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).

Read full bio.

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.

Close bio

The Blame Game

Stanley Kurtz

In several posts over at Talking Points Memo (here, here, and here)  Josh Marshall claims that I’m trying to blame the…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / December 1, 2006

Iraq Lessons

Stanley Kurtz

I think Ralph Peters hits the nail on the head today.  According to Peters, we now have to choose between…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 30, 2006

Democracy Illusions

Stanley Kurtz

Bad news.  Very bad news.  I really don’t think news articles get much more discouraging than this one and this…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 28, 2006

False Choice

Stanley Kurtz

What do realists want? In a post titled “Three Foreign Policies,” I argued that the apparent agreement among those calling…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 27, 2006

Three Foreign Policies

Stanley Kurtz

We seem to be moving toward a period of struggle between three foreign policy camps: dovish Democrats, hawkish Republicans, and…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 20, 2006

Three and Four Parent Families

Stanley Kurtz

Will same-sex marriage open the door to still more radical redefinitions of the family?  The argument against a “slippery slope”…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 20, 2006

The Blue Angels Should Leave San Francisco

Stanley Kurtz

Honor; Courage; Commitment: These are the virtues proclaimed on the opening page of the official website of the Blue Angels,…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 20, 2006

San Francisco’s Ban on the Junior ROTC

Stanley Kurtz

San Francisco has banned the Junior ROTC program (JROTC) from the city’s high schools. (For a report on related initiatives,…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 16, 2006

Doves Fly Toward Iran

Stanley Kurtz

Increasingly, it looks as though the United States may attempt to negotiate a “grand bargain” with Iran. To settle our…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 13, 2006

Marriage Wins

Stanley Kurtz

With the important exception of Arizona, 2006 was an excellent election for those who believe that marriage is the union…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 8, 2006

Marriage Politics

Stanley Kurtz

What can we say about the effect of the same-sex marriage issue on the election? That will likely clarify a…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / November 8, 2006

The Confession

Stanley Kurtz

Suppose a large group of same-sex-marriage activists came together and made the following confession to a group of same-sex-marriage skeptics:…

Uncategorized

National Review Online / October 31, 2006