Michael Kinsley

Managing Editor, The New Republic

Most overrated:

As I write, the single most overrated person in all of American history is Oliver North. I’m hoping that may no longer be true by the time you publish this symposium.

Most underrated:

Henry George. Barely a public figure at all is the nineteenth-century economist (he did twice run for mayor of New York, I believe) Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty , America’s greatest contribution to economic thought.