Here is Nicki Goslin at Page Six: It’s The Boxer versus The Boss. An insider tells Page Six that music icons Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen are both battling to close the concert in Central Park that is slated to […]
Archives for July 2021
What is going on at The Claremont Institute?
The conservative website The Bulwark takes a shot at the pro-Trump think tank. The subtitle of Laura Fields’s piece says it all: “How the once-distinguished conservative think tank plunged into Trumpism, illiberalism, and lying about the election.” They have even […]
Episode 13: “George W. Bush Joins the Fight Over Same-Sex Marriage”
The president declares October 12-18, 2003 “Marriage Protection Week” Episode 13: “George W. Bush Joins the Fight Over Same-Sex Marriage” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to […]
Cornel West publishes his letter of resignation to his Harvard dean
He posted it on his Twitter account. More on West’s resignation here.
Annette Gordon-Reed talks race and American history
Here is a taste of Chauncey DeVega’s interview with Gordon-Reed at Salon: Why are so many (white) people upset by basic facts about the color line and its centrality to American history? Guilt. That is why there are people who […]
Jack Hibbs dabbles in American history and it is a disaster. We need another Dudley Rutherford moment!
In 2011, Dudley Rutherford, the pastor of the Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, California, sat down in front of a camera and told the inspiring story behind the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (The video has been removed from […]
Outside the Baseball Diamond
Choreographed struggle on the field. Real struggle all around it.
Should the first 50 pissed-off people to get to the microphone at a school-board meeting be running our schools?
Rich Lowry of The National Review writes: To paraphrase Bill Buckley, it’d be better if the schools were run by the first 50 pissed-off people standing in line to get to the microphone at a contentious school-board meeting than by the […]
Eric Foner on learning how to type
American historian Eric Foner‘s recent letter to The New York Times: To the Editor: In her letter to the editor (June 27), inspired by a review of Danielle Dreilinger’s “The Secret History of Home Economics,” Jane Feder relates how as […]
Messiah University’s Digital Harrisburg Initiative wins the Leadership in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History
I occasionally write about Messiah’s Digital Harrisburg Initiative (DHI). My colleague David Pettegrew and his team do an amazing job of serving our local community through public and digital history. I am thrilled to see that the American Association for […]
Evangelical roundup for July 12, 2021
What is going on in Evangelicalland? A lot of commentators–evangelical or otherwise–are responding to the recent PRRI survey. Sarah Jones at New York Magazine. NPR. Michelle Boorstein at The Washington Post. The Burlington (VT) Free Press. Natalie Jackson at Five […]
Evangelicals and Racism: Is There Hope?
Anthea Butler has a quick answer: No
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Sermongate Should you quit Twitter? George Will: Move the mound back a foot and have only two infielders Substack and the economy Peter Wehner interviews Jonathan Rauch on the “death […]
Yale’s Harry Stout is still going strong
I am teaching Harry Stout’s The Divine Dramatist again this Fall. I find it to be the most undergraduate accessible biography of Whitefield available. My students really like it. Stout has been busy of late. He has two biographies in […]
Joe Biden is coming for your Bibles!
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is meeting this weekend in Dallas. After looking at the lineup of speakers, it should probably just be called Trump Political Action Conference or TPAC. (I am sure someone already came up with that […]
Read PRRI’s 2020 Census of American Religion
I am sure I will have more to say about this later. In the meantime, you can read about Public Religion Research Institute’s latest report here. A few very quick takeaways: The number of white Christians is not declining as […]
A North Carolina anti-critical race theory bill that makes some sense
North Carolina House Bill 324 forbids K-12 teachers from teaching: One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex. An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, […]
Conservative attacks on critical race theory are growing more ridiculous every day
Should we debate the usefulness of critical race theory? Of course we should. We live in a free and democratic society. But the conservative attack on the theory is getting downright absurd. Take the recent hullaballoo over Air Force Academy […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular Current features of the last week: Scott Hancock, “South Carolina and the first ‘Big Lie.’” John Fea, “An Open Letter to American History Teachers: Stop Teaching ‘Critical Race Theory’“ Randall Balmer, “Who Killed Evangelicalism?“ John Fea: “‘What […]
Looking For Heroes
What does it take to stand upright in front of a statue?