For those of you who’ve never read Leon Wieseltier’s (in)famous New Republic piece on Cornel West, “All and Nothing at All: The Unreal World of Cornel West” (originally published March 6, 1995), TNR has reposted it in full on its website.

Famous line:

West’s work is noisy, tedious, slippery… sectarian, humorless, pedantic and self-endeared.

The more things change, the more they stay the same; West is more powerful today than ever — but even back when his star was still rising, his work was borderline irrelevant. And now he’s making horrid rap music…

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