Lance Morrow

In Memoriam, 1939-2024

Lance Morrow was the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focused on the moral and ethical dimensions of public events, including developments regarding 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 was the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focused on the moral and ethical dimensions of public events, including developments regarding 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, 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.

Morrow was 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 nine books, Morrow was 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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The Irrepressible Conflict

Lance Morrow

Reflections on the War Between the Stars—Kanye and Taylor, that is.

Articles

City Journal / October 12, 2018

The Book of Donald

Lance Morrow

‘So the Amerikites revealed themselves, one to another, and it was not a pretty sight.’

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / October 4, 2018

‘Advise & Consent’ Meets ‘Rashomon’

Lance Morrow

The Kavanaugh drama, with its black-and-white issues, resembled an old black-and-white movie.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / September 28, 2018

A Spectral Witness Materializes

Lance Morrow

The passage of time sometimes causes people to forget, sometimes to invent or embellish.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / September 17, 2018

A “Penchant” for Innuendo

Lance Morrow

With one word, the New York Times attempts to cast a shadow on Brett Kavanaugh’s character.

Articles

City Journal / September 10, 2018

Trump, Mrs. Wilson and That ‘Senior Official’

Lance Morrow

If the senior official who wrote a recent New York Times op-ed truly had the best interests of the country at heart, he would have kept secret what he is doing, not only his identity.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / September 7, 2018

The Trump War Is a Boomer Battle

Lance Morrow

The president’s supporters and detractors alike use politics to re-enact old narratives of rebellion.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / August 27, 2018

Shall We Have Civil War or Second Thoughts?

Lance Morrow

Have we reached the tilting point on the subject of race? Americans don’t quite know anymore what they mean when they say “we.”

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / August 18, 2018

Political Harassment is for the Birds

Lance Morrow

What happened at the Red Hen is reminiscent of the way mobbing crows attack an eagle or an owl.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / July 7, 2018

Did an Ancient Greek Anticipate Trump?

Lance Morrow

Heraclitus’ view of the world in constant flux found echoes in Hegel and now in the president.

Articles

The Wall Street Journal / June 23, 2018

Farewell, Old Friend

Lance Morrow

Stefan Kanfer had a primitive integrity of character, at ease with his various roles.

Articles

City Journal / June 22, 2018

Return of the Notman

Lance Morrow

The age of opioids (among other contaminations) suggests a look back at the odd Robinson Jeffers, and at what he said in his poems—and at his cranky and ruthless life as a semi-solitary poet living on what was then a wild stretch of the central California coast.

Articles

City Journal / June 18, 2018