The Reading Room

A Theory of Justice, a Reading Room essay

On A Theory of Justice

Michael Fowler

John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, published in 1971, revived political philosophy as a serious discipline almost single-handedly and remains the most important work of political theory of the twentieth...

On A Theory of Justice

Michael Fowler

John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, published in 1971, revived political philosophy as a serious discipline almost single-handedly and remains the most important work of political theory of the twentieth...

Our Declaration, a Reading Room essay

On Our Declaration

Michael Fowler

Danielle Allen did something with the Declaration of Independence that almost no one attempts: she read it slowly, word by word, all the way through, and discovered that the document...

On Our Declaration

Michael Fowler

Danielle Allen did something with the Declaration of Independence that almost no one attempts: she read it slowly, word by word, all the way through, and discovered that the document...

Ill Fares the Land, a Reading Room essay

On Ill Fares the Land

Michael Fowler

Tony Judt wrote Ill Fares the Land, published in 2010, as a dying man's argument to the young.

On Ill Fares the Land

Michael Fowler

Tony Judt wrote Ill Fares the Land, published in 2010, as a dying man's argument to the young.

Walden, a Reading Room essay

On Walden

Michael Fowler

Henry David Thoreau went to the woods, he said, because he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if he could not...

On Walden

Michael Fowler

Henry David Thoreau went to the woods, he said, because he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if he could not...

Leaves of Grass, a Reading Room essay

On Leaves of Grass

Michael Fowler

Walt Whitman set out to write the poetry of American democracy, and in Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and expanded and revised throughout his life, he came closer...

On Leaves of Grass

Michael Fowler

Walt Whitman set out to write the poetry of American democracy, and in Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855 and expanded and revised throughout his life, he came closer...

Self-Reliance and The American Scholar, a Reading Room essay

On Self-Reliance and The American Scholar

Michael Fowler

Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the young United States its intellectual declaration of independence, and these two essays, Self-Reliance and The American Scholar, are its core documents.

On Self-Reliance and The American Scholar

Michael Fowler

Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the young United States its intellectual declaration of independence, and these two essays, Self-Reliance and The American Scholar, are its core documents.