
Lance Morrow
Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow
Lance Morrow is the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focuses on the moral and ethical dimensions of public events, including developments in regard to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and political correctness on American campuses, with a view to the future consequences of such suppressions.
Lance Morrow is the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focuses on the moral and ethical dimensions of public events, including developments in regard to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and political correctness on American campuses, with a view to the future consequences of such suppressions.
Morrow’s award-winning essays, appearing in Time, Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications, have offered probing analyses of American culture and politics in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century.
Morrow wrote about every presidential election from Nixon to Obama, wars from Vietnam to Bosnia to the Middle East. Morrow was the author of more than 150 cover stories for Time, including eight Man of the Year articles.
He is currently writing a book about Henry Luce and his magazines’ role in shaping American culture and opinions in the middle third of the 20th century. Morrow is a strong believer in the role of journalism in sustaining freedom and democracy.
The son of an editor of the old Saturday Evening Post and of a Washington columnist for the Knight syndicate, Morrow grew up in Washington. He attended Gonzaga High School, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. For nine years (1996-2005), he was a University Professor at Boston University, where he taught presidential history and the art of the essay.
The author of seven books, Morrow is a two-time winner of the National Magazine Award—the first for his original coverage in essay form of American cultural affairs, the second for his essay that was part of Time‘s special coverage of September 11th.
Morrow’s study of the question of evil, arising among other things from his travel in the Bosnian war zone with Elie Wiesel, was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. Later, he turned the article into a critically acclaimed book—Evil: An Investigation.
From Dignified to Disheveled
Lance Morrow

Waiving its longstanding dress code, the Senate is inviting its members to turn the place into a smelly gym or a psychiatrist’s waiting room.
City Journal / September 25, 2023
America in the Age of ‘Retcon’
Lance Morrow

Rewriting the past to suit the fashions of the present is harmless in fiction but a danger in real life.
Wall Street Journal / September 20, 2023
Requiem for a Dumpster Full of Books
Lance Morrow

The magic of print is that it codifies the great human inventory in physical form. No screen can do that.
Wall Street Journal / September 8, 2023
Me and the Bentley
Lance Morrow

A car should be a costar, a romance, a myth—not a robot
Articles
City Journal / June 16, 2023
When Time’s ‘Man of the Year’ Meant Something
Lance Morrow

Subjects of the magazine’s annual story were once viewed as secular saints—or, on occasion, devils.
Articles
The Wall Street Journal / December 2, 2022
America’s Discord Looks Like a Job for the Superego
Lance Morrow

It’s hard to run a sane civilization in an atmosphere of political hysteria and hallucination.
Articles
The Wall Street Journal / November 14, 2022
MAGA Is to Woke as Errol Flynn Is to Henry Fonda
Lance Morrow

Watch ‘Captain Blood’ and ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and ask yourself which movie speaks to your heart.
Articles
The Wall Street Journal / October 3, 2022
Biden’s Speech Had It All Backward
Lance Morrow

Biden’s Democrats seek a one-party state. Trump’s followers want freedom from government power.
Articles
Wall Street Journal / September 12, 2022
America’s Political Story Lines Need a Reboot
Lance Morrow

Our partisan narratives have become so detached from reality that they bode ill for the nation’s future.
Articles
The Wall Street Journal / August 14, 2022
Public Life Is Crazy, but Americans Aren’t
Lance Morrow

Politics and media are co-producers of the immense 21st-century moral circus.
Articles
The Wall Street Journal / July 28, 2022