Paul Starr

Feb 12, 2025 | prospect.org | Paul Starr

If anyone were to create a family tree for The American Prospect, it would show a little-known earlier magazine, Working Papers for a New Society, as the Prospect’s direct precursor. The intellectual leader of Working Papers was a journalist-turned-sociologist, Christopher Jencks, known to friends, colleagues, and students as Sandy. As a writer and member of the Prospect’s founding board, Sandy became an important figure in this magazine.

Feb 7, 2025 | prospect.org | Paul Starr

For Democrats who are old enough to remember, the aftereffects of the 2024 election are turning out to be like the aftereffects of 1968 and 2000. In 1968, as a protest against the Vietnam War, many Democrats stayed home rather than vote for Hubert Humphrey. Richard Nixon then not only continued the war but expanded it into Laos and Cambodia. His election also had long-run domestic consequences.

Dec 4, 2024 | prospect.org | Paul Starr

This article appears in the December 2024 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. When Joe Biden took office in 2021, the United States was in an unusually pro-immigration mood, perhaps because of the sympathy for immigrants generated by Donald Trump’s policy of family separations and other harsh measures.

Sep 20, 2024 | prospect.org | Paul Starr

This article appears in the October 2024 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. Signs have been mounting that, for the first time in recent decades, Democrats may lose majority support from young men in 2024. The risk to Democrats is that this is not just a one-time fluke but an indication of growing trouble with men in coming elections.

Jul 17, 2024 | prospect.org | Paul Starr

This article will appear in the August 2024 issue of The American Prospect magazine and was written before the July 13th assassination attempt on former President Trump. The full implications of the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity in Trump v. United States will take time to sink in. By failing to rule on the case expeditiously, the Court had already effectively shielded Donald Trump from prosecution before the next presidential election for trying to overturn the last one.