
Stanley Kurtz
Senior Fellow
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Beyond his work with Education and American Ideals, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates on a wide range of issues from K–12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. On a wide range of issues, from K–12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
Mr. Kurtz has published two influential books on President Obama’s political history and policy agenda: Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (Threshold) and Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities (Sentinel). He has also led the campaign to reform federal subsidies to academic programs of “area studies” under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, and has co-authored model campus free speech legislation adopted by several states.
Mr. Kurtz’s latest book, The Lost History of Western Civilization (National Association of Scholars), offers both a critique of deconstructionist history and a new way of looking at America’s cultural conflicts. (A free pdf of the book can be downloaded here.)
Mr. Kurtz received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. He later taught at Harvard, winning several teaching awards for his work in a Great Books Program. He was also Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
College Board Capitulates on African-American Studies . . . Maybe
Stanley Kurtz

This is going to end up as an historic victory for those pushing back against woke.
Articles
National Review Online / January 25, 2023
AP Teacher’s Guide Proves DeSantis Right in African-American Studies Clash
Stanley Kurtz

DeSantis was right to block this course. Indoctrination in socialism and CRT have no place in Florida schools.
Articles
National Review / January 23, 2023
DeSantis: AP African-American Studies Program, as Written, Violates Florida Law
Stanley Kurtz

Yet again, DeSantis is setting the mark for other states.
Articles
National Review / January 18, 2023
DeSantis’s Triumph, Kemp’s Test
Stanley Kurtz

If we are going to save the culture, it will take serious pushback against the powers that be.
Articles
National Review Online / December 27, 2022
The Missing Link in American History
Stanley Kurtz

The square, boring, long-overlooked 19th century Midwest turns out to be the missing link in American history.
Articles
National Review Online / November 21, 2022
Stealth CRT in Biden’s Budget
Stanley Kurtz

Republican elected leaders need to wake up and stop being fooled by superficially appealing proposals like community schools and “civics.”
Articles
National Review Online / October 31, 2022
Neo-Marxing the College Board with AP African American Studies
Stanley Kurtz

APAAS clearly proselytizes for a socialist transformation of the United States, although its socialism is heavily inflected by attention to race and ethnicity.
Articles
National Review Online / September 13, 2022
Arizona’s Campus Disaster Can Be Stopped
Stanley Kurtz

For too long, we’ve granted a blinkered ideological minority a power over our public universities that is not rightly theirs.
Articles
National Review Online / August 23, 2022
Salman Rushdie and the Decline of Western Civilization
Stanley Kurtz

Surveys now show that up to two-thirds of students approve of shouting down campus speakers, while almost a quarter believe that violence can be used to cancel a speech.
Articles
National Review Online / August 15, 2022
University Accreditation: The Unknown Clash
Stanley Kurtz

Conservatives lost the commanding heights of the culture for many reasons, but failure to fight back against the leftist education establishment, even where we held the levers of power, is surely among the most important.
Articles
National Review Online / August 11, 2022