Books
The Fairness Delusion
– American Spectator, October 1984.Excerpt: Democrats have been bludgeoning the Reagan Administration with “the fairness issue” since 1981. The fairness issue covers a variety of sins, generally falling under the… More
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government
– (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.)Summary from Publisher: “What a government must do,” Charles Murray says, “is leave people alone.” No one who reads this clear, energetic work will come away with previous… More
The Coming of Custodial Democracy
– Commentary, September 1988.Excerpt: It is by now taken for granted that the nation is about to turn to the Left in domestic policy. “Reaganism is finished, bankrupt, used up, over,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger,… More
The Local Angle: Giving Meaning to Freedom
– Reason, October 1993.Excerpt: Twenty-five years ago, in May of 1968, where were you? Some days, I was in Northeast Thailand, along the banks of the Mekong River, where in the evenings I would sit on the porch… More
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
– Video, Harvard Institute of Politics, February 14, 1995.Speaker(s): Charles Murray, Stephen Gould, Leon Higginbotham
Three Broken Compacts
– Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1997.Excerpt: The received Republican wisdom now proclaims that Americans don’t hate the federal government after all. Most Americans like the federal government. Republicans must let the… More
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
– (New York: Broadway Books, 1997.)Summary from Publisher: Charles Murray believes that America’s founders had it right—strict limits on the power of the central government and strict protection of the individual are… More
The Perils of GOP Activism
– Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1998.Excerpt: At the beginning of 1964, the country was at peace, the economy was humming, and vast tax revenues were burning a hole in Congress’s pocket. Sound familiar? The rhetoric of… More
Our Dreyfus Case
– The Weekly Standard, February 22, 1999.Excerpt: In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of the Weekly Standard asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions:… More
Thomas Sowell: Seeing Clearly
– National Review, December 19, 2005.Excerpt: One mark of a great book is a thesis so powerful that after a few years people take it for granted. Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions (1987) is such a book. Its thesis: The… More
The $10,000 Solution
– Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2006.Excerpt: Suppose we assume people on the other side of the political divide are not hateful, not bent on destroying America, but are instead, by and large, decent and sensible humans.… More
Thank God America Isn’t like Europe—Yet
– Washington Post, March 22, 2009.Excerpt: Do we want the United States to be like Europe? The European model has worked in many ways. I am delighted whenever I get a chance to go to Stockholm or Amsterdam, not to mention… More
Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy
– Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009.Excerpt: America is supposed to be a democracy in which we’re all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common… More
The Tea Party Warns of a New Elite. They Are Right
– Washington Post, October 24, 2010.Excerpt: The tea party appears to be of one mind on at least one thing: America has been taken over by a New Elite. “On one side, we have the elites,” Fox News host Glenn Beck explained… More
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
– Video, panel at the Cato Institute, October 24, 2011.Summary: Featuring the Editor in Chief of The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Ronald Hamowy, with comments by Charles Murray and William Galston. Moderated by Jason Kuznicki, Research… More
The Trouble Isn’t Liberals. It’s Progressives
– Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2014.Excerpt: Social conservatives. Libertarians. Country-club conservatives. Tea party conservatives. Everybody in politics knows that those sets of people who usually vote Republican cannot be… More
Evaluating Liberals and Progressives
– Audio, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, Salem Radio Network, July 8, 2014.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.… More
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… 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… 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… More
Our Corrupt Government by Christopher DeMuth
– Christopher DeMuth, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2015.Excerpt: Charles Murray’s By the People takes Madisonian decline in a different direction. Its title, of course, is from the poetic invocation of republican government at the crescendo of… 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… 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… More
America Against Itself
– Interview by Sean Collins, Spiked Review, August 2016.Excerpt: With the publication in 2012 of Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, political scientist Charles Murray – celebrated and denigrated in equal measure for his… More
Essays
The Fairness Delusion
– American Spectator, October 1984.Excerpt: Democrats have been bludgeoning the Reagan Administration with “the fairness issue” since 1981. The fairness issue covers a variety of sins, generally falling under the… More
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government
– (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.)Summary from Publisher: “What a government must do,” Charles Murray says, “is leave people alone.” No one who reads this clear, energetic work will come away with previous… More
The Coming of Custodial Democracy
– Commentary, September 1988.Excerpt: It is by now taken for granted that the nation is about to turn to the Left in domestic policy. “Reaganism is finished, bankrupt, used up, over,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger,… More
The Local Angle: Giving Meaning to Freedom
– Reason, October 1993.Excerpt: Twenty-five years ago, in May of 1968, where were you? Some days, I was in Northeast Thailand, along the banks of the Mekong River, where in the evenings I would sit on the porch… More
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
– Video, Harvard Institute of Politics, February 14, 1995.Speaker(s): Charles Murray, Stephen Gould, Leon Higginbotham
Three Broken Compacts
– Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1997.Excerpt: The received Republican wisdom now proclaims that Americans don’t hate the federal government after all. Most Americans like the federal government. Republicans must let the… More
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
– (New York: Broadway Books, 1997.)Summary from Publisher: Charles Murray believes that America’s founders had it right—strict limits on the power of the central government and strict protection of the individual are… More
The Perils of GOP Activism
– Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1998.Excerpt: At the beginning of 1964, the country was at peace, the economy was humming, and vast tax revenues were burning a hole in Congress’s pocket. Sound familiar? The rhetoric of… More
Our Dreyfus Case
– The Weekly Standard, February 22, 1999.Excerpt: In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of the Weekly Standard asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions:… More
Thomas Sowell: Seeing Clearly
– National Review, December 19, 2005.Excerpt: One mark of a great book is a thesis so powerful that after a few years people take it for granted. Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions (1987) is such a book. Its thesis: The… More
The $10,000 Solution
– Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2006.Excerpt: Suppose we assume people on the other side of the political divide are not hateful, not bent on destroying America, but are instead, by and large, decent and sensible humans.… More
Thank God America Isn’t like Europe—Yet
– Washington Post, March 22, 2009.Excerpt: Do we want the United States to be like Europe? The European model has worked in many ways. I am delighted whenever I get a chance to go to Stockholm or Amsterdam, not to mention… More
Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy
– Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009.Excerpt: America is supposed to be a democracy in which we’re all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common… More
The Tea Party Warns of a New Elite. They Are Right
– Washington Post, October 24, 2010.Excerpt: The tea party appears to be of one mind on at least one thing: America has been taken over by a New Elite. “On one side, we have the elites,” Fox News host Glenn Beck explained… More
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
– Video, panel at the Cato Institute, October 24, 2011.Summary: Featuring the Editor in Chief of The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Ronald Hamowy, with comments by Charles Murray and William Galston. Moderated by Jason Kuznicki, Research… More
The Trouble Isn’t Liberals. It’s Progressives
– Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2014.Excerpt: Social conservatives. Libertarians. Country-club conservatives. Tea party conservatives. Everybody in politics knows that those sets of people who usually vote Republican cannot be… More
Evaluating Liberals and Progressives
– Audio, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, Salem Radio Network, July 8, 2014.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.… More
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… 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… 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… More
Our Corrupt Government by Christopher DeMuth
– Christopher DeMuth, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2015.Excerpt: Charles Murray’s By the People takes Madisonian decline in a different direction. Its title, of course, is from the poetic invocation of republican government at the crescendo of… 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… 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… More
America Against Itself
– Interview by Sean Collins, Spiked Review, August 2016.Excerpt: With the publication in 2012 of Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, political scientist Charles Murray – celebrated and denigrated in equal measure for his… More
Commentary
The Fairness Delusion
– American Spectator, October 1984.Excerpt: Democrats have been bludgeoning the Reagan Administration with “the fairness issue” since 1981. The fairness issue covers a variety of sins, generally falling under the… More
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government
– (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.)Summary from Publisher: “What a government must do,” Charles Murray says, “is leave people alone.” No one who reads this clear, energetic work will come away with previous… More
The Coming of Custodial Democracy
– Commentary, September 1988.Excerpt: It is by now taken for granted that the nation is about to turn to the Left in domestic policy. “Reaganism is finished, bankrupt, used up, over,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger,… More
The Local Angle: Giving Meaning to Freedom
– Reason, October 1993.Excerpt: Twenty-five years ago, in May of 1968, where were you? Some days, I was in Northeast Thailand, along the banks of the Mekong River, where in the evenings I would sit on the porch… More
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
– Video, Harvard Institute of Politics, February 14, 1995.Speaker(s): Charles Murray, Stephen Gould, Leon Higginbotham
Three Broken Compacts
– Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1997.Excerpt: The received Republican wisdom now proclaims that Americans don’t hate the federal government after all. Most Americans like the federal government. Republicans must let the… More
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
– (New York: Broadway Books, 1997.)Summary from Publisher: Charles Murray believes that America’s founders had it right—strict limits on the power of the central government and strict protection of the individual are… More
The Perils of GOP Activism
– Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1998.Excerpt: At the beginning of 1964, the country was at peace, the economy was humming, and vast tax revenues were burning a hole in Congress’s pocket. Sound familiar? The rhetoric of… More
Our Dreyfus Case
– The Weekly Standard, February 22, 1999.Excerpt: In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of the Weekly Standard asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions:… More
Thomas Sowell: Seeing Clearly
– National Review, December 19, 2005.Excerpt: One mark of a great book is a thesis so powerful that after a few years people take it for granted. Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions (1987) is such a book. Its thesis: The… More
The $10,000 Solution
– Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2006.Excerpt: Suppose we assume people on the other side of the political divide are not hateful, not bent on destroying America, but are instead, by and large, decent and sensible humans.… More
Thank God America Isn’t like Europe—Yet
– Washington Post, March 22, 2009.Excerpt: Do we want the United States to be like Europe? The European model has worked in many ways. I am delighted whenever I get a chance to go to Stockholm or Amsterdam, not to mention… More
Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy
– Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009.Excerpt: America is supposed to be a democracy in which we’re all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common… More
The Tea Party Warns of a New Elite. They Are Right
– Washington Post, October 24, 2010.Excerpt: The tea party appears to be of one mind on at least one thing: America has been taken over by a New Elite. “On one side, we have the elites,” Fox News host Glenn Beck explained… More
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
– Video, panel at the Cato Institute, October 24, 2011.Summary: Featuring the Editor in Chief of The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Ronald Hamowy, with comments by Charles Murray and William Galston. Moderated by Jason Kuznicki, Research… More
The Trouble Isn’t Liberals. It’s Progressives
– Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2014.Excerpt: Social conservatives. Libertarians. Country-club conservatives. Tea party conservatives. Everybody in politics knows that those sets of people who usually vote Republican cannot be… More
Evaluating Liberals and Progressives
– Audio, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, Salem Radio Network, July 8, 2014.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.… More
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… 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… 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… More
Our Corrupt Government by Christopher DeMuth
– Christopher DeMuth, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2015.Excerpt: Charles Murray’s By the People takes Madisonian decline in a different direction. Its title, of course, is from the poetic invocation of republican government at the crescendo of… 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… 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… More
America Against Itself
– Interview by Sean Collins, Spiked Review, August 2016.Excerpt: With the publication in 2012 of Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, political scientist Charles Murray – celebrated and denigrated in equal measure for his… More
Multimedia
The Fairness Delusion
– American Spectator, October 1984.Excerpt: Democrats have been bludgeoning the Reagan Administration with “the fairness issue” since 1981. The fairness issue covers a variety of sins, generally falling under the… More
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government
– (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.)Summary from Publisher: “What a government must do,” Charles Murray says, “is leave people alone.” No one who reads this clear, energetic work will come away with previous… More
The Coming of Custodial Democracy
– Commentary, September 1988.Excerpt: It is by now taken for granted that the nation is about to turn to the Left in domestic policy. “Reaganism is finished, bankrupt, used up, over,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger,… More
The Local Angle: Giving Meaning to Freedom
– Reason, October 1993.Excerpt: Twenty-five years ago, in May of 1968, where were you? Some days, I was in Northeast Thailand, along the banks of the Mekong River, where in the evenings I would sit on the porch… More
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
– Video, Harvard Institute of Politics, February 14, 1995.Speaker(s): Charles Murray, Stephen Gould, Leon Higginbotham
Three Broken Compacts
– Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1997.Excerpt: The received Republican wisdom now proclaims that Americans don’t hate the federal government after all. Most Americans like the federal government. Republicans must let the… More
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
– (New York: Broadway Books, 1997.)Summary from Publisher: Charles Murray believes that America’s founders had it right—strict limits on the power of the central government and strict protection of the individual are… More
The Perils of GOP Activism
– Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1998.Excerpt: At the beginning of 1964, the country was at peace, the economy was humming, and vast tax revenues were burning a hole in Congress’s pocket. Sound familiar? The rhetoric of… More
Our Dreyfus Case
– The Weekly Standard, February 22, 1999.Excerpt: In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of the Weekly Standard asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions:… More
Thomas Sowell: Seeing Clearly
– National Review, December 19, 2005.Excerpt: One mark of a great book is a thesis so powerful that after a few years people take it for granted. Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions (1987) is such a book. Its thesis: The… More
The $10,000 Solution
– Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2006.Excerpt: Suppose we assume people on the other side of the political divide are not hateful, not bent on destroying America, but are instead, by and large, decent and sensible humans.… More
Thank God America Isn’t like Europe—Yet
– Washington Post, March 22, 2009.Excerpt: Do we want the United States to be like Europe? The European model has worked in many ways. I am delighted whenever I get a chance to go to Stockholm or Amsterdam, not to mention… More
Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy
– Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009.Excerpt: America is supposed to be a democracy in which we’re all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common… More
The Tea Party Warns of a New Elite. They Are Right
– Washington Post, October 24, 2010.Excerpt: The tea party appears to be of one mind on at least one thing: America has been taken over by a New Elite. “On one side, we have the elites,” Fox News host Glenn Beck explained… More
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
– Video, panel at the Cato Institute, October 24, 2011.Summary: Featuring the Editor in Chief of The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Ronald Hamowy, with comments by Charles Murray and William Galston. Moderated by Jason Kuznicki, Research… More
The Trouble Isn’t Liberals. It’s Progressives
– Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2014.Excerpt: Social conservatives. Libertarians. Country-club conservatives. Tea party conservatives. Everybody in politics knows that those sets of people who usually vote Republican cannot be… More
Evaluating Liberals and Progressives
– Audio, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, Salem Radio Network, July 8, 2014.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.… More
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… 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… 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… More
Our Corrupt Government by Christopher DeMuth
– Christopher DeMuth, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2015.Excerpt: Charles Murray’s By the People takes Madisonian decline in a different direction. Its title, of course, is from the poetic invocation of republican government at the crescendo of… 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… 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… More
America Against Itself
– Interview by Sean Collins, Spiked Review, August 2016.Excerpt: With the publication in 2012 of Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, political scientist Charles Murray – celebrated and denigrated in equal measure for his… More
Teaching
The Fairness Delusion
– American Spectator, October 1984.Excerpt: Democrats have been bludgeoning the Reagan Administration with “the fairness issue” since 1981. The fairness issue covers a variety of sins, generally falling under the… More
In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government
– (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.)Summary from Publisher: “What a government must do,” Charles Murray says, “is leave people alone.” No one who reads this clear, energetic work will come away with previous… More
The Coming of Custodial Democracy
– Commentary, September 1988.Excerpt: It is by now taken for granted that the nation is about to turn to the Left in domestic policy. “Reaganism is finished, bankrupt, used up, over,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger,… More
The Local Angle: Giving Meaning to Freedom
– Reason, October 1993.Excerpt: Twenty-five years ago, in May of 1968, where were you? Some days, I was in Northeast Thailand, along the banks of the Mekong River, where in the evenings I would sit on the porch… More
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
– Video, Harvard Institute of Politics, February 14, 1995.Speaker(s): Charles Murray, Stephen Gould, Leon Higginbotham
Three Broken Compacts
– Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1997.Excerpt: The received Republican wisdom now proclaims that Americans don’t hate the federal government after all. Most Americans like the federal government. Republicans must let the… More
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
– (New York: Broadway Books, 1997.)Summary from Publisher: Charles Murray believes that America’s founders had it right—strict limits on the power of the central government and strict protection of the individual are… More
The Perils of GOP Activism
– Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1998.Excerpt: At the beginning of 1964, the country was at peace, the economy was humming, and vast tax revenues were burning a hole in Congress’s pocket. Sound familiar? The rhetoric of… More
Our Dreyfus Case
– The Weekly Standard, February 22, 1999.Excerpt: In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of the Weekly Standard asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions:… More
Thomas Sowell: Seeing Clearly
– National Review, December 19, 2005.Excerpt: One mark of a great book is a thesis so powerful that after a few years people take it for granted. Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions (1987) is such a book. Its thesis: The… More
The $10,000 Solution
– Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2006.Excerpt: Suppose we assume people on the other side of the political divide are not hateful, not bent on destroying America, but are instead, by and large, decent and sensible humans.… More
Thank God America Isn’t like Europe—Yet
– Washington Post, March 22, 2009.Excerpt: Do we want the United States to be like Europe? The European model has worked in many ways. I am delighted whenever I get a chance to go to Stockholm or Amsterdam, not to mention… More
Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy
– Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2009.Excerpt: America is supposed to be a democracy in which we’re all in it together. Part of that ethos, which has been so essential to the country in times of crisis, is a common… More
The Tea Party Warns of a New Elite. They Are Right
– Washington Post, October 24, 2010.Excerpt: The tea party appears to be of one mind on at least one thing: America has been taken over by a New Elite. “On one side, we have the elites,” Fox News host Glenn Beck explained… More
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
– Video, panel at the Cato Institute, October 24, 2011.Summary: Featuring the Editor in Chief of The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Ronald Hamowy, with comments by Charles Murray and William Galston. Moderated by Jason Kuznicki, Research… More
The Trouble Isn’t Liberals. It’s Progressives
– Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2014.Excerpt: Social conservatives. Libertarians. Country-club conservatives. Tea party conservatives. Everybody in politics knows that those sets of people who usually vote Republican cannot be… More
Evaluating Liberals and Progressives
– Audio, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, Salem Radio Network, July 8, 2014.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.… More
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… 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… 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… More
Our Corrupt Government by Christopher DeMuth
– Christopher DeMuth, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2015.Excerpt: Charles Murray’s By the People takes Madisonian decline in a different direction. Its title, of course, is from the poetic invocation of republican government at the crescendo of… 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… 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… More
America Against Itself
– Interview by Sean Collins, Spiked Review, August 2016.Excerpt: With the publication in 2012 of Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, political scientist Charles Murray – celebrated and denigrated in equal measure for his… More