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.

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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 TimeSmithsonianThe New York TimesThe 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.

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J.D. Vance Is ‘Weird’? Have You Seen the Other Guys?

Lance Morrow

To find something more bizarre than the woke left, you’d have to delve into the works of Lewis Carroll.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / August 6, 2024

Did God Save Donald Trump?

Lance Morrow

The assassination attempt gave politics a fleeting moment of spiritual refulgence.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / July 25, 2024

Pride Goeth Before a Withdrawal

Lance Morrow

Joe Biden was too stubborn and selfish to bow to reality until he had no choice.

Articles

City Journal / July 21, 2024

Presidential Election 2024: Send In the Tropes

Lance Morrow

It’s a three-ring circus: the Trump trials, the Biden fiasco and the culture war between woke and MAGA.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / May 23, 2024

The Grim Arithmetic of a Just War

Lance Morrow

Gettysburg, Hiroshima, Gaza—great numbers of people must die before a conflict can be resolved.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / May 2, 2024

Will Political Hatred Spill Into the Streets?

Lance Morrow

The atmosphere in Biden-Trump America carries the odor of Weimar Germany or Chicago in 1968.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / March 15, 2024

How We Think About Hell

Lance Morrow

Has the old idea, fire and brimstone through all eternity, gone out of business?

Articles

Wall Street Journal / March 7, 2024

Biden, Trump and American Vanity

Lance Morrow

The old WASP elites often had terrible judgment, but we should miss their ideals of leadership and service.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / February 22, 2024

Black History Month Is More Complicated Than It Seems

Lance Morrow

Celebrate the story of survival and liberation, but beware dwelling too much on suffering and grievance.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / February 16, 2024

Can Harvard Learn Anything From Ralph Waldo Emerson?

Lance Morrow

A university should be a home for those who seek truth, not a madrassa of the progressive left.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / January 9, 2024

Trump vs. the Woke: Let the People Decide

Lance Morrow

Both might be disqualified as a threat to democracy. Leaving it up to the voters seems the only option.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / January 2, 2024

America Feels Like a Codependent Household

Lance Morrow

America feels like an alcoholic household—crazy with grievance, accusation, irrational rage, screaming in the middle of the night. The children lie in the dark, wide-eyed, listening.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / December 25, 2023