Advanced path
Society, cities and power
Jane Jacobs on downtowns, Tyler Cowen on the state, Anne Helen Petersen on American individualism, Ruha Benjamin on AI and Peter Drucker on the rise of the knowledge worker. You'll practice long arguments about institutions, built from history and evidence.
5 essays
Essays in this path
- Step 1
by Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs criticizes 1950s downtown redevelopment projects and argues that cities should be planned around how people actually use streets.
Intermediate · Long
- Step 2
by Tyler Cowen
Cowen proposes State Capacity Libertarianism, a pro-market philosophy that also values an effective, capable government.
Advanced · Short
- Step 3
- Step 4
Benjamin argues that leading AI promoters repeat the logic of past eugenics while presenting their ambitions as service to humanity.
Advanced · Long
- Step 5
Drucker surveys how farmers, servants, and industrial workers gave way to knowledge workers in the twentieth century, and what that shift demands.
Advanced · Long