Drugs, alcohol, and suicide have taken an unparalleled toll on middle-aged whites, especially those with a high school degree or less.
Paul Starr
Paul Starr is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American history, he is the author of eight books, including American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now (Yale University Press, October 2025).
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Reclaim a Tradition
Here’s the original 1989 prospectus for The American Prospect, laying out the challenge facing liberalism at the end of the 1980s and the corresponding mission of the magazine as the founders envisioned it.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Frustration Is Driving Both Parties’ Voters Toward Radical Make-Believe
Frustration is driving voters on both sides of the partisan divide toward radical make-believe
Posted inWorking in America
Cultures of Impunity
Whether it’s corporate crime, police homicide, or sexual assault, the issue is the same: Does the law apply to everyone?
Posted inArticle
Richard Leone, Capable Liberal
Remembering the public servant and liberal intellectual
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Little Magazine, Big Ideas: The American Prospect at 25
Reflecting on a quarter century of politics and change.
Posted inEconomic Policy
How Gilded Ages End
Protecting democracy from oligarchic dominance is, once again, a central imperative of American politics.
Posted inEconomic Policy
What We Know Now
Twenty-five years later, the world has changed in crucial ways that factor into our thinking.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
The Crash of The New Republic
The mass exodus from the storied magazine was not the result of disagreements about the value of new technology.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Red State, Blue State: Polarization and the American Situation
The country is stuck but it is not stationary. Some things are changing—just not at the federal level.
