Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.The Press: Lippmann: Philosopher-Journalist
I think I would have liked the 18th century if I had been one of the people privileged to enjoy it.
—Walter Lippmann, 1969 He could have held his own in an 18th century salon or coffeehouse, spar ring civilly with the prophets of the Enlightenment. His faith in the dispassion ate application of reason to the muddle of human affairs was no less firm than Voltaire's. His prowess at drawing his tory's sweep from the minutiae of daily events might have impressed even Gibbon. Had they discoursed on politics, he and Edmund Burke would have...
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