William Deresiewicz is an essayist and critic. His book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life is based in part on his essays “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education” and “Solitude and Leadership.” To read all the posts from his weekly blog, “All Points,” click here. He is a contributing editor of the magazine.
William Deresiewicz
Solitude and Leadership
If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, March 01, 2010
Love on Campus
Why we should understand, and even encourage, a certain sort of erotic intensity between student and professor
by William Deresiewicz | Friday, June 01, 2007
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, June 01, 2008
A Jane Austen Kind of Guy
I get it that women find my affinity for their writer intrusive, but her world has much to offer men, too
by William Deresiewicz | Tuesday, September 05, 2017
On Political Correctness
Power, class, and the new campus religion
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, March 06, 2017
Dreams from Yo Mama
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, November 27, 2011
9/11 + 9:30
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, October 23, 2011
Apollo’s Creed
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, September 12, 2011
Subway Seminar
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, September 19, 2011
Why We Fight
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, October 30, 2011
Yankee Come Home
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, November 06, 2011
Us Slaveholders
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, September 26, 2011
Parade’s End
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, October 03, 2011
Present at the Creation
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, October 09, 2011
Repressed
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, November 13, 2011
You Say Latino
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, October 16, 2011
Trading Up
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, November 20, 2011
Thank You for Your Service
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, December 11, 2011
Forever Young
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 26, 2012
False Religion
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, December 18, 2011
Let Us Now Praise Famous Assholes
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 08, 2012
On the Beach
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 15, 2012
You Don’t Know Jack
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 04, 2012
The Ghost in the Machine
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, May 13, 2012
@FranzKafka
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 05, 2012
Enough
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, May 20, 2012
Latter-Day Saint
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 11, 2012
Occupy Portland
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 18, 2012
Wage Slaves
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 25, 2012
Happy Anniversary
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 22, 2012
Toys and Joys
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 01, 2012
Occupy the Myth
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 12, 2012
Fiction’s Revenge
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 19, 2012
Back to the Future
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 08, 2012
In Memoriam
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, December 04, 2011
The Tyranny of Freedom
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 15, 2012
Closed Minds
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 29, 2012
Real Time
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, May 06, 2012
Generational Conflict
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 29, 2012
Settling Accounts
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Fire Next Time
The dangers of revolutionary thinking
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, October 21, 2012
Upper Middle Brow
The culture of the creative class
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, November 04, 2012
Tsunami
How the market is destroying higher education
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Boy in the Bubble
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, June 03, 2012
Beside the Golden Door
The new immigrants, and some older ones
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, September 23, 2012
The Girl with the High-Speed Connection
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, June 10, 2012
In a Cave
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, June 17, 2012
In League
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 29, 2012
Strapped
What I learned in India about the public good
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, October 14, 2012
All in a Dream
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, August 05, 2012
Virtually Exhausted
The limitations of the American work ethic
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, August 26, 2012
Curtains
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, August 12, 2012
My Atheism—An Interim Report
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, June 24, 2012
Yes and No
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 01, 2012
Eye of Newt
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 08, 2012
Waste Management Services
The role of professionals in a market economy
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, November 18, 2012
Critical Tools and Theoretical Machines
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 15, 2012
The Weak
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 22, 2012
It Ain’t Exactly There
Pragmatism and idealism in political life
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 27, 2013
The New Greatest Rationalization
The Iraq War, 10 years later
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 17, 2013
Dogfarts
There are no stupid people, only stupid comments
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, December 02, 2012
A Dissent on Girls
What the HBO series leaves out about the lives of young women
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 06, 2013
Downton’s End
Another reason that we love the English aristocracy
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 21, 2013
Beasts of the Northern Mild
Stalking our food in Eugene
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 24, 2013
Never the Twain
What the idea of the “two cultures” is really about
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 03, 2013
Bubbles
What’s wrong with Bill Maher—and the rest of us
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 13, 2013
En Garde
More reflections on the culture of the upper middle class
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Remains of the Day
What the Martin Luther King holiday should really be about
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, January 20, 2013
The Silent Majority
How should we talk about the working class?
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, March 31, 2013
Arms and the Man
The gun debate and Southern history
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, April 07, 2013
The Limits of Limits
An inside view of Orthodox Judaism
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, May 05, 2013
Start a Blog
What does it mean to be a public intellectual?
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, December 16, 2012
Left Behind
Automation and the morality of the future
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 17, 2013
How Does It Feel?
The difference between science and the humanities
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, December 09, 2012
The Sacrificial Butter
Why food became the new religion
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, February 24, 2013
In the Land of the Tsars
Russia’s self-inflicted history
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, June 30, 2013
All That Is the Case
6 arguments against the existence of God
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 07, 2013
Though He Doth Tarry
On messianism and climate change
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, August 25, 2013
Heal for America
A modest proposal to improve our health-care system
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, July 21, 2013
Eye of Newt
by William Deresiewicz | Friday, June 01, 2012
A Jew in the Northwest
Exile, ethnicity, and the search for the perfect futon
by William Deresiewicz | Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Words to Live By
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, June 20, 2011
The Salome Factor
How the sexualization of concert dance helped end a golden age.
by William Deresiewicz | Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Metaphors We Play By
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, June 06, 2011
A White Dwarf of Meaning
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, May 16, 2011
The True Church
by William Deresiewicz | Wednesday, March 02, 2011
The Dispossessed
First we stopped noticing members of the working class, and now we're convinced they don’t exist
by William Deresiewicz | Friday, December 01, 2006
Jacob and Esau
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, August 29, 2011
Get Used to It
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, August 22, 2011
New York Journal
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, August 15, 2011
In a State
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, August 08, 2011
Mother and Father Reunion
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, July 25, 2011
The Greatest Generation
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, July 18, 2011
Two Girls, True and False
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, July 04, 2011
Victims' Wrongs
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, June 27, 2011
Shiny, All-Too-Shiny
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, June 13, 2011
The Problem with the Problem of Evil
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, May 30, 2011
Yankees
by William Deresiewicz | Sunday, May 01, 2011
The Pet Gene
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, May 09, 2011
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, May 23, 2011
The Building Is Beige
by William Deresiewicz | Monday, August 01, 2011
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