Main Page

American Contradiction

Courses

Biographical Background

Publications:

   Social and
   Political Theory

   Communications    and Tech

   Health Care

   Politics and
   Social Criticism
   (including    foreign policy)

   Privatization

   Full
   Bibliography

Paul Starr

 Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, and Stuart Professor of Communications and Public Affairs, Princeton University

New book American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now Yale University Press, October 2025.

The argument in 90 seconds
On CNN
For more: Here

Recent journalism

  • The Historic Reversal of Cultural AffordabilityThe American Prospect, December 1, 2025.
  • "Sleepwalking into Revenge: The Rise of a Politics of Retribution,"The New Republic, October 26, 2025.
  • Capture the Media, Control the Culture?"The American Prospect, September 22, 2025
  • How Today's America Came About,"The American Prospect, September 10, 2025.
  • "The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform"The American Prospect (August 2025).
  • "The Social Triumph and Political Tragedy of Immigration," The American Prospect (December 2024).
  • What Should Democrats Say to Young Men?" The American Prospect (October 2024).
  • The Supreme Court's License for Presidential Vengeance" The American Prospect (August 2024).
  • "It's the Working Class, Stupid," The American Prospect (February 2024).
  • "The Life-and-Death Consequences of Conservative Power," The American Prospect, December 8, 2023.
  • "Moving On to Adversity-Based Affirmative Action," The American Prospect, July 2, 2023.

    Three recent journal articles on race-related questions

  • "The Multiracial Complication: The 2020 Census and the Fictitious Multiracial Boom," (with Christina Pao)Sociological Science December 3, 2024. Open Access.
  • "'People of Color' as a category and identity in the United States," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, March 24, 2023. open Access.
  • "The Re-Emergence of 'People of Color,'" The DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race (online First View, June 13, 2022). Open Access.

    Other academic articles

  • "Escaping Policy Traps: Strategic Options in Overcoming Entrenchment," Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law(2023) 48(2): 135-156. (Special issue on Entrenchment and Health Equity) A comparative analysis of options for overcoming entrenchment in energy, platform monopolies, and health care. Published version here.
  • Postindustrial Limits to Professionalization" [why high-tech is low in professionalization] in Gil Eyal and Tom Medvetz, The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2023), 470-81..
  • "The Relational Public," Sociological Theory (June 2021), 1-24.
  • "The Flooded Zone: How We Became More Vulnerable to Disinformation in the Digital Era," in W. Lance Bennett and Steven Livingston, eds., The Age of Disinformation (Cambridge University Press [Social Science Research Council], 2020).

    Critical evaluations: "Transforming American Medicine: A Twenty-Year Retrospective," Special issue, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law (2004). Reviews of The Creation of the Media.

    Last modified, December 1, 2025