Joshua Cherniss is a political theorist working in both the history of political thought and contemporary political theory. His research interests range over the history of political ideas from the 16th century to the present, with particular focus on the twentieth century, and English and American political thought. Thematically, his work revolves around questions central to liberalism -- the relationship and tensions between individual freedoms and rights and the claims of political authority and community; the relative weights of the demands of personal conviction and shared political principles; and the particular features and challenges of modern, pluralistic societies -- and on questions of political ethics -- the conflicting demands made by moral ideals and political responsibilities and pressures; the relationship between the ends pursued in political action and the means employed in their pursuit; and the significance of personal character and conduct in thinking about political action. He is also interested in exploring the ways in which conceptions of moral psychology, and philosophies of history (or, conceptions of historical development and time) contribute to shaping political thought. He has published several book chapters and journal articles, and a book (Oxford University Press, 2013) on Isaiah Berlin, in whose thought many of these themes intersect. He is currently working on a second book on political ethics and the defense of liberalism against its radical critics in twentieth century political thought, in which -- through an examination of such figures as Max Weber, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, Reinhold Niebuhr, Adam Michnik, and Judith Shklar -- he traces the articulation of liberalism as a feature of ethical reflection and personal "ethos". In the future, he hopes to extend the study of these themes to earlier periods in the history of liberal (or proto-liberal) political thought; to explore the implications of (different understandings of) value pluralism for political theory; and to look at the ethics of judicial actors in democratic societies. 

His teaching reflects all of these preoccupations, as well as his interest in connecting political theory to the study of historical and contemporary political practice, philosophy, and literature.