As someone who wrote extensively about homesickness in my first book, I thoroughly enjoyed J.L. Bell’s recent post at Boston 1775. He even mentions Philip Vickers Fithian! Here is a taste: One might assume the word was still working its […]
Archives for June 2021
Six things you may not know about the Declaration of Independence
Historian Woody Holton explains at The Conversation: Ordinary Americans played a big role. American independence is due in part to African Americans. The complaints weren’t actually about the King. The Declaration of Independence does not actually denounce monarch. The Declaration […]
Our infrastructure is not equipped for climate change
On Sunday it was 112 degrees in Portland. Check out Robinson Meyer‘s sobering piece at The Atlantic. A taste: The Biden administration has been teased for trying to stuff climate change into an infrastructure frame. But this week has affirmed […]
House of Representatives votes to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol
For some historical context on Confederate monuments check out our interview with Karen L. Cox in the latest episode of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. The vote was 285 to 120. This means that 120 Republicans wanted to […]
Snyder: “The war on history is a war on democracy”
Yale historian Timothy Snyder sees a lot of similarities between the discussion of race happening right now in American schools and the 20th-century European totalitarianism regimes thought about the past. Here is a taste of his piece The New York […]
Florida history teacher: “I do not teach critical race theory”
Jessica Morey teaches African-American history, Advanced Placement U.S. history, A.P. U.S. government, and economics at St. Francis Catholic High School in Gainesville, Florida. She says she does not teach critical race theory. In a recent piece at The Gainesville Sun, […]
Mission Possible?
Anyone wondering about the state of the tottering edifice we just a few decades back deemed “the new world order” need only ingest the title of Mariana Mazzucato’s recent New Republic article: “Saving the Climate in a Triple Crisis: A […]
A glimpse of Springsteen’s first night back on Broadway
Learn more here.
Commonweal writer slams the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops
Molly Wilson O’Reilly, a practicing Catholic, pulls very few punches in this piece at The Atlantic. The context, of course, is the bishops’ efforts to ban Joe Biden from communion for his views on abortion. Here is a taste: It […]
National Review writer Kevin Williamson blasts the Southern Baptist Convention
Here is Williamson on Albert Mohler’s failed campaign for president of the Southern Baptist Convention: Ed Litton, a moderate reformer, has been elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention — and the Reverend R. Albert Mohler has been served his […]
Was John Locke a vain, lazy, and pompous plagiarist?
A new document has emerged that paints the father of liberalism in a less than flattering light. Here is Alison Flood at The Guardian: John Locke is regarded today as one of England’s greatest philosophers, an Enlightenment thinker known as […]
“Far more Americans have learned about critical race theory from its opponents than from the theorists themselves”
Adam Kirsch of The Wall Street Journal writes, “In the life of any big idea, there comes a moment when it stops belonging to the thinkers who invented it and becomes public property. Today, critical race theory is undergoing that […]
Do Marxists, critical race theorists, and Tucker Carlson have anything in common?
Anne Applebaum is going to catch hell for this column, but she is right. The subtitle of her Atlantic piece reads: “Marxist literary scholars and popularizers of critical race theory have one thing in common with certain GOP commentators: a […]
Episode 11: “A New Front in the Culture Wars”
A state supreme court considers gay marriage. Episode 11: “A New Front in the Culture Wars” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1, and […]
Found Footage: January 6 and the Horror Movies that Made It
Which script were the insurrectionists following?
Springsteen is back on Broadway!
Peter Chianca at Blogness on the Edge of Town has it covered: So much for anticipation — less than a month after the announcement of a limited return engagement for “Springsteen on Broadway,” Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa were back […]
Evangelical roundup for June 28, 2021
What is going on in Evangelicalland? Miami evangelicals are stepping-up to the plate in Surfside, Florida. David Barton at First Baptist-Dallas for Freedom Sunday. True: Jim Wallis say “farewell” to Sojourners: Some evangelicals are gathering to read Frederick Douglass on […]
D.C. DISPATCH: SUBVERT the SUBJECT Lines!
Cynicism isn’t the response our political system, or the internet, needs
Anyone who wants to believe that Independence Day is a Christian holiday should read Frederick Douglass’s “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?” David Barton speaks at First Baptist-Dallas.
Yesterday was “Freedom Sunday” at First Baptist-Dallas. I have commented on this yearly service several times. Read my commentary here and here and here. My position on these patriotic services has not changed. In the past, First Baptist-Dallas pastor Robert […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Brad East on George Scialabba on Wendell Berry David Klion reviews George Packer, Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal Ross Douthat on race and the history wars Is […]