Political views

Wilson is now recognized as a leading conservative scholar, as indicated by his advisory position to the American Enterprise Institute.

• Honorary doctorate from Harvard University.
• Lifetime Achievement Award, American Political Science Association, 2001.
• The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2003.

• Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation (2008, ed. with Peter Schuck)
• American Government, 12th ed. (2010, with John J. DiIulio, Jr.)
• The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Damages Families (2002)
• Moral Judgment (1997)
• The Moral Sense (1993)
• On Character: Essays by James Q. Wilson (1991)
• Bureaucracy (1989)
• Crime and Human Nature (1985, with Richard Herrnstein)
• Watching Fishes: Life and Behavior on Coral Reefs (1985, with Roberta Wilson)
• Thinking About Crime (1975)
• The Investigators (1978)
• Political Organizations (1973)
• Varieties of Police Behavior (1968)
• The Amateur Democrat (1966)
• City Politics (1963, with Edward C. Banfield)
• Negro Politics (1960)