Michael Walzer Comments

I am not going to join the argument between Sean Wilentz and Martin Kilson, both of whom are fellow editors and friends of mine. But I do want to say in response to Kilson that I am glad that the argument takes place in these pages. The issues are hard even when they aren’t personally focused, but they are, as we all know, the stuff of everyday conversation among liberal and left intellectuals, and they require public airing. The air won’t clear until we acknowledge the clouds.

Dissent‘s editorial policy with regard to arguments of this sort has not changed. We do not review books by editors, but no writer for the magazine is barred from criticizing the public work or political positions of Dissent ...