Daniel Gordon | University of Massachusetts Amherst (original) (raw)
Videos by Daniel Gordon
Daniel Gordon, Andreas Hess, Johnny Lyons discuss Society, a peer reviewed journal in the social ... more Daniel Gordon, Andreas Hess, Johnny Lyons discuss Society, a peer reviewed journal in the social sciences devoted to "the vital center"
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Papers by Daniel Gordon
The American Historical Review, 1999
Historical Reflections, 2008
Using a comparative method, this article explores the reasons for the absence of a legal ban on M... more Using a comparative method, this article explores the reasons for the absence of a legal ban on Muslim headscarves in the United States. Study of France reveals a culture that values "public space" and "citizenship. " The United States places more value on the generic concept of "religion" as the unifying bond among individuals, even of diff erent religious groupings. Cross-religious sympathy is a distinctive feature of American culture and refl ected in legal briefs to the Supreme Court. The article suggests that legal concepts are not merely refl ections of social institutions but are important social facts in themselves.
The American Sociologist, 2014
ABSTRACT
History and Theory, 1999
is little nuance in Windschuttle's identification of the enemies of objectivity. He even reviles ... more is little nuance in Windschuttle's identification of the enemies of objectivity. He even reviles Karl Popper as an "irrationalist" and makes no distinction between Popper and Paul Feyerabend, the Berkeley philosopher who considered modern science to be no more true than primitive magic. (How Windschuttle came to classify Popper, a positivist, in this way was a mystery that I was able to solve by following his unconventional reading habits in the field of philosophy. (A polemical book by David Stove, Popper and After: Four Modern Irrationalists, 1 is crucial in this context; I will discuss it in the course of this review.) The effect of lumping so many thinkers together and stigmatizing all of them as opponents of rational inquiry is to polarize the field of debate between two parties, the empiricists and the irrationalists. A book like this tends to reduce the reader's ability to imagine the middle ground where a fascination with subjectivity does not undermine but intensifies the passion for rigorous research. Windschuttle never mentions that there are historians, such as Peter Brown, with impeccable research credentials who have paid tribute to Foucault and followed his intellectual agenda. 2 Some fields of study, such as the Enlightenment, even have a tradition of attracting non-empiricist intellectuals. The neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer, for example, rejected empiricism; he believed that all systems of representation, scientific as well as mythical, are penetrated by symbols that actively organize rather than merely copy the field of sensory perception. 3 This epistemological position did not prevent Cassirer from writing dozens of thoughtful
University of Massachusetts Law Review, 2022
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository @ University of... more This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository @ University of Massachusetts School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Massachusetts Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship Repository @ University of Massachusetts School of Law.
Society, 2022
This article provides an eyewitness account of the National Conservatism conference held in Orlan... more This article provides an eyewitness account of the National Conservatism conference held in Orlando in 2021. The ideas of Peter Thiel, Glenn Loury, Yoram Hazony, and Sohrab Ahmari are discussed. The strengths and contradictions of National Conservatism are analyzed. Particular attention is given to how some of the leading figures in National Conservatism describe their personal pathway to anti-liberalism.
History and Theory, 2018
Both of the books under review focus on the tradition of Jewish scholarship and debate. The Geniu... more Both of the books under review focus on the tradition of Jewish scholarship and debate. The Genius of Judaism is written from a religious perspective, whereas the authors of Jews and Words envision a future in which Jews live without Judaism; they see Jewishness as a culture that can be divorced from religion. For Lévy, a sense of the divine-including the concept of being a chosen people-is the source of Jewish identity and historical continuity. Lévy also argues that the Jews are chosen to serve non-Jews. Inspired by the prophet Jonah, Lévy undertook diplomatic missions in the Ukraine and in Libya, and I consider the lessons he draws from these missions. I also discuss the relationship of Judaism to various concepts in the philosophy of history: revolution, progress, messianism, and utopianism, as well as the affinity between Judaism and skepticism.
The American Historical Review, 2001
... Special thanks go to Cathy Caruth, my dissertation director, and Joan Scott, who played mento... more ... Special thanks go to Cathy Caruth, my dissertation director, and Joan Scott, who played mentor to me for three years. My parents and sisters have been unwavering in their support. I dedicate this book to my wife and companion, Debra Keates, who is full of love and good ideas. ...
Suffolk UL Rev., 2006
From Emergency Law to Legal Process: Herbert Wechsler and the Second World War Malick W. Ghachem ... more From Emergency Law to Legal Process: Herbert Wechsler and the Second World War Malick W. Ghachem Daniel Gordon+ One of the members of this population, a man by the name of Korematsu, refused to obey the order, and he stood prosecution .... It fell to me in my ...
Journal of Sociology, 2012
Unmasking is a recurrent feature of modern sociology and cultural criticism. While false consciou... more Unmasking is a recurrent feature of modern sociology and cultural criticism. While false consciousness is imputed by intellectuals to religious groups and to certain social classes, unmasking is, or claims to be, a corrective performed by intellectuals themselves. Unmasking supposes that enlightened enquirers are able to help the less rational to understand their real interests; a type of exposure, it offers a cognitive tool of emancipation. This article (a) examines unmasking; and (b) contrasts it with an approach to understanding that we call disclosure. Our claim is that disclosure is more attuned to the full keyboard of social action, and less demeaning of its players, than unmasking is. Disclosure attempts to grasp what actions are like for those who enact them. Nothing has been more often or consistently unmasked and with more venom than religion. It is the main example explored in this article.
American Sociologist, 2014
This article compares three great works on higher education, all written in the 1960s and 1970s. ... more This article compares three great works on higher education, all written in the 1960s and 1970s. Special attention goes to how the authors assessed the impact of federal research funding on the identity of professors and their commitment to teaching. Kerr, Parsons, Nisbet.
History of European Ideas, 1996
The American Historical Review, 1995
Philosophy and Literature, 2020
Published in the journal Philosophy and Literature, October, 2020, along with previously unpublis... more Published in the journal Philosophy and Literature, October, 2020, along with previously unpublished speech by Edward Said arguing against political advocacy in the classroom.
Daniel Gordon, Andreas Hess, Johnny Lyons discuss Society, a peer reviewed journal in the social ... more Daniel Gordon, Andreas Hess, Johnny Lyons discuss Society, a peer reviewed journal in the social sciences devoted to "the vital center"
2 views
The American Historical Review, 1999
Historical Reflections, 2008
Using a comparative method, this article explores the reasons for the absence of a legal ban on M... more Using a comparative method, this article explores the reasons for the absence of a legal ban on Muslim headscarves in the United States. Study of France reveals a culture that values "public space" and "citizenship. " The United States places more value on the generic concept of "religion" as the unifying bond among individuals, even of diff erent religious groupings. Cross-religious sympathy is a distinctive feature of American culture and refl ected in legal briefs to the Supreme Court. The article suggests that legal concepts are not merely refl ections of social institutions but are important social facts in themselves.
The American Sociologist, 2014
ABSTRACT
History and Theory, 1999
is little nuance in Windschuttle's identification of the enemies of objectivity. He even reviles ... more is little nuance in Windschuttle's identification of the enemies of objectivity. He even reviles Karl Popper as an "irrationalist" and makes no distinction between Popper and Paul Feyerabend, the Berkeley philosopher who considered modern science to be no more true than primitive magic. (How Windschuttle came to classify Popper, a positivist, in this way was a mystery that I was able to solve by following his unconventional reading habits in the field of philosophy. (A polemical book by David Stove, Popper and After: Four Modern Irrationalists, 1 is crucial in this context; I will discuss it in the course of this review.) The effect of lumping so many thinkers together and stigmatizing all of them as opponents of rational inquiry is to polarize the field of debate between two parties, the empiricists and the irrationalists. A book like this tends to reduce the reader's ability to imagine the middle ground where a fascination with subjectivity does not undermine but intensifies the passion for rigorous research. Windschuttle never mentions that there are historians, such as Peter Brown, with impeccable research credentials who have paid tribute to Foucault and followed his intellectual agenda. 2 Some fields of study, such as the Enlightenment, even have a tradition of attracting non-empiricist intellectuals. The neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer, for example, rejected empiricism; he believed that all systems of representation, scientific as well as mythical, are penetrated by symbols that actively organize rather than merely copy the field of sensory perception. 3 This epistemological position did not prevent Cassirer from writing dozens of thoughtful
University of Massachusetts Law Review, 2022
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository @ University of... more This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository @ University of Massachusetts School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Massachusetts Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship Repository @ University of Massachusetts School of Law.
Society, 2022
This article provides an eyewitness account of the National Conservatism conference held in Orlan... more This article provides an eyewitness account of the National Conservatism conference held in Orlando in 2021. The ideas of Peter Thiel, Glenn Loury, Yoram Hazony, and Sohrab Ahmari are discussed. The strengths and contradictions of National Conservatism are analyzed. Particular attention is given to how some of the leading figures in National Conservatism describe their personal pathway to anti-liberalism.
History and Theory, 2018
Both of the books under review focus on the tradition of Jewish scholarship and debate. The Geniu... more Both of the books under review focus on the tradition of Jewish scholarship and debate. The Genius of Judaism is written from a religious perspective, whereas the authors of Jews and Words envision a future in which Jews live without Judaism; they see Jewishness as a culture that can be divorced from religion. For Lévy, a sense of the divine-including the concept of being a chosen people-is the source of Jewish identity and historical continuity. Lévy also argues that the Jews are chosen to serve non-Jews. Inspired by the prophet Jonah, Lévy undertook diplomatic missions in the Ukraine and in Libya, and I consider the lessons he draws from these missions. I also discuss the relationship of Judaism to various concepts in the philosophy of history: revolution, progress, messianism, and utopianism, as well as the affinity between Judaism and skepticism.
The American Historical Review, 2001
... Special thanks go to Cathy Caruth, my dissertation director, and Joan Scott, who played mento... more ... Special thanks go to Cathy Caruth, my dissertation director, and Joan Scott, who played mentor to me for three years. My parents and sisters have been unwavering in their support. I dedicate this book to my wife and companion, Debra Keates, who is full of love and good ideas. ...
Suffolk UL Rev., 2006
From Emergency Law to Legal Process: Herbert Wechsler and the Second World War Malick W. Ghachem ... more From Emergency Law to Legal Process: Herbert Wechsler and the Second World War Malick W. Ghachem Daniel Gordon+ One of the members of this population, a man by the name of Korematsu, refused to obey the order, and he stood prosecution .... It fell to me in my ...
Journal of Sociology, 2012
Unmasking is a recurrent feature of modern sociology and cultural criticism. While false consciou... more Unmasking is a recurrent feature of modern sociology and cultural criticism. While false consciousness is imputed by intellectuals to religious groups and to certain social classes, unmasking is, or claims to be, a corrective performed by intellectuals themselves. Unmasking supposes that enlightened enquirers are able to help the less rational to understand their real interests; a type of exposure, it offers a cognitive tool of emancipation. This article (a) examines unmasking; and (b) contrasts it with an approach to understanding that we call disclosure. Our claim is that disclosure is more attuned to the full keyboard of social action, and less demeaning of its players, than unmasking is. Disclosure attempts to grasp what actions are like for those who enact them. Nothing has been more often or consistently unmasked and with more venom than religion. It is the main example explored in this article.
American Sociologist, 2014
This article compares three great works on higher education, all written in the 1960s and 1970s. ... more This article compares three great works on higher education, all written in the 1960s and 1970s. Special attention goes to how the authors assessed the impact of federal research funding on the identity of professors and their commitment to teaching. Kerr, Parsons, Nisbet.
History of European Ideas, 1996
The American Historical Review, 1995
Philosophy and Literature, 2020
Published in the journal Philosophy and Literature, October, 2020, along with previously unpublis... more Published in the journal Philosophy and Literature, October, 2020, along with previously unpublished speech by Edward Said arguing against political advocacy in the classroom.
Historical Reflections, 2012
• The conservative sociologist Robert Nisbet developed a theory that history is needed to supplem... more • The conservative sociologist Robert Nisbet developed a theory that history is needed to supplement sociology. According to Nisbet, the chief agents of historical change are the state and war. Sociologists tend to exaggerate the importance of internal or "endog-enous" factors when explaining change. The article highlights the relationships between key topics-such as conservatism, medievalism, community, universities, the state, and war-in Nisbet's thought.
Society, 2021
Edmund Fawcett worked at The Economist (1973-2003) as chief correspondent in Washington, Paris, B... more Edmund Fawcett worked at The Economist (1973-2003) as chief correspondent in Washington, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels, as well as European and literary editor. Readers of this very long book ought to begin at the end, with the Appendix called "Keywords." There Fawcett provides an outline of his main arguments by way of a lexicon. Five terms in particular sum up his history of conservatism:
Journal of Modern history, 2003
See p 163 for beginning of review of James Swenson's book on Rousseau
Overview of Memmi's work, supplementing my essay on Memmi in the Jewish Review of books.
A review of Keith Windschuttle, The Killing of History. History and Theory, 1999.
This book explores the history of the debate, from 1915 to the present, about the meaning of acad... more This book explores the history of the debate, from 1915 to the present, about the meaning of academic freedom, particularly as concerns political activism on the college campus. The book introduces readers to the origins of the modern research university in the United States, the professionalization of the role of the university teacher, and the rise of alternative conceptions of academic freedom challenging the professional model and radicalizing the image of the university. Leading thinkers on the subject of academic freedom—Arthur Lovejoy, Angela Davis, Alexander Meiklejohn, Edward W. Said, among others—spring to life. What is the relationship between freedom of speech and academic freedom? Should communists be allowed to teach? What constitutes unacceptable political "indoctrination" in the classroom? What are the implications for academic freedom of creating Black Studies and Women's Studies departments? Do academic boycotts, such as those directed against Israel, violate the spirit of academic freedom? The book provides the context for these debates. Instead of opining as a judge, the author discloses the legal, philosophical, political, and semantic disagreements in each controversy. The book will appeal to readers across the social sciences and humanities with interests in scholarly freedom and academic life.
The entire book (Princeton University Press, 1990).
From Candide with Related Documents, 2nd edition (Bedford Series in History and Culture, 2016).
