# Crooked Timber

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Political blog

For the album by Therapy?, see [Crooked Timber (album)](/source/Crooked_Timber_(album)).

**Crooked Timber** is a blog leaning left-of-center politically[1] primarily administered by academics.[2] The blog's name is inspired by a quotation from philosopher [Immanuel Kant](/source/Immanuel_Kant): "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made," from his 1784 essay "[Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose](/source/Idea_for_a_Universal_History_with_a_Cosmopolitan_Purpose)". It includes contributions from a variety of experts in fields such as philosophy, political science, and sociology.[1][2]

## History

Crooked Timber was founded in July 2003 as a merger of several individual blogs, including Junius and Gallowglass, along with some new contributors. Additional members were added over subsequent months until the group reached 16 to 17 members.[2][1]

Crooked Timber ranked in [Technorati](/source/Technorati)'s Top 100 blogs between 2003 and 2005 and is still widely linked to in the academic [blogosphere](/source/Blogosphere). On March 9, 2008, it was listed as number 33 in [The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)'s list of the world's 50 most important blogs.[2] On April 15, 2011, an article on academic blogs in [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) listed Crooked Timber as one of seven influential examples of the type, describing it as having "built a reputation as an intellectual global powerhouse; a sort of global philosophical thinktank conducted via blog.".[1]

Crooked Timber has held several online book events, during which a subset of members (and often also invited guest bloggers) read a book and each write a blog post about it, either a review or a post inspired by the book.[3][*[non-primary source needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research#Primary,_secondary_and_tertiary_sources)*]

## Current contributors

Name Occupation Chris Armstrong Political theorist [4][non-primary source needed] Chris Bertram Political philosopher at the University of Bristol, UK [4][non-primary source needed] Harry Brighouse Political philosopher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison [4][non-primary source needed] Henry Farrell Political scientist at Johns Hopkins University SAIS [1] Maria Farrell Director of Information Coordination, ICANN [1] Eszter Hargittai Sociologist at Northwestern University [1] John Holbo Philosopher at the National University of Singapore [4][non-primary source needed] Serene Khader Philosopher and feminist theorist at Brooklyn College [4][non-primary source needed] John Quiggin Economist at the University of Queensland, Australia [4][non-primary source needed] Ingrid Robeyns Political Philosopher at Erasmus University Rotterdam [4][non-primary source needed] Miriam Ronzoni Political philosopher at the University of Manchester [4][non-primary source needed] Eric Schliesser Philosopher [4][non-primary source needed] Gina Schouten Philosopher at Harvard University [4][non-primary source needed] Belle Waring Trained as a classicist at Berkeley; living in Singapore [4][non-primary source needed]

## Former contributors

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Name Occupation Tedra Osell Freelance editor, California Jon Mandle Political philosopher at SUNY Albany Niamh Hardiman Senior Lecturer at University College Dublin Michael Bérubé Professor of American literature and cultural studies at Pennsylvania State University [1] Ted Barlow Economic consultant in Houston, TX Tom Runnacles Software developer in London, previously studied philosophy at Oxford University Micah Schwartzman Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law Daniel Davies Financial industry analyst; former stockbroker and economist Kieran Healy Sociologist at Duke University [1] Scott McLemee Writer, Inside Higher Education Eric Rauchway Professor of History at UC Davis Corey Robin Political theorist at Brooklyn College Astra Taylor Documentary film maker and fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation Brian Weatherson A philosopher at The University of Michigan Richard Yeselson Contributing editor at Dissent (American magazine)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:0_1-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-:0_1-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-:0_1-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-:0_1-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-:0_1-8) Paul, Pamela (2011-04-15). ["Big Blog on Campus"](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17blog-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all). *New York Times*. New York. Retrieved 2011-04-17.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:1_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:1_2-3) Aldred, Jessica (2008-03-09). ["The world's 50 most powerful blogs | UK news | The Observer"](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs). London: Guardian. Retrieved 2009-09-30.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Susanna Clarke Seminar — Crooked Timber"](https://crookedtimber.org/category/susanna-clarke-seminar/). *crookedtimber.org*. Retrieved 2026-02-15.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:2_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:2_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:2_4-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:2_4-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:2_4-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-:2_4-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-:2_4-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-:2_4-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-:2_4-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-:2_4-9) [***k***](#cite_ref-:2_4-10) ["Crooked Timber — Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made"](https://crookedtimber.org). *crookedtimber.org*. Retrieved 2026-02-15.

## External links

- [Official website](https://www.crookedtimber.org/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Crooked Timber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_Timber) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_Timber?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.