Topics

Books

The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character

– Riesman, David, Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denny.  The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.
The Lonely Crowd was first published in 1950 as a sociological analysis. The authors trace the development of the new middle class as the character of contemporary society shifts from… More

Faces in the Crowd: Individual Studies in Character and Politics

– Riesman, David, and Nathan Glazer.  Faces in the Crowd: Individual Studies In Character and Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952.
A follow up volume to the sociological studies of The Lonely Crowd, Faces in the Crowd further delves into questions of the individual and character.  The work explores the place of… More

American Judaism

– Glazer, Nathan. American Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.
Originally printed in 1957 and revised in 1988, Glazer’s American Judaism combines historical research with a sociological approach. Starting in the colonial period, Glazer studies… More

Studies in Housing and Minority Groups

– Glazer, Nathan and Davis McEntire. Studies in Housing and Minority Groups. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960.
Part of the Publications of the Commission on Race and Housing, Glazer, working alongside Davis McEntire published the volume comparing housing and minority groups in cities throughout the… More

The Social Basis of American Communism

– Glazer, Nathan. The Social Basis of American Communism. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961.
In The Social Basis of American Communism, Glazer describes the groups targeted by the Communist Party for recruiting efforts and those making up the majority of its membership.  He also… More

The Many Faces of Anti-Semitism

– Feitelson, Rose and George Salomon. The Many Faces of Anti-Semitism. New York: American Jewish Committee Press, 1967.
Nathan Glazer contributes a forward in Rose Feitelson and George Salomon’s 1967 work.

Soviet Jewry: 1969

– Glazer, Nathan. Soviet Jewry: 1969. New York: Academic Committee on Soviet Jewry, 1969.

Remembering the Answers: Essays on the American Student Revolt

– Glazer, Nathan. Remembering the Answers: Essays on the American Student Revolt. New York: Basic Books, 1971.
In Remembering the Answers, Glazer recounts the educational and political events at Berkeley during the 1960s.  He specifically focuses on the student riots in 1964 and 1968, the New Left,… More

Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy

– Glazer, Nathan. Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy. New York: Basic Books, 1975.
In Glazer’s work Affirmative Discrimination, he argues against Affirmative Action.  He evaluates the government’s use of public policy in regards to housing, employment, and… More

Ethnicity: Theory and Experience

– Glazer, Nathan and Daniel Moynihan, editors, Ethnicity: Theory and Experience. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Along with Daniel Moynihan, Glazer both writes the Introduction and edited this work on modern ethnic identity.  The essays cover studies in ethnic groups in nations around the world.

Prejudice

– Pettigrew, Thomas, George Fredrickson, Dale Knobel, Nathan Glazer and Reed Ueda. Prejudice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Glazer, along with his fellow authors, define and describe prejudice, while analyzing discrimination in America and the efforts to end it.

Ethnic Groups in History Textbooks

– Glazer, Nathan and Reed Ueda. Ethnic Groups in History Textbooks. Washington: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1983.
By comparing six American history textbooks, Glazer and Ueda find an attempt by the authors to foster understanding and respect toward all ethnic groups.  Yet, they believe U.S. ethnic… More

Ethnic Dilemmas, 1964-1982

– Glazer, Nathan. Ethnic Dilemmas 1964-1982. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Ethnic Dilemma’s encompasses a collection of Glazer’s essays from 1964 to 1982.  These essays chronicle Glazer’s reaction to the Civil Rights Movement’s goals,… More

The Public Face of Architecture

– Glazer, Nathan and Mark Lilla, editors. The Public Face of Architecture: Civic Culture and Public Spaces. New York: Free Press, 1987.
Edited by Nathan Glazer and Mark Lilla, The Public Face of Architecture brings together a collection of works highlighting architecture’s role in shaping public life.

The Limits of Social Policy

– Glazer, Nathan. The Limits of Social Policy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Written in 1988, The Limits of Social Policy looks back at the social policies of the 1960s and 1970s, and how they went wrong in the 1980s with social scientists, politicians, and… More

New Immigration: A Challenge to American Society

– Glazer, Nathan. New Immigration: A Challenge to American Society. San Diego: San Diego State University Press, 1990.
Part of the Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture Series, Glazer examines the social and political implications of immigration to the United States during the 1980s.

We Are All Multiculturalists Now

– Glazer, Nathan. We Are All Multiculturalists Now. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Glazer explores the changes in American society, arguing that the “melting pot” and assimilation have been discarded in favor of multiculturalism. He highlights what this change means… More

When Ideas Mattered: A Nathan Glazer Reader

– Glazer, Nathan. Joseph Dorman and Leslie Lenkowsky, eds. When Ideas Mattered. New York: Transaction Publishers, 2016.
Sociologist Nathan Glazer’s remarkably long and productive career as a New York intellectual spans seven decades from the Great Depression era to the late twentieth century. A voracious… More

Essays

The Study of Man

– "The Study of Man." Commentary, November, 1945.
Excerpt: Social scientists can no longer be reproached for busying themselves with theoretical issues while ignoring the major problems confronting mankind. The ivory towers now stand… More

The Study of Man: The Social Scientists Dissect Prejudice

– "The Study of Man: The Social Scientists Dissect Prejudice." Commentary, May, 1946.
Excerpt: The intellectual current that now impels writers—in the big national magazines as well as the more serious little magazines—to talk about race prejudice has not left social… More

The Study of Man: Government by Manipulation

– "The Study of Man: Government by Manipulation." Commentary, July, 1946.
Excerpt: Everyone within reach of a radio loudspeaker or a newspaper headline knows of the tremendous advances made by science during the war: atomic bombs, radiocontrolled planes, rockets… More

The Parlor Terrorists

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Parlor Terrorists." Commentary, January, 1947.
Excerpt: If some of my best friends are right, and the big thing right now is to show that the Jew is as common a common man as the next, Arthur Koestler’s Thieves in the Night is the… More

The Study of Man: What is Sociology’s Job?

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: What is Sociology's Job?" Commentary, 1947.
Excerpt: The recent annual meeting of the American Sociological Society in Chicago (Hotel Stevens, December 27- 30) brought together perhaps 1,000 people who call themselves… More

The Study of Man: The Alienation of Modern Man

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: The Alienation of Modern Man." Commentary, 1947.
Excerpt: If, as Sidney Hook wrote recently, the two great semantic beacons of our time are the terms “transition” and “crisis,” then a third term is perhaps necessary to capture the… More

Eagle at My Eyes

– Glazer, Nathan. "Review of Eagle at My Eyes by Norman Katkov." Commentary, March, 1948.
Excerpt: This book begins with the story of a pogrom and ends with the line, “All right, you bastards [the Gentiles], here I come.” The hero, named Joe, tells his story in the first… More

Shalom Means Peace by Robert St. John Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "'Shalom Means Peace', by Robert St. John Reviewed." Review of Shalom Means Peace by Robert St. John. Commentary May 1949.
Excerpt: Mr. St. John, a journalist who has written books about Yugoslavia, here covers a few months in the spring and summer of 1948 in Palestine, while warfare and truces alternated. Mr.… More

The Study of Man: ‘The American Soldier’ as Science

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: 'The American Soldier' as Science." Commentary, November, 1947.
Excerpt: [The Emperor Frederick II] wanted to find out what kind of speech and what manner of speech children would have when they grew up, if they spoke to no one beforehand. So he bade… More

A Child’s Guide to a Parent’s Mind

– Glazer, Nathan. "A Child's Guide to a Parent's Mind by Sally Liberman Reviewed." Commentary, March, 1950.
Excerpt: This book grew out of questions asked by young persons of seventeen to twenty-five as to why their parents were so impossible, and was written by a young woman who was graduated… More

Study of Man: What Sociology Knows About American Jews

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: What Sociology Knows About American Jews." Commentary, 1950.
Excerpt: The sociological study of American Jews should help us to find the answers to many of the questions about the nature of Jewish life that are continually being raised in private and… More

The Study of Man: The Authoritarian Personality in Profile

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: The Authoritarian Personality in Profile." Commentary, June, 1950.
Excerpt: Four years ago, this department reported on an approach to the study of prejudice which, it was predicted, held great promise for the future: Else Frenkel-Brunswik and R. Nevitt… More

‘Science is a Sacred Cow’ by Anthony Standen Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "'Science is a Sacred Cow' by Anthony Standen Reviewed." Review of Science is a Sacred Cow, by Anthony Standen, Commentary, August, 1950.
Excerpt: From a distance, science looks as a whole like the secure, foolproof, intelligent, and eminently successful enterprise that it is only in part. Up close one discovers that the… More

The Troubled Air, by Irwin Shaw Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Troubled Air," Commentary, April, 1950.
Excerpt: One by one, our young novelists are moving from considerations of war and its aftermath to considerations of politics. Irwin Shaw has selected a narrower canvas than Norman Mailer,… More

The Study of Man: What Opinion Polls Can and Can’t Do

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: What Opinion Polls Can and Can't Do." Commentary, 1951.
Excerpt: Since 1948, public opinion polls have not been much in the public eye. The Great Miscalculation of 1948 drove them from their favored places in the daily newspapers, and the… More

The Study of Man: Why Jews Stay Sober

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: Why Jews Stay Sober." Commentary, 1952.
Excerpt: In one respect, at least, the American Jews are not very different from the Israeli Jews who contemptuously dismiss them as assimilated goyim: neither have much use for hard… More

The Study of Man: What Americans Get Out of College

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: What Americans Get Out of College." Commentary, May, 1952.
Excerpt: The uniqueness of America is nowhere more apparent than in the fact that the college-educated group, which in most countries of the Western world is the elite, is here a mass.… More

The Future of American Politics, by Samuel Lubell

– Glazer, Nathan. "Review of The Future of American Politics, by Samuel Lubell," Commentary, July, 1952.
Excerpt: Samuel Lubell’s The Future of American Politics is, in this reviewer’s opinion, the best book yet written on American politics of the last twenty years; and if a better… More

The Study of Man: America’s Ethnic Pattern

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: America's Ethnic Pattern." Commentary, April, 1953.
Excerpt: The fact that Americans are also— and in many cases, primarily—Germans, Italians, Poles, Jews, etc. is taken with deadly seriousness by the general mass of Americans, but tends… More

The Study of Man: More Insanity Than a Century Ago?

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: More Insanity Than a Century Ago?" Commentary, 1953.
Excerpt: The various social sciences, like all disciplines possessing an individual history and a corps of specially trained practitioners, ask their own questions, and answer them in their… More

Dissent: A Quarterly of Socialist Opinion Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Dissent: A Quarterly of Socialist Opinion' Reviewed." Review of Dissent, Commentary, February, 1954.
Excerpt: When, about a year ago, one heard that a group of writers dissatisfied with the prevailing trends in American politics—Irving Howe, Lewis Coser, Travers Clement, Meyer Schapiro,… More

The Study of Man: New Light on ‘The Authoritarian Personality’

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Study of Man: New Light on 'The Authoritarian Personality.'" Commentary, 1954.
Excerpt: The Authoritarian Personality, published in 1950 as part of the Studies in Prejudice series sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, stands as one of the most ambitious efforts… More

The Study of Man: Civil Liberties and the American People

– Glazer, Nathan. " The Study of Man: Civil Liberties and the American People." Commentary, August, 1955.
Excerpt: Ten or twenty years ago, no one could have predicted that the defense of civil liberties would become the complicated problem it is today.

Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement by Marshall Sklare Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement' by Marshall Sklare, Reviewed." Review of Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement, by Marshall Sklare, Commentary, September, 1955.
Excerpt: Conservative Judaism is a work of the highest distinction, both as a study of American Jewish life and as a contribution to contemporary American sociology. In both these fields,… More

The Jewish Revival in America: I: A Sociologist’s Report

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Jewish Revival in America: I: A Sociologist's Report." Commentary, 1955.
Excerpt: This is the first of two essays on American Jewry’s present religious revival, based on a series of lectures delivered by the author this past spring at the University of… More

The Jewish Revival in America, II: Its Religious Side

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Jewish Revival in America, II: Its Religious Side." Commentary, January, 1956.
Excerpt: Last month we described the various pressures and patterns that have led to larger and larger numbers of American Jews joining religious institutions. More Jewish children today… More

Strangers in the Land by John Higham Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Strangers in the Land', by John Higham Reviewed." Review of Strangers in the Land, by John Higham, Commentary, June 1956.
Excerpt: John Higham’s book deals with the background of one of the most important decisions in American history—the decision, made thirty-five years ago, to limit immigrants to this… More

Crestwood Heights by John R. Seeley, R. Alexander Simm, and Elizabeth W. Looseley Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Crestwood Heights' by John R. Seeley, R. Alexander Simm, and Elizabeth W. Looseley Reviewed." Review of Crestwood Heights, by John R. Seeley, R. Alexander Simm, and Elizabeth W. Looseley, Commentary, November, 1956.
Excerpt: “Crestwood Heights” is a well-to-do suburb of Toronto. I am not sure precisely how “well-to-do”—one of the problems of this book, indeed, is that just this kind of… More

Rabbi in America by Israel Knox Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Rabbi in America', by Israel Knox Reviewed." Review of Rabbi in America, by Israel Knox, Commentary, March 1958.
Excerpt: Rabbi in America is one of the volumes in the Library of American Biography series, edited by Oscar Handlin; and if, as one assumes, it is the only volume to be devoted to an… More

Alcohol and the Jews by Charles R. Snyder Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Alcohol and the Jews', by Charles R. Snyder Reviewed." Review of Alcohol and the Jews, by Charles R. Snyder, Commentary, June, 1958.
Excerpt: The Yale Center of Alcohol Studies has been interested for a number of years in the remarkable differences in the rates of alcoholism among various ethnic groups in America. Thus,… More

New York’s Puerto Ricans: Formation and Future of a New Community

– Glazer, Nathan. "New York's Puerto Ricans: Formation and Future of a New Community." Commentary, December, 1958.
Excerpt: New York’s Puerto Rican immigrants, who have already established a community in the city larger than the population of Seattle or New Orleans, are a historical accident. When… More

W.E.B. Du Bois: Negro Leader in a Time of Crisis by Francis L. Broderick Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "W.E.B. Du Bois: Negro Leader in a Time of Crisis', by Francis L. Broderick Reviewed." Review of W.E.B. Du Bois: Negro Leader in a Time of Crisis, by Francis L. Broderick, Commentary, April, 1960.
Excerpt: In 1915, Booker T. Washington died. Dr. Du Bois, then editor of The Crisis, the organ of the newly founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for some… More

The Nation’s Children Edited by Eli Ginzberg Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Nation's Children', Edited by Eli Ginzberg Reviewed." Review of The Nation's Children, by Eli Ginzberg, Commentary, June, 1960.
Excerpt: These thirty-one papers were prepared as background reading for the decennial White House Conference on Children and Youth held late in March in Washington, with a vast attendance… More

American Immigration, by Maldwyn Allen Jones; American Labor, by Henry Pelling; American Philanthropy, by Robert H. Bremner Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. “American Immigration, by Maldwyn Allen Jones; American Labor, by Henry Pelling; American Philanthropy, by Robert H. Bremner Reviewed." Commentary, August, 1960.
Excerpt: These three books are the most recent additions to the Chicago History of American Civilization, which has been imaginatively, even brilliantly, edited by Daniel Boorstin. It is… More

Is ‘Integration’ Possible in the New York Schools?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Is 'Integration' Possible in the New York Schools?" Commentary, 1960.
Excerpt: It is now more than six years since “integration” became an issue in the New York City school system; and, very likely, at the start of the new school term some of New… More

The Peace Movement in America… 1961

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Peace Movement in America... 1961." Commentary, 1961.
Excerpt: Why is it that the peace movement in America has never been able to attract the kind of mass support which has gathered around the peace movement in England? The danger of nuclear… More

Is New York City Ungovernable?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Is New York City Ungovernable?" Commentary, 1961.
Excerpt: Anyone studying the city of New York (as I have done for the past year or so) is likely to run across certain facts that cast a rather strange light on the present confusion in its… More

City Problems & Jewish Responsibilities

– Glazer, Nathan. "City Problems & Jewish Responsibilities." Commentary, 1962.
Excerpt: The American city is distinguished among big cities by virtue of the fact that the different ethnic elements making it up are very often of approximately equal size.

Cuba & the Peace Movement

– Glazer, Nathan. "Cuba & the Peace Movement." Commentary, 1962.
Excerpt: Shortly before the President’s October 22 speech declaring a quarantine on shipment of arms to Cuba and demanding the removal of Soviet missiles from that country, the New… More

Herbert H. Lehman of New York

– Glazer, Nathan. "Herbert H. Lehman of New York." Commentary, 1963.
Excerpt: To anyone growing up in New York City in the 1930’s, the trinity of LaGuardia, Lehman, and Roosevelt seemed as fixed and permanent as the city streets. It was hardly possible… More

A Commentary Report: The Puerto Ricans

– Glazer, Nathan. "A Commentary Report: The Puerto Ricans." Commentary, July, 1963.
Excerpt: If someone twenty-five years ago had looked around at the potential sources of new immigration to New York City, his eye might well have fallen on Puerto Rico, but he would… More

The Good Society

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Good Society." Commentary, September, 1963.
Excerpt: It used to be—it seems to have been so even yesterday—that people with a reforming bent of mind knew, or thought they knew, what they meant by the “good society,” and they… More

Negroes and Jews: The New Challenge to Pluralism

– Glazer, Nathan. "Negroes and Jews: The New Challenge to Pluralism." Commentary, 1964.
Excerpt: If today one re-reads the article by Kenneth Clark on Negro-Jewish relations that was published in Commentary almost nineteen years ago, one will discover that tension between… More

What Happened at Berkeley

– Glazer, Nathan. "What Happened at Berkeley." Commentary, 1965.
Excerpt: As I write this, in late December, we in Berkeley are in the Christmas lull. The university’s 18,000 undergraduates are for the most part at home, many of the faculty and… More

Paradoxes of American Poverty

– Glazer, Nathan. "Paradoxes of American Poverty." The Public Interest, 1965.
Excerpt: Presidents, socialists, reformers and academicians have set the prevailing contemporary tone in discussing poverty in America– shock and outrage that it should exist, followed by… More

The Negro American

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Negro American." The Public Interest, 1966.
Excerpt: The two issues of Daedalus (Fall, 1965 and Winter, 1966) devoted to “The Negro American” provide as excellent a guide to our peculiar problem today as one could reasonably hope… More

La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty – San Juan and New York by Oscar Lewis Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty - San Juan and New York', by Oscar Lewis Reviewed." Review of La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty - San Juan and New York by Oscar Lewis, Commentary, February, 1967.
Excerpt: This enormous volume is presented as only the first of a series on Puerto Rican slum families in San Juan and New York. It will form an important part of the literature building up… More

Housing Problems and Housing Policies

– Glazer, Nathan. "Housing Problems and Housing Policies." The Public Interest, 1967.
Excerpt: The question of what is “good housing” is never as simple as it appears. Primitive dwellings on Greek isles delight architects and city planners who are horrified by the… More

The New Left and Its Limits

– Glazer, Nathan. "The New Left and Its Limits." Commentary, 1968.
Excerpt: For the last few years I have looked with increasing skepticism on the analyses and the actions of the radical Left in America. By the radical Left I mean those who believe there… More

Jewish Identity on the Suburban Frontier by Marshall Sklare and Joseph Greenblum Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Jewish Identity on the Suburban Frontier', by Marshall Sklare and Joseph Greenblum Reviewed." Review of Jewish Identity on the Suburban Frontier by Marshall Sklare and Joseph Greenblum, Commentary, August, 1968.
Excerpt: “Lakeville” is a suburb of a Midwest metropolis, with a population of twenty-five thousand, a quarter of whom are Jews. It is an old suburb, which grew rapidly in the years… More

“Student Power” in Berkeley

– Glazer, Nathan. "'Student power' in Berkeley." The Public Interest, 1968.
Excerpt: Whatever students may be doing to change the world—and they are clearly doing a good deal—it could turn out that, in the end, it is rather easier to change the world than the… More

On Task Forcing

– Glazer, Nathan. "On task forcing." The Public Interest, 1969.
Excerpt: The presidential-transition task force has had a short history of only eight years. We have it on the authority of a very high figure in the present administration that the… More

Blacks, Jews & the Intellectuals

– Glazer, Nathan. "Blacks, Jews & the Intellectuals." Commentary, 1969.
Excerpt: I think it is all for the best that Earl Raab and Milton Himmelfarb have raised as sharply as they have in the pages of Commentary the issue of black anti-Semitism-its extent, its… More

110 Livingston Street by David Rogers Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "110 Livingston Street, by David Rogers Reviewed." Review of 110 Livingston Street by David Rogers, Commentary, May, 1969.
Excerpt: One can scarcely conceive of an issue more important to the future of the cities than the failure of the New York City Board of Education and the political structure of the City of… More

Beyond Income Maintenance – a note on welfare in New York City

– Glazer, Nathan. "Beyond income maintenance - a note on welfare in New York City." The Public Interest, 1969.
Excerpt: In New York, we are in the position of having glimpsed the future, and of being able to report that it doesn’t work. While the rest of the country and the federal government… More

A New Look at the Melting Pot

– Glazer, Nathan. "A new look at the melting pot." The Public Interest, 1969.
Excerpt: The major part of Beyond the Melting Pot by myself and Daniel P. Moynihan dates from 1960-61. It was in those years, at the end of Mayor Wagner’s second term, that the chapters… More

Social Policy, May/June 1970 Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Social Policy, May/June 1970 Reviewed." Review of Social Policy, Commentary, August, 1970.
Excerpt: Social Policy is a new journal devoted generally to social change, but specifically to a critical examination of the various agencies of social policy—in education, health,… More

On Being Deradicalized

– Glazer, Nathan. "On Being Deradicalized." Commentary, 1970.
Excerpt: How does a radical—a mild radical, it is true, but still someone who felt closer to radical than to liberal writers and politicians in the late 1950s—end up by early 1970 a… More

A Breakdown in Civil Rights Enforcement?

– Glazer, Nathan. "A breakdown in civil rights enforcement?" The Public Interest, 1971.
Excerpt: When the enormous report 1 of the United States Commission on Civil Rights appeared last October, it made page one of the New York Times, under the predictable headlines, “U.S.… More

Vietnam: The Case for Immediate Withdrawal

– Glazer, Nathan. "Vietnam: The Case for Immediate Withdrawal." Commentary, May, 1971.
Excerpt: One is embarrassed to add new words on Vietnam. Already there have been millions, and despite the good sense so many of them have shown, they have as yet, after all these years,… More

Blood

– Glazer, Nathan. "Blood." The Public Interest, 1971.
Excerpt: No American can read The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy, by Richard M. Titmuss (Pantheon, $6.95) without shame. We are generally aware that American health… More

Revolutionism and the Jews: 3 – The Role of the Intellectual

– Glazer, Nathan. "Revolutionism and the Jews: 3 - The Role of the Intellectual." Commentary, September, 1971.
Excerpt: It is notoriously difficult to frame a definition of “intellectuals” that will serve for all times and all issues, but let me suggest a working one: Intellectuals are people… More

The Limits of Social Policy

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Limits of Social Policy." Commentary, September, 1971.
Excerpt: There is a general sense that we face a crisis in social policy, and in almost all its branches. Whether this crisis derives from the backwardness of the United States in social… More

Paradoxes of Health Care

– Glazer, Nathan. "Paradoxes of Health Care." The Public Interest, 1971.
Excerpt: Some intriguing questions–indeed, mysteries–seem to arise when one examines the field of health care. I intend to present some data–the best available, to my… More

Is Busing Necessary?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Is Busing Necessary?" Commentary, 1972.
Excerpt: It is the fate of any social reform in the United States—perhaps anywhere—that, instituted by enthusiasts, men of vision, politicians, statesmen, it is soon put into the… More

The Street Gangs and Ethnic Enterprise

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Street Gangs and Ethnic Enterprise." The Public Interest, 1972.
Excerpt: It has long been felt by those who struggle with the acute problems of living in the low-income areas of our cities that some answers could be found in the informal structures of… More

McGovern and the Jews: A Debate

– Glazer, Nathan. "McGovern and the Jews: A Debate." Commentary, 1972.
Excerpt: This will be the first electoral campaign in memory in which the question of specific Jewish interests may play a serious role in voting by American Jews.

Perspectives on Health Care

– Glazer, Nathan. "Perspectives on Health Care." The Public Interest, 1973.
Excerpt: In an earlier article in The Public Interest (No. 22, Winter 1971), I explored some international comparisons in health care, pointing in particular to the fact that Sweden and… More

Ethnicity and the Schools

– Glazer, Nathan. "Ethnicity and The Schools." Commentary, September, 1974.
Excerpt: It is not easy to find the words that would accurately describe the current wave of ethnic feeling which seems now to be sweeping over America. Even the word “wave” may strike… More

On Opening Up the Suburbs

– Glazer, Nathan. "On opening up the suburbs." The Public Interest, 1974.
Excerpt: We are living through what seems to be a low point of interest in the “crisis of the cities.” There are no longer any major television documentaries. The economic crisis of the… More

Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery; Time on the Cross: Evidence and Methods-A Supplement, by Robert Will Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "'Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery'; 'Time on the Cross: Evidence and Methods-A Supplement', by Robert Will Reviewed." Commentary, October, 1974.  
Excerpt: The main themes of Time on the Cross are already familiar: they have been presented in book reviews, in newspaper reports, in television programs. Fogel and Engerman have… More

Why Ethnicity?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Why Ethnicity?" Commentary, 1974.
Excerpt: Ethnicity seems to be a new term. In the sense in which we use it—the character or quality of an ethnic group—it does not appear in the 1933 edition of the Oxford English… More

Who Wants Higher Education Even When It’s Free?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Who Wants Higher Education Even When It's Free?" The Public Interest, 1975.
Excerpt: For the past decade, analysts of higher education have foreseen a time coming when almost every high school graduate would expect to enter an institution of higher education. The… More

The Exposed American Jew

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Exposed American Jew," Commentary, 1975.
Excerpt: Until four or five years ago, it could be argued—and I myself did so argue—that the concern of some Jewish community leaders for the position of Jews in the United States was… More

Reform Work, Not Welfare

– Glazer, Nathan. "Reform Work, Not Welfare." The Public Interest, 1975.
Excerpt: We are not thinking about welfare much these days. With a high and rising rate of unemployment, the key issue is clearly what to do about putting men and women back to work. But… More

Hannah Arendt’s America

– Glazer, Nathan. "Hannah Arendt's America." Commentary, 1975.
Excerpt: Hannah Arendt is our teacher. First, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, she taught us about the great horror of our time; then, in The Human Condition, she taught us about how the… More

Towards an imperial judiciary?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Towards an imperial judiciary?" The Public Interest, 1975.
Excerpt: A non-lawyer who considers the remarkable role of courts in the interpretation of the Constitution and the laws in the United States finds himself in a never-never land-one in… More

An Answer to Lillian Hellman

– Glazer, Nathan. "An Answer to Lillian Hellman." Commentary, 1976.
Excerpt: Lillian Hellman’s Scoundrel Time, tells the story of her appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, and tells something, in flashbacks, of her… More

American Values & American Foreign Policy

– Glazer, Nathan. "American Values & American Foreign Policy." Commentary, 1976.
Excerpt: The United States is probably the only major country in the world in which it is taken quite as a matter of course that people will talk seriously about the relation of the… More

Should Judges Administer Social Services?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Should judges administer social services?" The Public Interest, 1978.
Excerpt: What role should the judiciary play in overseeing, correcting, setting standards for, and directly administering social services? The question must be raised because, in recent… More

The Rediscovery of the Family

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Rediscovery of the Family." Commentary, 1978.
Excerpt: A funny thing happened on the way to developing a radical critique of the American family: it has turned out that the old model was not so bad after all. One of our best-known… More

Why Bakke Won’t End Reverse Discrimination: 2

– Glazer, Nathan. "Why Bakke Won't End Reverse Discrimination: 2." Commentary, 1978.
Excerpt: If the long opinion written by Justice Powell in the Bakke case were truly “the judgment of the Court,” then I believe there would be grounds for satisfaction among those of us… More

The Attack on the Professions

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Attack on the Professions." Commentary, 1978.
Excerpt: Professionalism, professionalization, and the professions are increasingly central to any grasp of modern societies, yet persistently elude proper understanding. On the one hand,… More

On subway graffiti in New York

– Glazer, Nathan. "On subway graffiti in New York." The Public Interest 54 (1979): 3-11.
Excerpt: For six years or so one of the more astonishing sights of New York has been the graffiti on the subway trains. The word “graffiti” scarcely suggests, to those who have not seen… More

Regulating business and the universities: one problem or two?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Regulating business and the universities: one problem or two?" The Public Interest 56 (1979): 43-65.
Excerpt: The history of the Federal government’s regulation of business is much longer than that of its regulation of the universities and colleges. Until the middle 1960’s or so, its… More

Black English and reluctant judges

– Glazer, Nathan. "Black English and reluctant judges." The Public Interest 62 (1981): 40-54.
Excerpt: Perhaps the most common defense of the remarkable expansion of judicial control and supervision of state institutions-schools, prisons, mental hospitals, state schools for the… More

IQ on Trial

– Glazer, Nathan. "IQ on Trial." Commentary, 1981.
Excerpt: We are all increasingly governed by judicial decisions. Decrees of the court tell state officials and employees, teachers and school administrators, staff and administrators of… More

The Zone of Destruction

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Zone of Destruction." The Public Interest 65 (1981): 102-108.
Excerpt: This is little book, the first, I believe, on the spreading destruction of New York City’s housing, has received little or no attention, which is a more serious indictment of New… More

Javits: The Autobiography of a Public Man Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Javits: The Autobiography of a Public Man' Reviewed." Commentary (1981).
Excerpt: Jacob K. Javits served longer in the United States Senate than any other Senator from New York State. One of his proudest moments, he tells us, was the day he surpassed the record… More

Ethnicity – North, South, West

– Glazer, Nathan. "Ethnicity - North, South, West." Commentary 73 (1982): 73-79.
Excerpt: Twelve years ago, Daniel P. Moynihan and I, reviewing the condition of politics in New York City for the second edition of Beyond the Melting Pot, described two models of group… More

Christo in Central Park and in Harlem

– Glazer, Nathan. "Christo in Central Park and in Harlem." The Public Interest 68 (1982): 70-77.
Excerpt: The artist Christo (sculptor? happenings director? temporary environments creator?) has proposed for New York’s Central Park what is undoubtedly his largest project to date:… More

The Day is Short

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Day Is Short." Commentary (1982).
Excerpt: Morris Abram is a former president of Brandeis University, of the American Jewish Committee, and of the Field Foundation; a former candidate for the Senate from New York; and a man… More

Towards a self-service society?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Towards a self-service society?" The Public Interest, 1983.
Excerpt: Perhaps nothing so clearly indicates the possible future shape of the welfare society than the surprising convergence, in at least one respect, of the proposals of two such… More

The Rosenberg File, by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Rosenberg File', by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton Reviewed." Review of The Rosenberg File, by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, Commentary, October, 1983.
Excerpt: Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, in this superlative book, describe how their conviction that the Rosenbergs were innocent changed on the basis of a lengthy study of the case, and… More

Paris – the view from New York

– Glazer, Nathan. "Paris - the view from New York." The Public Interest, 1984.
Excerpt: In the two weeks after my return from a year in Paris, the New York Times reported that there were some serious derailments on the New York City subway, trains were slowed in the… More

The social policy of the Reagan administration: a review

– Glazer, Nathan. "The social policy of the Reagan administration: a review." The Pubic Interest, 1984.
Excerpt: That the Reagan administration may indeed be something new on the American scene is suggested by the fact that no less than two major programs assessing its domestic social policy… More

On Jewish Forebodings

– Glazer, Nathan. "On Jewish Forebodings." Commentary 80 (1985): 32-37.
Excerpt: Students of American Jewry confront an interesting paradox: a sociological literature filled with forebodings about a group whose history, by all relevant measures, has gone very… More

Interests and passions

– Glazer, Nathan. "Interests and passions." The Public Interest 81 (1985): 17-30.
Excerpt: The Public Interestwas launched under the sign of the interests; it now operates in an environment in which the passions are dominant. By “interests” I mean of course… More

How Has The U.S. Met Its Major Challenges Since 1945?

– Glazer, Nathan. "How Has The U.S. Met Its Major Challenges Since 1945." Commentary (1985).
Excerpt: Exactly forty years ago, in the first issue of Commentary (November 1945), its founding editor, the late Elliot E. Cohen, wrote an introductory statement outlining the problems… More

The City that Never Sweeps

– Glazer, Nathan. The City that Never Sweeps." The Public Interest 83 (1986): 108-112.
Excerpt: Not long ago, a writer who had left New York City and was living in the South was interviewed in the New York Times. She said she had left because all discussion in New York—even… More

The Constitution and American diversity

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Constitution and American diversity." The Public Interest 85 (1987): 10-21.
Excerpt: The celebration of the framing of the American Constitution comes close upon the heels of the celebration of the hundredth anniversary and rededication of the Statue of Liberty.… More

The affirmative action stalemate

– Glazer, Nathan. "The affirmative action stalemate." The Public Interest 86 (1988): 99-114.
Excerpt: Ten years ago the Supreme Court handed down its first decision on affirmative action. It dealt with the case of an applicant who had been denied admission to a medical school,… More

The Lessons of New York City

– Glazer, Nathan. "The lessons of New York City." The Public Interest 104 (1991): 37-49.
Excerpt: To consider the future of our cities here in the building of the New York Academy of Medicine, at 103rd Street and Fifth Avenue, presents an opportunity for some telling contrasts… More

The real world of urban education

– Glazer, Nathan. "The real world of urban education." The Public Interest 106 (1992): 57-75.
Excerpt: We are now in the eighth year of a fever of concern about the quality of American education that has been unparalleled in the history of the republic. We can date it from the 1983… More

Subverting the context: Public space and public design

– Glazer, Nathan. "'Subverting the context': Public space and public design." The Public Interest 109 (1992): 3-21.
Excerpt: The age when we built great city parks, or parkways, or boulevards is over and has been for forty years or more. Anyone raised in New York City or Boston knows how much these… More

A human capital policy for the cities

– Glazer, Nathan. "A human capital policy for the cities." The Public Interest 112 (1993): 27-49.
Excerpt: A new national administration has taken office, one of whose defining characteristics is its commitment to human capital investment, which it sees as crucial for the restoration of… More

The Closing Door

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Closing Door." The New Republic December 26, 1993.
Excerpt: Clearly we are at the beginning of a major debate on immigration. The issue has been raised most immediately in recent months by the immigrants, legal and illegal, now charged with… More

How social problems are born

– Glazer, Nathan. "How social problems are born." The Public Interest, 1994.
Excerpt: How do we get more attention, more public action, for a problem we consider important? More important, how do we get the right kind of public attention and action, right in scale,… More

Immigration and the American future

– Glazer, Nathan. "Immigration and the American future." The Public Interest 118 (1995): 45-60.
Excerpt: The discussion of immigration and its impact on American society should be based on facts, on meaningful projections, and on a reasoned discussion of impacts in various areas. The… More

Levin, Jeffries, and the fate of academic autonomy

– Glazer, Nathan. "Levin, Jeffries, and the fate of academic autonomy." The Public Interest 120 (1995): 14-40.
Excerpt: Professors Michael Levin and Leonard Jeffries of the City College of New York have both been in the news—Professor Jeffries is still in the news—for things they have written… More

Black and white after thirty years

– Glazer, Nathan. "Black and white after thirty years." The Public Interest 121 (1995): 61-79.
Excerpt: There is nothing that concentrates the mind on an issue more sharply than discovering one has been wrong about it. Twenty years ago, in an article in The Public Interest, I dealt… More

Monuments in an age without heroes

– Glazer, Nathan. "Monuments in an age without heroes." The Public Interest 123 (1996): 22-39.
Excerpt: The appearance of The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson, leads one to think of one of Parkinson’s laws: When the capital is complete, the empire is… More

New York: the ‘old city’

– Glazer, Nathan. "New York: the 'old city'." The Public Interest 125 (1996): 61-79.
Excerpt: It was not much noted, or indeed noted at all, that the Million Man March in Washington last November took place in front of what was described in the 1937 Works Progress… More

American epic: then and now

– Glazer, Nathan. "American epic: then and now." The Public Interest 130 (1998): 106-115.
Excerpt: Not long ago, the remarkably productive Michael Lind published The Alamo: An Epic. It is truly, perhaps surprisingly for our day, an epic poem, long—281 pages—as an epic should… More

Is Affirmative Action on Its Way Out? Should It Be?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Is Affirmative Action on Its Way Out? Should It Be?" Commentary (1998).
Excerpt: For the past several decades, public and private institutions in the United States have operated under a system according to which designated minority groups receive special… More

In Defense of Preference

–
Glazer, Nathan. "In Defense of Preference." The New Republic, April 6, 1998.
Excerpt: The battle over affirmative action today is a contest between a clear principle on the one hand and a clear reality on the other. The principle is that ability, qualifications, and… More

The college and the city: then and now

– Glazer, Nathan. "The college and the city: then and now." The Public Interest 132 (1998): 3-20.
Excerpt: The City College of New York celebrated its 150th anniversary during the current academic year. It also celebrated progress in the $85 million restoration of the grand collegiate… More

The case for racial preferences

– Glazer, Nathan. "The case for racial preferences." The Public Interest 135 (1999): 45-63.
Excerpt: It rarely happens that answers to contested political questions can be found in a relevant body of data and empirical analysis. Certainly, a scarcity of data has long afflicted the… More

Culture and achievement

– Glazer, Nathan. "Culture and achievement." The Public Interest, 2000.
Excerpt: The relationship between their cultures and the economic and political trajectories of nations and civilizations is now a major topic among analysts of the differences among… More

The American diversity and the 2000 Census

– Glazer, Nathan. "The American diversity and the 2000 Census." The Public Interest 144 (2001): 3-18.
Excerpt: The 2000 census, on which the Census Bureau started issuing reports in March and April of 2001, reflected, in its structure and its results, the two enduring themes of American… More

Lipset’s big question

– Glazer, Nathan. "Lipset's big question." The Public Interest 148 (2002): 111-118.
Excerpt: Seymore Martin Lipset and Gary Marks’ It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States represents Lipset’s most recent and most substantial entry in his… More

Do we Need the Census Race Question?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Do we need the census race question?" The Public Interest 149 (2002): 21-31.
Excerpt: A few years ago, asked to comment on the controversy over the demand of so-called multiracial advocacy groups for a “multiracial” category in the census, I made a brash and… More

The black faculty gap

– Glazer, Nathan. "The black faculty gap." The Public Interest, 2003.
Excerpt: Increasing Faculty Diversity: The Occupational Choices of High-Achieving Minority Students, by the sociologists Stephen Cole and Elinor Barber, has already aroused controversy.… More

In Praise of Nepotism by Adam Bellow Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "In Praise of Nepotism' by Adam Bellow Reviewed." Review of In Praise of Nepotism by Adam Bellow, Commentary, September, 2003.
Excerpt: This is a book whose provenance may well overshadow any serious discussion of its merits. Adam Bellow is a well-known editor, and he is also the son of Saul Bellow—as he notes… More

The university for sale

– Glazer, Nathan. "The university for sale." The Public Interest 154 (2004): 112-118.
Excerpt: Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard, who in the dozen years since he left the presidency has written five important books on major issues affecting the nation and higher… More

Neoconservative from the Start

– Glazer, Nathan. "Neoconservative from the start." The Public Interest 159 (2005): 12-17.
Excerpt: When Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol were discussing founding a new journal, The Public Interest, I was teaching at the University of California in Berkeley, after having worked for… More

Shame of the Nation: Separate and Unequal by Jonathan Kozol Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Shame of the Nation." Review of Separate and Unequal by Jonathan Kozol, The New York Times, September 25, 2005.
Excerpt: Jonathan Kozol has been writing books rather similar to this one since “Death at an Early Age” in 1968. He is persistent, it is true, but so is the problem that has… More

Beyond the Melting Pot: Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny by Amartya Sen Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Beyond the Melting Pot." Review of Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny by Amartya Sen, Education Next, Fall 2006.
Excerpt: The books reviewed here are the first to be published in a series titled “Issues of Our Times,” edited by the omnipresent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose… More

Exceptionalist

– Glazer, Nathan. "Exceptionalist." The New Republic, January 22, 2007.
Excerpt: Seymour Martin Lipset, the distinguished political sociologist who died on December 31, 2006, tells the story in a memoir of how he shifted in City College (CCNY) from science—as… More

What Happened to the Social Agenda?

– Glazer, Nathan. "What Happened to the Social Agenda?" The American Scholar (2007).
Excerpt: Seven years ago, I was asked to address the 1950 class of the Harvard Graduate School of Design at their 50th reunion in Cambridge. One sentence in the invitation from Robert… More

Three Rs and a V: Schools should teach the importance of voting

– Glazer, Nathan. "Three Rs and a V: Schools should teach the importance of voting." Education Next 7 (2007).
Excerpt: Why We Vote is a provocative interpretation of the factors that determine participation in our democratic processes, and specifically voting, the form of participation available to… More

Inside the Testing Factory

– Glazer, Nathan. "Inside the Testing Factory." Education Next, 2008.
Excerpt: No Child Left Behind, aside from its other effects, has generated a new kind of “successful schools” book, one which looks at schools that have done better than expected on… More

A Word From Our Sponsor: The Might Wurlitzer by Hugh Wilford Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "A Word From Our Sponsor" Review of The Mighty Wurlitzer by Hugh Wilford, The New York Times, January 20, 2008.
Excerpt: This is a book whose content somewhat contradicts its title. “Mighty Wurlitzer” was the metaphor Frank Wisner, the first chief of political warfare for the Central Intelligence… More

Shanghai Surprise

– Glazer, Nathan. "Shanghai Surprise." The New Republic, January 30, 2008.
Excerpt: Shanghai, from which I have just returned after a first visit to China, has a specially built modern museum to house exhibits on the planning for the future Shanghai, and it… More

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An honest look at union hero Albert Shanker

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An honest look at union hero Albert Shanker." Education Next 8 no. 2 (2008).
Excerpt: “Madman or Visionary?” reads the publicity material that accompanies this biography of Albert Shanker. The dust jacket describes the paradigmatic moment in Woody Allen’s 1973… More

Preschool Politics: States’ efforts to reach the very young

– Glazer, Nathan. "Preschool Politics: States' efforts to reach the very young." Education Next 8 no. 3 (2008).
Excerpt: A holiday-themed campaign ad for Hillary Clinton showed the candidate affixing to boxes wrapped in shiny paper gift tags marked with campaign issues, with the final tag marked… More

The Best Addresses

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Best Addresses." Review of Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life by Richard Florida, The New Republic, December 3, 2008.
Excerpt: In 2002, with The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida launched one of those terms or categories or ideas–there have been many–that try to structure our… More

Purposeful Youth

– Glazer, Nathan. "Purposeful Youth." Education Next, 2009.
Excerpt: William Damon, a distinguished psychologist and the director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, has long been interested, along with Howard Gardner and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,… More

The Interested Man

– Glazer, Nathan. "The Interested Man." The New Republic, October 2, 2009.
Excerpt: When Irving Kristol joined the new magazine Commentary, he distinguished himself from the other editors–Clement Greenberg, part-time then, Robert Warshow, and me. First, he… More

Outliers’, by Malcolm Gladwell Reviewed

– Glazer, Nathan. "Outliers', by Malcolm Gladwell Reviewed." Review of Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell, Education Next, 2009.
Excerpt: Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for The New Yorker, has become wildly successful mining the findings of social scientists to support ideas or hypotheses that it turns out have been of… More

Examining a Massacre

– Glazer, Nathan. "Examining a Massacre." Review of Columbine by David Cullen, Education Next, Winter 2010.
Excerpt: This book is clearly the last word on Columbine. The author has reported on the Columbine high-school massacre in various magazines and newspapers since 1999; he has interviewed,… More

Tale of Two Cities

– Glazer, Nathan. "Tale of Two Cities." Review of Hope and Despair in the American City by Gerald Grant, Education Next, Spring 2010.
Excerpt: Syracuse, New York, does not appear in the title of this book, as Raleigh, North Carolina, does, but its experience is the reason for it. Author Gerald Grant was born in Syracuse… More

Equal Knowledge

– Glazer, Nathan. "Equal Knowledge." Review of The Making of Americans by E.D. Hirsch Jr., Education Next, Summer 2010.
Excerpt: E. D. Hirsch has contributed what is to me the most persuasive idea of the past half century on how to improve the performance of American education. It is a simple idea, but has… More

Notes on the State of Black America

– Glazer, Nathan. "Notes on the State of Black America." The American Interest, July 1, 2010.
Excerpt: The election of Barack Obama to the presidency in November 2008 marked a paradox in the long history of race in America that has not been much noticed: The installation of the… More

Lessons from a Reformer

– Glazer, Nathan. "Lessons from a Reformer." Review of As Good As It Gets by Larry Cuban, Education Next, Fall 2010.
Excerpt: Larry Cuban is a prolific and insightful chronicler and analyst of our efforts at urban school reform and improvement over the last few decades. In As Good As It Gets he adds the… More

Speech Acts

– Glazer, Nathan. "Speech Acts." Review of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America by Kenneth L. Marcus, The New Republic, December 20, 2010.
Excerpt: Kenneth Marcus has written what are in effect two books, one of them distinctly odd. The first book is the story of Marcus’s efforts over a number of years to have Title VI of… More

E Pluribus Plures

– Glazer, Nathan. "E Pluribus Plures." Review of Patriotic Pluralism by Jeffrey E. Mirel, Education Next, Winter 2011.
Excerpt: Americanization, argues education historian Jeffrey Mirel in Patriotic Pluralism, both the process and the term, has been widely misunderstood and too narrowly interpreted in the… More

Whatever Happened to Integration?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Whatever Happened to Integration?" Review of Five Miles Away, A World Apart by James E. Ryan, Education Next, Summer 2011.
Excerpt: The two schools referred to in the title of this book are Thomas Jefferson (“Tee-Jay”) High School in Richmond, Virginia, and Freeman High School, in suburban Henrico County.… More

Cautionary Tale

– Glazer, Nathan. "Cautionary Tale." Review of Schoolhouse of Cards by Eugene Hickok and Collision Course by Paul Manna, Education Next, Fall 2011.
Excerpt: Whatever Possessed the President? was the unlikely title of Robert C. Wood’s memoir of urban policy during the 1960s. The same thought springs to mind in reading these two books… More

Green Dot Takeover

– Glazer, Nathan. "Green Dot Takeover." Review of Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors: Fighting for the Soul of America's Toughest High School by Alexander Russo, Education Next, 2012.
Excerpt: Neither “stray dogs” nor “saints” play any role in Alexander Russo’s account of how Green Dot, a nonprofit organization that creates new charter high schools, managed to… More

Great Teachers in the Classroom?

– Glazer, Nathan. "Great Teachers in the Classroom?" Review of Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools by Steven Brill, Education Next, Spring 2012.
Excerpt: Steven Brill’s Class Warfare must be the most prominently reviewed book on education in decades: a lengthy front-page review by Sara Mosle in the New York Times Book Review, a… More

Moynihan Redux

– Glazer, Nathan. "Moynihan Redux." Review of Shortchanging Student Achievement: The Educational, Economic, and Social Costs of Family Fragmentation by Mitch Pearlstein, Education Next, Summer 2012.
Excerpt: This book comes to us with a remarkable range of recommenders: Glenn Loury, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Eric Hanushek, Ron Haskins, Heather MacDonald, David Blankenhorn,… More

My Life in Sociology

– Glazer, Nathan. "My Life in Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 38, 2012.
Excerpt: Following on an article in Bennett Berger (1990),Authors of Their Own Lives, titled “From Socialism to Sociology,” in which I and other sociologists describe how we came to… More

Grading the President: With Race to the Top, Obama earns a B+ in ed reform

– Glazer, Nathan. "Grading the President: With Race to the Top, Obama earns a B+ in ed reform." Review of President Obama and Education Reform: The Personal and the Political by Robert Maranto and Michael Q. McShane, Education Next, Fall 2012.
Excerpt: This book, and this review, will be published while the presidential campaign is in full swing, and whether there will be anything more to be said about President Obama’s efforts… More

Belmont and Fishtown Part Ways

– Glazer, Nathan. "Belmont and Fishtown Part Ways." Review of Coming Apart by Charles Murray, Education Next, Fall 2012.
Excerpt: On the publication of Charles Murray’s Coming Apart, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote, “I’ll be shocked if there’s another book as important this year…,” but… More

Action Civics

– Glazer, Nathan. "Action Civics." Review of No Citizen Left Behind by Meira Levinson, Education Next, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Meira Levinson is not your run-of-the-mill or even your teach-for-democracy middle-school teacher. She taught in middle schools with minority and low-income children in Atlanta and… More

To YouTube and Beyond

– Glazer, Nathan. "To YouTube and Beyond." Review of The One World School House by Salman Khan, Education Next, Summer 2013.
Excerpt: We are getting used to explosive growth in the world of the Internet (note Facebook), but Salman Khan’s creation, in a few short years, of Khan Academy, with its potentially… More

Cultural Exchange

– Glazer, Nathan. "Cultural Exchange." Review of The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness, and Hope by Claudia Kolker, Education Next, Fall 2013.
Excerpt: “The Immigration Spring” reads the title of the lead editorial in the New York Times today as I write this review of The Immigrant Advantage. The Times is welcoming a rare case… More

The San Diego Story

– Glazer, Nathan. "The San Diego Story." Review of Tilting at Windmills: School Reform, San Diego, and America’s Race to Renew Public Education by Richard Lee Colvin, Education Next, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: Reading this account of Alan Bersin’s successful, by the test scores, but highly contentious time as school superintendent in San Diego, 1998–2005, I could not help but think… More

Underachieving in America: Researchers document international gaps, a journalist seeks the cause

– Glazer, Nathan. "Underachieving in America: Researchers document international gaps, a journalist seeks the cause." Review of Endangering Prosperity: A Global View of the American School by Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, and Ludger Woessmann, Education Next, Spring 2014.
Excerpt: Endangering Prosperity, with three distinguished authors and an eminent introducer, is devoted to one major point: the United States is truly falling behind not only the East Asian… More

Interview with Nathan Glazer

– John Kaag, "Interview with Nathan Glazer," Chronicle of Higher Education,  August 13, 2017.
Nathan Glazer interviewed by John Kaag in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Student protests, free-speech controversies, and debates over diversity in academe are nothing new to Nathan… More

Commentary

Affirmative Discrimination Reviewed by William Petersen

– Petersen, William. "Affirmative Discrimination, by Nathan Glazer Reviewed." Commentary, May, 1976.
This important book is one of the first full-length accounts of the reverse discrimination known as “affirmative action,” and of how that policy has operated in the fields of employment.

Ethnic Dilemmas: 1964-1982, reviewed by Charles Krauthammer

– Krauthammer, Charles.  "Ethnic Dilemmas 1964-1982, by Nathan Glazer Reviewed." Commentary, October 1984.
Excerpt: It is hard to imagine that a book of three hundred pages on affirmative action and associated subjects, pages written over eighteen years of fierce and emotional debate on the… More

Nathan Glazer and Multiculturalism by James Traub

– Traub, James. "I Was Wrong: Nathan Glazer comes to terms with multiculturalism." Slate, May 17, 1997.
Nathan Glazer, the Harvard social scientist and core member of the group known as the New York Intellectuals, appears to be haunted by second thoughts. This may be a sign of irresolution.… More

Nathan Glazer’s Warning by Howard Husock

– Husock, Howard. "Nathan Glazer's Warning." City Journal, Summer 2011.
President Obama’s revival of an ambitious social policy agenda makes this a good time to reexamine the work of one of the most brilliant critics of the first wave: Nathan Glazer, now 88,… More

Nathan Glazer: An Appreciation by Peter Skerry

– Peter Skerry, National Affairs (Spring 2016).
Excerpt: If Nathan Glazer seems destined to stand apart from the tribe into which he was born, he has also been an interloper in the tribes among which he has lived and… More

A Party of One

– Daniel DiSalvo, "A Party of One," Commentary, January 17, 2017.
Daniel DiSalvo reviews a new collection of essays by Nathan Glazer: The son of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Poland, Glazer grew up in East Harlem. He attended the City College of… More

Eight Decades of Ethnic Dilemmas

– Jason Willick, Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2018.
Excerpt: Ethnic politics has existed throughout American history, as the country absorbed successive waves of immigrants. But Mr. Glazer sees contemporary identity politics as something… More

Nathan Glazer (1923-2019)

– Adam Wolfson, The American Interest, January 21, 2019.
Excerpt: The intellectual world will be a much poorer place with the death of Nathan Glazer. I had the good fortune to get to know Nat (as he was known) when I began working on the… More

The Immortal Mind of Nathan Glazer

– Martin Peretz, "The Immortal Mind of Nathan Glazer," Tablet, January 23, 2019.
Martin Peretz discusses the life and ideas of Nathan Glazer: Excerpt: Nathan Glazer died this past Saturday at 95: one of the last surviving members of New York intellectuals who graduated… More

Merit Before Meritocracy

– Peter Skerry, "Nathan Glazer: Merit Before Meritocracy," The American Interest, April 3, 2019.
In The American Interest, Peter Skerry writes about Nathan Glazer, his milieu, and the transformation of American intellectual life. Excerpt: The death of Nathan Glazer in January, a month… More

Multimedia

Multiculturalism

– Nathan Glazer, C-SPAN, May 13, 1997.
Professor Glazer, the author of We Are All Multiculturalists Now, spoke about the debate over multiculturalism.  He examined the implications of this debate, especially as it relates to… More

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World. Directed by Joseph Dorman and Irving Howe. 1998.  New York, NY: First Run Features.
This enthralling film creates a vivid picture of intellectual life in the 20th century.  Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and Irving Kristol have all passionately believed that… More