Walter Lippmann’s life

If writers should be judged by their words, then Tom Arnold-Foster’s comprehensive and engaging “intellectual biography” of the legendary journalist Walter Lippmann renders a complete, balanced, and mostly justified verdict.

A history fellow at the University of Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute, Arnold-Foster trains a critical eye on the varied and voluminous scribblings of Lippmann, whose middlebrow and highbrow writing alike had an immeasurable impact on 20th-century American politics, culture, economics, journalism, and even foreign policy. Lippmann, Arnold-Foster writes, “was remarkable for his breadth, versatility, and sheer durability.” He argues persuasively that Lippmann’s more radical edges were sanded down over time, as the journalist adopted the intellectual trappings of a mainstream American liberal.

Born on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to an assimilated German Jewish family in

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