New Books in History Mark Thomas Edwards, "Walter Lippmann: American Skeptic, American Pastor" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Feb 22, 2026
Mark Thomas Edwards, a professor of U.S. history and politics who wrote a new biography of Walter Lippmann, explores Lippmann’s intellectual and religious life. The conversation covers Lippmann’s fame as a public intellectual, his shifting views on religion and liberalism, his Cold War skepticism and foreign‑policy realism, and his idea of civic religion as a remedy for a post‑Christian society.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Lippmann Defined The Modern Columnist
- Walter Lippmann helped popularize the modern op-ed and reached roughly 10–12 million readers with his thrice-weekly column Today and Tomorrow.
- He wrote 21 books, including Public Opinion (1922), A Preface to Morals (1929), and influential policy works that shaped elites and presidents.
Harvard Exclusion Pushed Lippmann Toward Socialism
- At Harvard Lippmann faced anti-Jewish exclusion from social clubs, which pushed him toward socialist and bohemian circles on campus and in Greenwich Village.
- That social exclusion shaped his early politics and lifelong skepticism about communal institutions.
A Preface To Morals Frames The Problem Of Secular Life
- A Preface to Morals assumes organized religions are dying and asks how individuals can maintain integrity without revealed faith.
- Lippmann initially proposed detachment/stoic disinterest as a personal solution but found it unsatisfying and set out to write sequels.
