Books
By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission
– (New York: Crown Forum, 2015.)Summary from the Publisher: American freedom is being gutted. Whether we are trying to run a business, practice a vocation, raise our families, cooperate with our neighbors, or follow our religious beliefs, we run afoul of the government—not because we are… More
The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don’ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
– (New York: Crown Forum, 2014.)Summary from Publisher: For those starting out in their careers — and those who wish to advance more quickly — this is a delightfully fussy guide to the hidden rules of the road in the workplace and in life. As bestselling author and social historian… More
American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History
– (Washington: AEI Press, 2013.)Summary from Publisher: The phrase “American exceptionalism” is used in many ways and for many purposes, but its original meaning involved a statement of fact: for the first century after the Constitution went into effect, European observers and Americans… More
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010
– (New York: Crown Forum, 2012.)Summary from Publisher: In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break… More
Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality
– (New York: Crown Forum, 2008.)Summary from Publisher: “The most talked-about education book this semester.” —New York Times From the author of Coming Apart, and based on a series of controversial Wall Street Journal op-eds, this landmark manifesto gives voice to what… More
The Happiness of the People
– (Washington: AEI Press, 2009.)Summary from Publisher: The political culture created by the Constitution has made Americans a people uniquely optimistic, lacking in class envy, and confident that that they are in charge of their own lives. Today, the United States is moving toward the… More
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
– (Washington: AEI Press, 2006.)Summary from Publisher: America’s population is wealthier than any in history. Every year, the American government redistributes more than a trillion dollars of that wealth to provide for retirement, health care, and the alleviation of poverty. We still… More
Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950
– (New York: Harper, 2003.)Summary from Publisher: A sweeping cultural survey reminiscent of Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence. “At irregular times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. Human Accomplishment is about those great things, falling in… More
The Underclass Revisited
– (Washington: AEI Press, 1999.)Excerpt: No one talks much about the underclass anymore, and apparently for good reason. The welfare rolls are plunging. Crime has been falling for several years. The labor market is so tight that employers are searching out even the lowest-skilled workers in… More
Income Inequality and IQ
– (Washington: AEI Press, 1998.)Summary from Publisher: What causes income inequality? The usual answers are economic and sociological. Capitalism systematically generates unequal economic rewards. Social class distinctions create different opportunities in life, leading to unequal economic… More
Essays
Reflections on the Revolution at Middlebury
– Murray, Charles. "Reflections on the Revolution at Middlebury." AEIdeas blog. March 5, 2107.Text: A few months ago, AEI’s student group at Middlebury College invited me to speak on the themes in Coming Apart and how they relate to the recent presidential election. Professor Allison Stanger of the Political Science Department agreed to serve as… More
An Open Letter to the Virginia Tech Community
– American Enterprise Institute, March 17, 2016.Excerpt: Last week, the president of Virginia Tech, Tim Sands, published an “open letter to the Virginia Tech community” defending lectures delivered by deplorable people like me (I’m speaking on the themes of Coming Apart on March 25). Bravo for… More
Trump’s America
– Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2016.Excerpt: If you are dismayed by Trumpism, don’t kid yourself that it will fade away if Donald Trump fails to win the Republican nomination. Trumpism is an expression of the legitimate anger that many Americans feel about the course that the country has… More
The Regulators’ Yoke
– National Review, November 9, 2015.Excerpt: Earlier this year, I published a book called “By the People” that laid out a plan for systematic civil disobedience of stupid and pointless regulations. It is a subversive position. The rule of law is the foundation of civilization. It is… More
Kids Today
– Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2015.Excerpt: My takeaway from all this was expressed in the closing chapter of my own work on Putnam’s topic, Coming Apart (2012). Very briefly, I don’t think America’s civic culture will be revitalized by the kinds of programs that Our Kids advocates. If… More
The United States of Diversity
– Commentary, June 2015.Excerpt: The received wisdom about multicultural America goes something like this: “At the time of the Founding, America’s free population was not only white but almost entirely British, and the nation’s culture was based on their common heritage. That… More
Regulation Run Amok—And How to Fight Back
– Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2015.Excerpt: America is no longer the land of the free. We are still free in the sense that Norwegians, Germans and Italians are free. But that’s not what Americans used to mean by freedom. It was our boast that in America, unlike in any other country, you… More
Curing American Sclerosis
– Lecture, Edmund Burke Award for Service to Culture and Society, April 29, 2015. Reprinted in The New Criterion, June 2015.Excerpt: I am a little wary about receiving an award named for Edmund Burke two weeks before the publication of a book in which I advocate massive, systematic civil disobedience. I am not at all sure that Mr. Burke would approve. So let me try to placate Mr.… More
Why the SAT Isn’t a ‘Student Affluence Test’
– Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2015.Excerpt: Spring is here, which means it’s time for elite colleges to send out acceptance letters. Some will go to athletes, the children of influential alumni and those who round out the school’s diversity profile. But most will go to the offspring of the… More
Our Futile Efforts to Boost Children’s IQ
– Bloomberg View, November 14, 2014.Excerpt: It’s one thing to point out that programs to improve children’s cognitive functioning have had a dismal track record. We can always focus on short-term improvements, blame the long-term failures on poor execution or lack of follow-up and try,… More
Multimedia
Immigration and Less-Educated Workers
– Video, panel discussion hosted by Center for Immigration Studies, September 28, 2016.Summary: The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel discussion focusing on low-skill Americans dropping out of the labor force, and the role mass immigration may play in the trend. Charles Murray suggests a temporary moratorium on low-skill labor… More
On Populism, Globalization, The Bell Curve, and American Politics Today
– Interview on Conversations with Bill Kristol, September, 2016. 1hr 10 minutes.In his second conversation with Bill Kristol, American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray discusses the state of American civic life and how this can help us understand the current political moment. Murray explains how the decline of communities, the… More
The Bell Curve: IQ, Race and Gender
– Video, discussion with Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain Radio, September 14, 2015.Summary: In continuing our discussion on Human Intelligence and the predictive powers of IQ, Charles Murray joins the broadcast to discuss the latest science regarding ethnic and gender differences in intelligence. Charles Murray is a political scientist,… More
By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission
– Video, lecture at the Aspen Ideas Festival, June 30, 2015.Have we come to the end of the American project as the founders intended it? Join social scientist Charles Murray, who worries that the essence of the American promise — liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the unalienable rights of all — has eroded… More
The American Dream in Crisis? A discussion with Robert Putnam and Charles Murray
– Video, panel at the American Enterprise Institute, June 22, 2015.Summary: In Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 2015), political scientist Robert Putnam illustrates the increasing inequality between rich and poor Americans over recent decades through empirical evidence and evocative narratives.… More
After Words with Charles Murray
– Video, BookTV, C-SPAN, June 11, 2015.Summary: Charles Murray talked about his book By the People: Rebuilding Liberty without Permission, in which he argues that it is now possible to roll back the power of the federal government by relying on technology rather than the Constitution, which he… More
Charles Murray: Rebuilding Liberty
– Video, lecture at the Commonwealth Club, June 10, 2015.Charles Murray, W.H. Brady Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Author, By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission David Davenport, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution — Moderator Part of the American Value Series. Underwritten by the Koret… More
Power to the People
– Video, Stossel, Fox Business, May 18, 2015.Charles Murray discusses the kind of civil disobedience he advocates in his book By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission with John Stossel.
Rebuilding liberty without permission: A conversation with Charles Murray
– Video, event at American Enterprise Institute, May 14, 2015.Summary: According to AEI scholar, acclaimed social scientist, and bestselling author Charles Murray, American liberty is under assault. The federal government has unilaterally decided that it can and should tell us how to live our lives. If we object, it… More
How Government Got So Big
– Video, Opinion Journal, Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2015.American Enterprise Institute Scholar Charles Murray on his new book, By the People, and the policies that led to the growth of bureaucracy.