James Bowman

Resident Scholar

Mr. Bowman is well known for his writing on honor, including his book, Honor: A History and “Whatever Happened to Honor,” originally delivered as one of the prestigious Bradley Lectures at the American Enterprise Institute in 2002, and republished (under the title “The Lost Sense of Honor”) in The Public Interest.

Read full bio.

James Bowman is a Resident Scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Mr. Bowman is well known for his writing on honor, including his book, Honor: A History and “Whatever Happened to Honor,” originally delivered as one of the prestigious Bradley Lectures at the American Enterprise Institute in 2002, and republished (under the title “The Lost Sense of Honor”) in The Public Interest.

Among the other publications to which he has contributed are Harper’sThe Public InterestThe Washington PostThe Wall Street JournalThe Daily and Sunday Telegraph of London, The Weekly Standard and National Review.

He has worked as a freelance journalist, serving as American editor of the Times Literary Supplement of London from 1991 to 2002, as movie critic of The American Spectator since 1990 and as media critic of The New Criterion since 1993. He has also been a weekly movie reviewer for The New York Sun since the newspaper’s re-foundation in 2002.

Mr. Bowman received B.A. degrees from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and the University of Cambridge in England, where he also did graduate study and received an M.A. in 1979.

Close bio

What revolution?

James Bowman

Does the administration expect us to believe that they have actually changed something about the world through a deliberate act of power?

Articles

The New Criterion / February 1, 2024

Meritless meritocracy

James Bowman

Now it’s the ruling class’s conceit of itself as a “meritocracy” that is used to justify keeping the less credentialed of their fellow citizens, and those with no ideologically validated claim to victimhood, in their place.

Articles

The New Criterion / January 1, 2024

Killing with kindness

James Bowman

On the Left’s anti-Semitism problem.

Articles

The New Criterion / December 1, 2023

No honor among thieves

James Bowman

On the “honor-shaped hole” in our culture.

The New Criterion / September 25, 2023

On some moral hazards

James Bowman

On the media’s claims to infallibility.

Articles

The New Criterion / May 1, 2023

The last of America

James Bowman

On the legacy of Jimmy Carter.

Articles

The New Criterion / April 1, 2023

Scandalum scandalorum

James Bowman

On the media’s latest hobbyhorse.

Articles

The New Criterion / March 1, 2023

Room for hate

James Bowman

On the Left’s demonization of its enemies.

Articles

The New Criterion / February 1, 2023

Visions of the future

James Bowman

On the aftermath of the midterm elections.

Articles

The New Criterion / January 1, 2023

Playing the Fear Card

James Bowman

On the midterms and the media’s treatment of Liz Truss.

Articles

The New Criterion / December 16, 2022

Only Joking

James Bowman

On media doublespeak.

Articles

The New Criterion / November 1, 2022

Hobgoblins

James Bowman

On the media’s peddling of “green” ideologies.

Articles

The New Criterion / October 1, 2022