Powell Memo

A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.

This time, however qualified, in Mehrsa Baradaran’s new progressive critique of neoliberalism.

Lauren Lassabe Shepherd’s new book on the “campus wars” can credit philanthropically supported conservative groups only for throwing “sand into the gears of the machines that drive the academy’s democratic mission.” She finds other, positive effects of this philanthropic support for conservatism—off-campus and decades later.

Too tidy and convenient an explanation for today’s conservative policy activism.