Philosophy and Public Policy

“Perhaps it is because his own critical writings have remained so firmly attached to the practical experience that Mr. Hook, always the pragmatist, has proven [in these twenty-one essays] to be a more reliable guide to the issues of our time than some of his more celebrated philosophical contemporaries.”—Stefan Kanfer, Time

“At 78, Sidney Hook… ought to be seen for what he is: a natural resource, a kind of phil­osophical Mississippi.”—Jeanne Wacker Sobran, National Review

“Throughout his extraordinary career, which spans more than half a century, Mr. Hook has addressed his fellow citizens on virtually every major issue of public concern. He continues to do so with undiminished clarity and conviction.”—Carl Gershman, The Wall Street Journal

“A towering moral figure in American in­tellectual life for half a century… because from the 1930s on, he has been one of the intellectual community’s most courageous fighters in behalf of freedom. His kind of in­tellectual courage was and still is a rarity in the Academy.”—Arnold Beichman, The American Spectator

“The central theses of Philosophy and Public Policy prove throughout a career of combat, Sidney Hook’s hackles and gorge have always risen to the occasion. Those who shrink from confrontation should stay clear of such reactive power. Only thinkers need apply. For them, as Alfred North Whitehead ob­served, ‘a clash of Doctrines is not a disaster. It is an opportunity.’”—Stefan Kanfer, Time