Professor of History

Essays

Essays and reviews by Sophia Rosenfeld appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Dissent, and The Nation, among others.

Henri Matisse, “La Gerbe,” 1953

Essays

“I Teach a Class on Free Speech. My Students Can Show Us the Way Forward.”

Free speech is very hard to get right, especially on campus.

The New York Times, December 15, 2023 | Opinion

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“Popular Rule”

Has the United States Ever Been a Democracy?

The Nation, January 3, 2023 | Book Review

“Is Lying Actually a Good Thing in Politics?”

Sophia Rosenfeld explores the value of some looseness in the policing of the boundaries around truth and lies.

Knight First Amendment Institute, September 21, 2021 | Blog Post

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“In the Age of QANON”

Have Americans become more conspiratorial?

The Nation, September 16, 2019 | Book Review

“Truth and Consequences”

Untruth has been spreading with new ease and abandon, and often to undemocratic effect.

The Hedgehog Review, Summer 2019 | Opinion

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“Lügen sind Teil der Demokratie”

Die Welt und vielleicht auch die EU-Wahl werden von Fake-News bedroht. Das heißt aber nicht, dass wir in postfaktischen Zeiten leben. Es war vor 250 Jahren nicht anders.

Zeit Online (Germany), May 9, 2019 | Opinion

“Post-truth, de prequel”

Voor Sophia Rosenfeld zijn alternatieve waarheden geen hedendaags verschijnsel, maar waren ze altijd al een bijproduct van democratie.

De Standaard (Belgium), May 4, 2019 | Opinion

“Is it bad that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cares more about being ‘morally right’ than facts?”

Truth has always been contested in American political debates.

The Washington Post, January 10, 2019 | Opinion

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“Historians: what kids should be learning in school right now”

What are the most important things young people should be learning in school today? Some of the nation’s top historians share their thoughts.

The Washington Post, November 22, 2018 | Opinion

“The Egalitarians”

Three new books on the founders explore the critical, if often contested, role equality has played in shaping the American imagination.

The Nation, April 5, 2017 | Book Review

“The limits of choice”

Betsy DeVos’s tone-deaf comments on historically black colleges and universities exposed the broader failings of the ideology of choice.

Dissent, March 10, 2017 | Opinion

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“The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Trump’s Appeal to Common Sense Is His Dismissal of It”

The president’s taste for fact-free fantasy is based not in traditional American populism but in authoritarianism.

The Nation, March 1, 2017 | Opinion

“A radical history of free speech”

With the rhetoric of free speech increasingly captured by the right, a new book tells the story of the radicals who first championed freedom of expression as a substantive political right.

Dissent, Fall, 2016 | Book Review

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“How to Die”

Atul Gawande argues that physicians should focus care on the good life—including its very end.

The Nation, April 14, 2015 | Book Review

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“FREE to choose?”

How Americans have become tyrannized by the culture's overinvestment in choice.

The Nation, June 3, 2014 | Book Review

“liehards: on political hypocrisy”

Hard truths about lying in politics.

The Nation, August 22, 2012 | Opinion

“Cain’s paine”

The New York Times, November 11, 2011 | Opinion

“BEWARE OF REPUBLICANS bearing common sense”

The Washington Post, April 21, 2011 | Opinion