The emerging geopolitical landscape demands an idealism grounded in humility
Archives for April 2022
Rick Warren’s library
Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and the author of The Purpose Driven Life, has quite the library. He made so much money on his books that he now claims he gives away 90% of […]
2021 was the deadliest year in United States history
Here is the Associated Press: 2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad. The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, […]
Woody Holton reflects on Liberty is Sweet
Over at the Age of Revolutions blog, historian Tom Cutterman of the University of Birmingham (UK) interviews University of South Carolina historian Woody Holton. The topic is Holton’s recent book, Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution. […]
“Dr. Oz is the most normal Republican” running for office in Pennsylvania
Amanda Carpenter nails it: LOL, if you thought Donald Trump’s endorsement of Dr. Mehmet Oz for Senate was the worst development in Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP primaries, wait until you hear about the Republicans running for governor. Pennsylvania Republicans will nominate a […]
BOOK MARKS: Keeping the Place
“He best expressed his preference for his wild homestead by saying that his Bible seemed truer to him there.”
What is going on at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School?
When I graduated from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1992 with a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Arts in Church History, the school had 937 full-time equivalent students. That was larger than my undergraduate institution! Today TEDS has […]
Jonathan Haidt on the stupidity of American life
According to the New York University social psychologist and author of The Righteous Mind, social media is the culprit. It is hard to argue with his analysis. Haidt’s article should be read alongside Current editor Felicia Wu Song’s Restless Devices: […]
The Author’s Corner with Sarah Purcell
Sarah Purcell is L.F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College. This interview is based on her new book, Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led […]
Puritan Passions
350 years on, Anne Bradstreet’s poems still speak
Who was Jim Limber and what was his connection to the Confederate Lost Cause?
Here is Sydney Trent at The Washington Post: The little Black boy in the Civil War-era photograph stands atop a gilded chair, grasping its tall back with his small fist. His clothing is quotidian — striped pants and a matching […]
Genocide
Here is Eugene Finkel of Johns Hopkins University: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, visibly shaken by evidence of the Russian military’s atrocities against Ukrainian citizens in the recently liberated suburbs of Kyiv, on Sunday condemned the slaughter as genocide. The Biden administration has […]
The Author’s Corner with Jonathan Singerton
Jonathan Singerton is Lecturer of Global and Comparative Histories of Central Europe at the University of Innsbruck. This interview is based on his new book, The American Revolution and the Habsburg Monarchy (University of Virginia Press, 2022). JF: What led […]
Evangelical roundup for April 11, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Beth Moore on Palm Sunday: Answers in Genesis on evangelical “deconstruction. The Family Research Council here. A Liberty University professor is not guilty of sexual assault. Eric Metaxas and Mike Lindell are still pushing […]
Bricolage
A life crafted from what’s on hand
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: What does the right want? The moral indifference of the American people Francis Fukuyama defends liberalism Does liberalism need an external enemy? George Will’s opening day quiz The long history […]
Trump endorses Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race
Donald Trump just endorsed Mehmet Oz’s candidacy for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey. Here is Trip Gabriel at The New York Times: Wading into a tight Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, former President Donald J. […]
Charlie Kirk is not the only one creating watchlists and encouraging students to record their teachers. Putin is also doing it.
Charlie Kirk and his gang at Turning Point USA are not the only ones encouraging students to record teachers and create watchlists of unpatriotic educators . So is Vladimir Putin and his Russian henchmen. Here is Jeanne Whalen at The […]
Commonplace Book #211
It is the responsibility of all intellectuals to defend and extend the critical spirit, and the special responsibility of historians to bring that spirit to the study of the past–to the record of humanity’s struggle to live decently and to […]
Episode 99: “Historicizing the Search for Roots”
Do you do genealogical research? In this episode, historian Francesca Morgan talks about her new book A Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History. She discusses Americans’ fascination with tracking family lineage through three centuries and how the […]