Darrin M. McMahon

Aug 20, 2024 | americanaffairsjournal.org | Gregory Conti |Darrin M. McMahon |Alan S. Kahan |Gianna Englert

REVIEW ESSAYEquality: The History of an Elusive Ideaby Darrin M. McMahonBasic Books, 2023, 528 pagesFreedom from Fear: An Incomplete History of Liberalismby Alan S. KahanPrinceton University Press, 2023, 528 pagesDemocracy Tamed: French Liberalism and the Politics of Suffrageby Gianna EnglertOxford University Press, 2024, 224 pagesToday, many self-described liberals in the professions—including in my world of academic political philosophy—inhabit what the histo­rian Darrin M.

Jul 1, 2024 | modernagejournal.com | Darrin M. McMahon

Darrin M. McMahon’s new book offers a sustained reflection on the concept of equality—or, to be more precise, three sets of reflections. It provides a history of how different societies have understood equality; it advances theoretical claims about how the very concept of equality functions; and it makes a normative political plea for a more egalitarian world. The three sets of arguments—historical, theoretical, and political—are worth considering separately. Equality succeeds as a work of history.

Apr 20, 2024 | truthdig.com | Darrin M. McMahon

For all its supposed self-evidence, Thomas Jefferson’s assertion in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” has beguiled and befuddled since the moment it was penned. “Are we not men?,” Black Americans and the Indigenous immediately asked. What about women? Those questions have fueled contestation to the present day. But less remarked is an issue the founders themselves debated in their revolutionary age, and which has come once again to preoccupy our own.

Apr 1, 2024 | chronicle.com | Darrin M. McMahon |Joan Wong

Equity has become a familiar term on American college campuses in recent years, as well as a flashpoint in the nation’s culture wars.

Mar 19, 2024 | hnn.us | Darrin M. McMahon

For all its supposed self-evidence, Thomas Jefferson’s assertion in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” has beguiled and befuddled since the moment it was penned. “Are we not men?,” Black Americans and the Indigenous immediately asked. What about women? Those questions have fueled contestation to the present day. But less remarked is an issue the founders themselves debated in their revolutionary age, and which has come once again to preoccupy our own.