Jeffrey Goldberg: What Would Brandeis Do?
[Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. Author of the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, he has reported from the Middle East and Africa. He also writes the magazine's advice column.]
Jeffrey Rosen's recent New Republic cover story on Louis Brandeis was one of the best articles I've read in several months, on any subject; Brandeis is an inspiring figure to me -- economic populist, enemy of bigness, proud Jew -- and Rosen is brilliant in describing his relevance today. If Brandeis were alive, he would dominate the debates over banks and privacy and technological change, and he would be ardent in his support of the nomination of Elizabeth Warren to be the country's consumer-protection czar. I invited Rosen to answer a few Goldbloggish questions; our conversation is below.
Jeffrey Goldberg: You write persuasively of Brandeis's greatness. We'll get to questions of his economic vision, his views on privacy, and so on, but for now, answer this question -- in the form of a brief, but persuasively-argued essay -- was Brandeis the greatest of all American Jews? Or to put it another way: Brandeis or Dylan?
Jeffrey Rosen: Dylan is tough competition, but yes: there's a case to be made that Brandeis is the greatest American Jew because he was the most important constitutional philosopher, economic and technological prophet, and Zionist leader of the twentieth century. His muckraking economic criticism of the "curse of bigness" and the risks that bankers take with "other people's money" predicted the crashes of 1929 and 2008. His insistence that the Constitution has to keep pace with technological change is the most pertinent guide as we struggle with issues of privacy and technology in the age of Facebook and Google. And, as the leader of the American Zionist movement, he both helped to bring Israel into being and provided a vision of cultural pluralism that is uniquely relevant as American Jews (and everyone else) struggle with the challenges of self-definition is an age of contested identity. And all this from a lawyer and Supreme Court justice! Now if only he were better on the harmonica and acoustic guitar....
Read entire article at The Atlantic
Jeffrey Rosen's recent New Republic cover story on Louis Brandeis was one of the best articles I've read in several months, on any subject; Brandeis is an inspiring figure to me -- economic populist, enemy of bigness, proud Jew -- and Rosen is brilliant in describing his relevance today. If Brandeis were alive, he would dominate the debates over banks and privacy and technological change, and he would be ardent in his support of the nomination of Elizabeth Warren to be the country's consumer-protection czar. I invited Rosen to answer a few Goldbloggish questions; our conversation is below.
Jeffrey Goldberg: You write persuasively of Brandeis's greatness. We'll get to questions of his economic vision, his views on privacy, and so on, but for now, answer this question -- in the form of a brief, but persuasively-argued essay -- was Brandeis the greatest of all American Jews? Or to put it another way: Brandeis or Dylan?
Jeffrey Rosen: Dylan is tough competition, but yes: there's a case to be made that Brandeis is the greatest American Jew because he was the most important constitutional philosopher, economic and technological prophet, and Zionist leader of the twentieth century. His muckraking economic criticism of the "curse of bigness" and the risks that bankers take with "other people's money" predicted the crashes of 1929 and 2008. His insistence that the Constitution has to keep pace with technological change is the most pertinent guide as we struggle with issues of privacy and technology in the age of Facebook and Google. And, as the leader of the American Zionist movement, he both helped to bring Israel into being and provided a vision of cultural pluralism that is uniquely relevant as American Jews (and everyone else) struggle with the challenges of self-definition is an age of contested identity. And all this from a lawyer and Supreme Court justice! Now if only he were better on the harmonica and acoustic guitar....