Readers of Current will know Nadya Williams as our book review editor and lead blogger at The Arena. But she also spent the last fifteen years (following her Ph.D at Princeton) teaching ancient history at the University of West Georgia. […]
Archives for May 2023
Bruce Springsteen and Flannery O’Connor
We are gearing-up for the new season of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. If I can find the funding, I would like to try to do weekly episodes through the rest of 2023. One of the guests I […]
2023 Pulitzer Prizes announced
Here are few of the prizes that caught my eye: Feature Writing (Finalist): Elizabeth Bruenig for her work on the death penalty in Alabama. History (Winner): Jefferson Cowie, Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power History (Finalist): […]
Manhattan jury: Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll
Here is David French: It’s important to note that this was a civil case, not a criminal trial. The burden of proof in civil cases is lower. The jury was charged with determining whether Carroll proved her claims with a […]
Rep. George Santos just got arrested
The representative from New York’s 3rd congressional district just got charged with wire fraud, money-laundering, theft of public funds, and lying to the House of Representatives. All felonies. Here is CNN: Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against New York Rep. […]
The Writing Time: Night
The quiet, creative magic of evening liturgy
Ideas in progress: Jacob Hiserman on southern college chapel worship
Jacob Hiserman is a doctoral candidate in History at The University of Alabama. He received a B.A. in History from Christendom College and an M.A. in History from Baylor University. Jacob lives with his wife and two boys outside of […]
Historian Molly Worthen talks with The Gospel Coalition about her conversion to evangelical Christianity
I love every minute of this interview. Here is Collin Hanson of The Gospel Coalition interviewing University of North Carolina historian Molly Worthen: Some highlights: What a beautiful and joyful conversation.
The Author’s Corner with Matthew Dennis
Matthew Dennis is Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. This interview is based on his new book, American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
REVIEW: So Many Angles
In Our America, Ken Burns keeps the pictures still—and just as piercing
What does May 9th mean for Russia?
On this date seventy-eight years ago, Germany surrendered, officially ending WWII in Europe. So goes the official narrative. Textbooks and encyclopedias like to put a firm date on things like these, although in this case, historians can quibble that operations […]
Reflections on A.I. in the wake of David Brooks’s comments last week
“A.I. is 100 times more important” than any other subject we’re talking about today, says David Brooks in last week’s PBS interview. I came in thinking that A.I. was, like, it’s kind of important, and then maybe it’s as big as […]
The Author’s Corner with Julie Carr
Julie Carr is Professor of English and Chair of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. This interview is based on her new book, Mud, Blood, and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American West (University […]
Evangelical roundup for May 8, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Russell Moore on Tucker Carlson. More on Iowa evangelicals and the 2024 GOP primary season. Evangelical parachurch organizations at Harvard. Rick Warren wants to follow Southern Baptist pastors on Twitter: Hispanic evangelicals continue to […]
LONG FORM: Fresh Cliché
Sometimes, like Naaman, you just need to bathe in the Jordan
The presence of mothers
The other day my friends and I were reminiscing about cartoons. We were talking about the Flintstones and the Jetsons and we realized that we could remember Barney Rubble, but who was his wife? We knew George Jetson and “his […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The influence of Roger Scruton on conservatism. Leah Finnegan reviews Ben Smith, Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. How to rig an election: 1876 […]
8th grade U.S. history scores continue to decline
Here is Sarah Mervosh at The New York Times: National test scores released on Wednesday showed a marked drop in students’ knowledge of U.S. history and a modest decline in civics, a sign of the pandemic’s alarming reach, damaging student […]
Commonplace Book #265
When we fight for justice and stand up for the oppressed, we are knowing God, making him known, demonstrating by the spirit his own passion for justice. When we delight in beauty and create more of it, God the glad […]
Pope Francis on Ukraine
The Pope wants peace in the Ukraine. He opposes Russian war crimes, but is not acting diplomatically on behalf of the West in the way John Paul II did during the Cold War. Over at The Atlantic, John Allen, the […]