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).

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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.

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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

Schools Slide Down the Gender Identity Slope

Stanley Kurtz

The economy may still be at the center of our politics, but the culture war’s share seems to grow each year.

Articles

National Review Online / August 2, 2022

Responding to Defenders of the Federal Civics Bill

Stanley Kurtz

The wording of the current version of the Civics Secures Democracy Act has been tweaked a bit, yet the substance remains the same.

Articles

National Review Online / August 2, 2022

How Stacey Abrams Hijacked Civics

Stanley Kurtz

Action civics has become the hands-on do-it-yourself version of CRT.

Articles

National Review / July 26, 2022

Pompeo Impressive on Civics Bill

Stanley Kurtz

Pompeo’s CSDA takedown shows impressive command of the issue.

Articles

National Review / July 13, 2022

PolitiFact’s Failed Attack on DeSantis over Civics Education

Stanley Kurtz

DeSantis isn’t talking about formal curricular coercion via federal law or executive order. He’s talking about what amounts to a massive federal bribe via grants that incentivize CRT.

Articles

National Review / July 11, 2022

DeSantis Blasts Fake Civics Bill

Stanley Kurtz

Public opposition from so prominent a Republican office-holder as Ron DeSantis may break the logjam and shift momentum against this dangerous bill.

Articles

National Review / July 7, 2022

Bogus ‘Civics’ Bill Will Push CRT on States

Stanley Kurtz

Unless America’s parents wake up and make themselves heard now, there is a very real chance that CRT could be the new Common Core by summer.

Articles

National Review Online / June 21, 2022

Ron DeSantis Can Save America’s Universities

Stanley Kurtz

Up to now, it’s been impossible to craft a program of higher-ed reform that weakens the intellectual monopoly currently controlling our universities, without also undermining the principles of intellectual freedom that make the university a worthy institution to begin with.

Articles

National Review / June 14, 2022

The Dumbest Generation Grows Up Is One Smart Book

Stanley Kurtz

In his new book, Mark Bauerlein explains the left-utopianism of young Americans more by what they are not learning than by what they’re actually taught.

Articles

National Review Online / May 20, 2022

How to Discipline the Yale Law School Shout-Down

Stanley Kurtz

Substantial evidence indicates that this was a genuine shout-down, that Yale’s rules were violated, and that the students involved merit discipline.

Articles

National Review Online / March 24, 2022