If anxiety is destiny, this old earth may just have chance
Archives for February 2022
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: School districts are censoring Black voices. How W.E.B. Du Bois might help us process this. The founder of Black History Month Tom Brady for Senate? Reading Thucydides in a pandemic […]
A fuller (no pun intended) response to the David Brooks New York Times piece on evangelical dissenters
On Friday I posted on Brooks’s New York Times essay “The Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism From Itself.” Shortly after I read the piece I got three wisdom teeth removed, so I am finally getting around to giving it a […]
Why did the historian of the Virginia governor’s mansion just resign?
Earlier this week Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin was shopping in Alexandria when this happened: In case you couldn’t hear Youngkin’s response to this woman, he said “We’re all making choices today.” Well, it looks like Kelly Fanto Deetz also made […]
Episode 94: “Gettysburg, 1963”
Our guest in this episode is Gettysburg College historian Jill Ogline Titus. Her new book, Gettysburg 1963, tells the story of the centennial celebration of the Civil War in the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. Through an examination of the experiences of political […]
Stephen Colbert and Dua Lipa talk Christianity and comedy
“Legitimate political discourse”
Yesterday was a big day in American politics. The Republican National Committee censured Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two members of the GOP who sit on the House committee investigating the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, […]
Jerry Falwell Jr. is apparently a Christian again
Last month Vanity Fair ran a piece on Jerry Falwell in which the disgraced president of Liberty University said that he was not “a religious person.” See our coverage of that article here. Falwell Jr. has now told the Washington […]
What historians are saying about the death of Richard S. Dunn
Last week I reflected on the death of early American historian Richard S. Dunn. Here is the obituary from Legacy.com, published in the Boston Globe: It is with sadness that we announce the passing of the eminent historian Richard S. […]
Are you a “COVID jerk”?
What is a COVID jerk and how do you identify one? University of California-Riverside philosophy professor Eric Schwitzgebel explains in a piece today at The Atlantic: We all know the type. First appearing in the spring of 2020, the COVID […]
The Republican National Committee will support Liz Cheney’s primary challenger in November
Earlier this week we posted about George W. Bush’s financial support of Wyoming Liz Cheney’s 2022 reelection campaign. Yesterday, while meeting in Salt Lake City, the Republican National Committee chose to back Cheney’s primary opponent. Here is Josh Dawsey at […]
Evangelicals trying to save evangelicalism
David Brooks has collected a list of evangelicals who are trying to “save evangelicalism from itself.” They are Thabiti Anyabwile, Tim Dalrymple, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Russell Moore, David Bailey, Karen Swallow Prior, David French, Rachael Denhollander, Beth Moore, Lecrae, […]
Does Dr. Oz really believe he can run as a China hawk?
Here is Daniel Lippman and Holly Otterbein at Politico: Republican Mehmet Oz, whose Pennsylvania Senate campaign against David McCormick is focused on the former hedge fund CEO’s China ties, has his own close relationship with the country that helped net […]
Shifting power in the Republican Party
Prior to 2016, the following organizations and people held the power in the GOP: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce The NRA The Koch network Heritage Action The Drudge Report National Review Conservative movement groups such as Tea Party Express, FreedomWorks, […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Jeremy Sabella, The Tower of Babel and The American Experiment Hannah Nation, Separation of Church and State, China Style Paul Luikart, Beach Body, Beat Body Timothy Larsen, Culture Wars: Squirrel […]
The Author’s Corner with Anne F. Hyde
Anne F. Hyde is Professor of History and Editor of the Western Historical Quarterly at the University of Oklahoma. This interview is based on her new book, Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American […]
“Jesus is My Favorite Philosopher”
The first of a two-part series on how the Christian Right fell in love with and then started to sour on George W. Bush
Why did Jonah Goldberg leave Fox News?
Goldberg recently talked to The New York Times about his departure from Fox News: The former Fox commentator Jonah Goldberg — who has been called a “Fox defector” — says that Tucker Carlson’s latest documentary series was “the anvil that […]
Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia history
Washington Post writer Dana Milbank got his hands on a 7th grade Virginia history textbook used in the commonwealth’s public schools from the 1950s through the 1970s. Here is a taste of his piece: Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin opened a tip line so […]
The history of “woke”
In a piece at The Washington Post, writer Bijan C. Bayne argues that “woke” is “the least woke word in U.S. English.” Here is a taste: You want to talk about Black history? Well, here’s a bit of etymology about […]