If politics abhors a void, what will fill the vacated space we once thought of as “the center”?
Archives for April 2022
A guy on TikTok explains why history degrees aren’t useless
He goes by the handle @Scootcork and his TikTok post is apparently going viral. Watch: @scootcork #stitch with @education.forum dude is just salty that there isn’t an NFT major #history #usa #college #teacher #ushistory ♬ Love You So – The […]
The return of Ben Franklin
Historian Joseph Adelman calls our attention to a small Ben Franklin revival. Here is his piece at Slate: Benjamin Franklin is having a moment. For decades he has hovered on the periphery of popular representations of the American founding. This […]
Rod Dreher says that America has “few champions” like Viktor Orban, but Florida governor Ron DeSantis gives him “hope”
We covered this yesterday, but Dreher continues to drool all over of the pro-Putin/anti-Zelensky Hungarian president. Here is a taste of his post: “Viktor Organ or Joe Biden?: We cultural conservatives in America have very few champions like Orban. Maybe […]
How the Right gets Gramsci wrong
Check out Alan Wald‘s longform review of Laura Marriss’s translation of Jean-Yves FrĂ©tignĂ©’s To Live Is to Resist: The Life of Antonio Gramsci. There is a lot in Wald’s piece, but I want to call your attention to this passage: […]
Trump is worried about what historians will say about him
Here is Princeton historian Julian Zelizer at The Atlantic: As an academic historian, I never expected to find myself in a videoconference with Donald Trump. But one afternoon last summer—a day after C-SPAN released a poll of historians who ranked him just […]
Can Writing (And Reading) Military History Be an Act of Compassion?
Aeschylus prompts us to consider other ways of seeing war—past and present
Ted Cruz endorses Josh Mandel in Ohio Senate race
Ah Christian Right politicians! You’ve got to love the way they have each other’s backs. Josh Mandel is running for Senate in Ohio in the pro-Trump lane. He does not believe in the separation of church and state, thinks the […]
The Supreme Court has always been political
Here is Joshua Zeitz at Politico: It’s not every day that the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice conspires to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Yet that’s where we are. The stunning revelation of text messages […]
This is not Christianity
Preacher Rick Warzywak prayed before a Donald Trump rally this past weekend in Washington, Michigan. Watch: For those, for whatever reason, cannot see the video, here is what Warzywak prayed: Father in heaven, we firmly believe that Donald Trump is […]
Viktor Orban wins another term in Hungary. Calls Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky one of the “opponents” he had to overcome
Here is CNN: Hungary’s authoritarian leader and longtime Russian ally, Viktor Orban, has declared victory in the country’s parliamentary elections, clinching a fourth consecutive term in power. Orban’s Fidesz party had a commanding lead with 71% of the votes counted, Hungary’s national elections […]
A symposium on Current contributing editor Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn’s Ars Vitae
The Carl F.H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School recently hosted a symposium on Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn’s Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Way of Living. (Some of you may recall […]
Evangelical roundup for April 4, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Randall Balmer on the Mark Galli sexual harassment charges. Evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht does not want you to be fooled: Jim Wallis on mixing religion and politics. Two important evangelical voices meet: Franklin […]
Look Not to the Dead and Dying
Independence has its place. Dependence has a bigger one.Â
Sunday night odds and ends
The cult of Stalin intellectuals Teaching with history with Howard Zinn’s People’s History Integrating college hoops What did Jefferson mean by the pursuit of happiness? Thomas Meaney reviews Jean-Yves FrĂ©tignĂ©, To Live Is To Resist: The Life of Antonio Gramsci […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Alan Godwin, “Running from the Chapel“ Nadya Williams, “Putin’s Heritage of Lethal Incompetence“ Felicia Wu Song, “The Unbearable Lightness of the First TikTok War“ Greg Williams: “DC DISPATCH: Poisoned by […]
To the Tyrants
A poem for the people of Ukraine