I’ve sometimes referred to Mark Kleiman as the inheritor of James Q. Wilson’s torch, and on hearing of the latter’s death I waited to hear what he had to say. This is it. I’ve discussed Wilson’s books “Bureaucracy” and “Crime and Human Nature” here before, but of course his influence went beyond merely having written some books that some people liked. I’ve also promoted Kleiman’s book “When Brute Force Fails”, which argues in part that the revolution Wilson wrought on criminal policy has reached the area of negative returns. I wish that AEI’s event page for the book still had the video* with Kleiman, Wilson and others.
These days I tend to find the neoconservatives to be the most problematic group in American politics, but I sometimes issue caveats because the term was once associated with folks like Wilson, Banfield, Herrnstein, Huntington, Murray & Sowell and even a more realist foreign policy.
*I’ve sent an email, but didn’t get a response.
March 13, 2012 at 10:27 am
This last section of a recent Bloggingheads with Kleiman on Wilson may be of interest:
http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/9198?in=38:49&out=53:04
March 13, 2012 at 5:06 pm
I thought it interesting how Loury seemed to be taking a very pomo, anti-social science stand in that convo, perhaps because he didn’t like hearing what Kleiman had to say?
He was more worried about ‘narrative construction’ and appearing to agree with good ol’ boys James Q. Wilson and Charles Murray.
It’s funny to hear someone who isn’t Russ Roberts, Arnold Kling or some other Hayekian style libertarian retreat into that territory.
March 15, 2012 at 12:02 am
I don’t have time to watch the video at the moment but I discussed Loury’s born-again turn against social science in You, Me, Glenn Loury, and the Bell Curve. I thought that had gone away when he became less religious.
March 17, 2012 at 12:20 am
[...] commenter at my blog (with assist from co-blogger Dain) directed me to this. Even though Loury is one of my favorite bheads, I am so far greatly disappointed in his [...]