James Q. Wilson, perhaps the best political scientist of the past half-century, has died. I took his course as an undergraduate, was a teaching assistant for him as a graduate student, and he served on my dissertation committee. We stayed in touch over the years, though I think I was too intimidated by him ever really to seek to become a good friend.

His work speaks for itself—an almost unique combination of empirical social science, deep common sense, and wide-ranging historical and philosophical erudition. His many essays over the years in the Public Interest have been assembled on the website of National Affairs. Two of his essays for THE WEEKLY STANDARD give perhaps more of a sense of the man, as opposed to the scholar.