National Affairs
Martin Luther King’s Transcendent Conservatism
King read alongside Russell Kirk and the conservative tradition.
Fall 2024
Writing
Essays on identity, faith, race, and the American story
Wood writes to deepen America’s understanding of polarization as rooted in conflicts of identity, and to argue for a national narrative grounded in love and goodwill across traditions.
Selected essays
Start here
The Dispatch
MLK and the Content of Character
On the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.
Aug 2023
Quillette
Martin Luther King’s Understanding of Racism
What King meant by racism, and why it matters for today’s debates.
Jan 2024
Persuasion
Remember Martin Luther King Jr.? Kendi’s antiracism won’t work, but King’s does
A case for reviving the nonviolence movement.
Nov 2020
Yale Divinity Reflections
A Revolution in Reconciliation
King, nonviolence, and the work of political reconciliation.
Spring 2018
The American Interest
The Intellectual Dark Web Cannot Defeat Identity Politics
Why argument alone cannot answer the politics of identity.
Apr 2019
Now writing
The OmniAmerican Society on Substack
Wood’s newest essays appear first at The OmniAmerican Society, including “The Modern Movement We Are Making” and “The Omni-American Thesis.”
Archive
All essays
Also a longtime contributing opinion writer for USA Today. See his full column history.
36 essays
- Jul 2026The Modern Movement We Are MakingOmniAmerican Society Substack
- Sep 2025Courageous Citizenship: Choosing Connection Over ViolenceBraver Angels
- Feb 2025Lincoln, King and Braver AngelsBraver Angels
- Fall 2024Martin Luther King's Transcendent ConservatismNational Affairs
- Jun 2024The ConvictionBraver Angels
- Apr 2024Listening past the sloganBraver Angels
- Mar 2024How will we look back on the 2020's?Braver Angels
- Feb 2024Black History Month and the politics of race and educationBraver Angels
- Jan 2024Intellectual Humility and Braver AngelsBraver Angels
- Jan 2024Martin Luther King's Understanding of RacismQuillette
- Oct 2023On TED, Braver Angels and the near 'cancellation' of Coleman HughesBraver Angels
- Aug 2023Trump's arrest and the 60th anniversary of the I Have a Dream speechBraver Angels
- Aug 2023MLK and the Content of CharacterThe Dispatch
- Jul 2023What we are buildingBraver Angels
- Jun 2023The indictment of Donald TrumpBraver Angels
- Jun 2023Learning and unlearning red and blueBraver Angels
- May 2023The America of Tim Keller and Jim BrownBraver Angels
- Feb 2023Can Jesus Cross Our Divides?Braver Angels
- Aug 2022The Screen of WhitenessBraver Angels
- Jul 2022Living the humanity of life and choiceBraver Angels
- Apr 2022Introducing the Braver Angels Guidelines on ToleranceBraver Angels
- Mar 2022Ketanji Brown Jackson and the prism of experienceBraver Angels
- Mar 2022The crack cocaine era and the spectrum of black experience (2-part)Braver Angels
- Feb 2022Awkwafina and the Conflicts of AssimilationBraver Angels
- Jan 2022We Do Not Draw the Line: Braver Angels & CensorshipBraver Angels
- Jan 2022Is there room for compassion in the US vaccine debates?Braver Angels
- Nov 2020Remember Martin Luther King Jr.? Kendi's antiracism won't work, but King's doesPersuasion
- Dec 2019Mark Zuckerberg and the Changing Civil Rights MovementQuillette
- Sep 2019Love and Fear: Finding proper perspective on America's historyComment Magazine
- May 2019The Communitarian RevivalQuillette
- Apr 2019The Intellectual Dark Web Cannot Defeat Identity PoliticsThe American Interest
- Oct 2018The Spectrum of Black ContrarianismQuillette
- Aug 2018The Problem with 'Facts, Not Feelings'Quillette
- 20182018 and the Ominous New NormalBraver Angels
- Spring 2018A Revolution in ReconciliationYale Divinity Reflections
- Mar 2018Harris, Lilla, and the Politics of IdentityQuillette
Editors and producers
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