerich Gallery.
Exhibition note (Art) , March 1994, 42
On “The Golden Age of Danish Painting” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
“The Two Cultures” today (Features) , February 1994, 10
On the C.P. Snow-F.R. Leavis controversy.
Going no place with Peter Blake (Features) , January 1994, 9
On Mr. Blakes book No Place Like Utopia.
Sex in the twilight zone: Catharine MacKinnon’s crusade (Features) , October 1993, 11
On Ms. MacKinnons book Only Words.
James Q. Wilson on the moral sense (Features) , September 1993, 8
On Mr. Wilson’s book The Moral Sense.
Betraying a legacy: the case of the Barnes Foundation (Features) , June 1993, 9
On an exhibition of French paintings at the National Gallery, Washington.
Feeling sorry for Rosalind Krauss (Features) , May 1993, 4
On Krauss’s book The Optical Unconscious.
The first half of Muriel Spark (Features) , April 1993, 9
Exhibition note (Art) , April 1993, 56
On Max Ernst at MOMA.
The perversions of M. Foucault (Features) , March 1993, 10
On The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller.
Exhibition note (Art) , January 1993, 52
On Egypts Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III & His World" at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.
The treason of the intellectuals & “The Undoing of Thought” (Features) , December 1992, 10
How not to write about art (Features) , October 1992, 4
On The Turning Point by April Kingsley.
Abolishing art at the Whitney (Features) , June 1992, 4
“The present is history” conducting culture at Bard (Features) , May 1992, 4
Elitist anti-elitism: Robert Venturi does Seattle (Features) , April 1992, 4
A novelist who hunted the fox: Anthony Trollope today (Features) , March 1992, 10
Francis Fukuyama and the end of History (Features) , February 1992, 9
Shorter notice (Books) , February 1992, 68
Of John Nash by Michael Mansbridge.
Shorter notice (Books) , December 1991, 82
Of I. M. Pei by Carter Wiseman.
Clipper-Class classicism: Robert Venturi's London adventure (Architecture) , December 1991, 42
A very Sixties person: Peter Schjeldahl on art (Features) , November 1991, 27
The legacy of Friedrich Nietzsche (Features) , September 1991, 28
Fredric Jameson’s laments (Features) , June 1991, 9
The Oxford Book of Essays (Books) , 79
Academic psychobabble, or Richard Sennett goes to town (Features) , May 1991, 9
On Sennett’s The Conscience of the Eye: The Design & Social Life of Cities.
Shorter notice (Books) , May 1991, 79
Of The Oxford Book of Essays edited by John Gross.
Moral homicide: illiberal education in America (Features) , April 1991, 5
On Illiberal Education by Dinesh D’Souza.
The disaffected populist: Christopher Lasch on progress (Features) , March 1991, 9
On Lasch’s The True and Only Heaven.
The periphery vs. the center: the MLA in Chicago (Features) , February 1991, 8
“Tenured Radicals”: a postscript (Features) , January 1991, 4
Shorter notice (Books) , January 1991, 81
Of Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America by Lucy R. Lippard.
The contradictions of Terry Eagleton (Features) , September 1990, 17
Shorter notice (Books) , September 1990, 79
Of Courbet’s Realism by Michael Fried.
How to build a museum: the example of Louis Kahn (Architecture) , June 1990, 64
Vistas of inanity: art and ideas in the Eighties (Features) , April 1990, 38
On the exhibition Culture & Commentary: An Eighties Perspective at the Hirshhorn Museum.
In the footsteps of Sade (Features) , March 1990, 7
On Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia.
The collapse of the center: the humanities at Williams (Features) , January 1990, 32
On the symposium Crisis in the Humanities? at Williams College.
The contemporary sophist (Features) , October 1989, 5
On Stanley Fish.
A Stirling performance at Cornell (Architecture) , June 1989, 56
On James Stirling’s performing arts center at Cornell University.
Is modernism the enemy? The case of Mies van der Rohe (Books) , May 1989, 67
A review of Architects of Fortune: Mies van der Rohe & the Third Reich by Elaine S. Hochman.
A classicist on the couch (Books) , March 1989, 72
A review of Jane Ellen Harrison: The Mask & the Self by Sandra J. Peacock.
Trouble in paradise: the gospel according to Pagels (Features) , January 1989, 18
On Adam, Eve & the Serpent by Elaine Pagels.
The philosophical porcupine (Features) , December 1988, 5
On Wittgenstein: A Life by Brian McGuinness.
The “October” syndrome (Features) , October 1988, 5
On October: The First Decade edited by Annette Michelson, Rosalind Krauss, et al.
Looking after virtue (Books) , September 1988, 64
A review of Whose Justice? Which Rationality? by Alasdair MacIntyre.
The death and resurrection of postmodern architecture (Features) , June 1988, 21
On Architecture & Education: The Past 25 Years & Assumptions for the Future, a symposium at Princeton.
Professor Hartman reconstructs Paul de Man (Features) , May 1988, 36
On Geoffrey H. Hartman’s defense of de Man in The New Republic.
Guns & other “hermeneutical acts” at Columbia (Notebook) , May 1988, 77
On Columbia’s Innovations in Education seminar.
Is MOMA attempting suicide? (Features) , April 1988, 30
On MOMA’s Contemporary Art in Context series.
The anguishes of E.M. Cioran (Features) , March 1988, 37
Frank Stella returns to the Modern (Features) , December 1987, 21
Rousseau’s “virtue” (Books) , November 1987, 55
A review of Rousseau & the Republic of Virtue by Carol Blum.
The academy vs. the canon (Letters) , November 1987, 82
The academy debates the canon (Features) , September 1987, 31
On Literary Theory & the Curriculum, a symposium at Yale.
Sartre resartus (Books) , May 1987, 72
A review of Annie Cohen-Solals Sartre biography.
Mountain mystifications (Books) , April 1987, 73
A review of Hermann Blochs The Spell.
Architecture redux (Books) , March 1987, 70
A review of Architecture, Anyone? by Ada Louise Huxtable.
Sundays in the dark with the Whitney (Notebook) , January 1987, 83
On the "Sundays at Six" series at the Whitney Museum.
Academic selves (Books) , December 1986, 83
A review of Reconstructing Individualism edited by Thomas C. Heller, Morton Sosna, David E. Wellbery, et al.
Art & architecture at the Equitable Center (Features) , November 1986, 24
Becoming Elias Canetti (Features) , September 1986, 17
Debating the humanities at Yale (Features) , June 1986, 23
On the symposium The Humanities & the Public Interest.
Making a spectacle of architecture on PBS (Features) , May 1986, 25
On the television series Pride of Place.
Decline of the self (Books) , April 1986, 78
A review of Death of the Soul: From Descartes to the Computer by William Barrett.
Politics, politics, politics — the PEN Congress in New York (Features) , March 1986, 8
The avant-garde comes to Hofstra (Notebook) , February 1986, 78
On the symposium Avant-Garde Art & Literature: Toward a Reappraisal of Modernism.
The ambiguities of Milan Kundera (Features) , January 1986, 5
Dartmouth’s Hood Museum (Architecture) , November 1985, 45
Getting back to nature (Books) , October 1985, 81
A review of Toward a More Natural Science: Biology & Human Affairs by Leon R. Kass, M.D.
The war according to Sartre (Books) , September 1985, 73
A review of The War Diaries of Jean-Paul Sartre: November 1939-March 1940.
Heidegger at Freiburg, 1933 (Features) , June 1985, 9
Schopenhauer’s world (Books) , April 1985, 83
A review of The Philosophy of Schopenhauer by Bryan Magee.
The Motherwell retrospective (Features) , March 1985, 31
The sins of the father (Books) , February 1985, 73
A review of Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever.
“Art” for the Eighties? (Notebook) , December 1984, 83
The prosaic modern age (Books) , November 1984, 78
A review of In the Age of Prose: Literary & Philosophical Essays by Erich Heller.
Art and mystery (Books) , September 1984, 76
A review of The Arts without Mystery by Denis Donoghue.
From Kant to cant (Books) , March 1984, 76
Philosophizing at the Boston-Sheraton (Notebook) , February 1984, 81
On the meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division.
Frank Stella at Harvard (Notebook) , December 1983, 86
Is life worth living? (Books) , October 1983, 70
A review of A Stroll with William James by Jacques Barzun.