History is well represented in the non-fiction category: Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. HistoryYale University Press Jonathan Eig, King: A LifeFarrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces: […]
Archives for September 2023
Romney announces he will not run in 2024. What does this mean for Senate centrists?
Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney will step away from his U.S. Senate seat after his term is over in January 2025. He will not seek re-election in 2024. Over at Politico, Burgess Everett asks what Romney’s departure, and the […]
Did God “call” Lauren Boebert to this?
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and her boyfriend were thrown out of a Denver theater this week. There was vaping, groping, and just general obnoxiousness. Learn more here. Or just watch: And here is Lauren flipping the bird to the theater employees: […]
When it comes to transgender athletes in women’s sports, don’t mess with Oberlin College
I’ve tried to look at all sides of this question, I really have. I’ve talked to both of my daughters–one of whom was an NCAA Division III athlete who played on a national championship volleyball team and the other who […]
The Author’s Corner with Melissa Blair
Melissa Blair is Associate Professor and Department Chair of History at Auburn University. This interview is based on her new book, Bringing Home the White House: The Hidden History of Women who Shaped the Presidency in the Twentieth Century (University […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
You really can just unplug: three months later
This past July, I posted here at the Arena about the challenges of finding a way to unplug from the internet and devices regularly without having to pay the price of answering approximately one million e-mails, messages, and more once […]
Tricky Dick and Don
A tale of two very different January 6thsÂ
Wheaton College study on race: “We cannot be healed and cannot be reconciled unless and until we repent”
A Wheaton College task force has released a 122-page historical report on race relations at the evangelical institution. Read it here. Here is Daniel Silliman and Kate Shellnut at Christianity Today: Though the flagship evangelical institution was founded by abolitionists, […]
Are liberals ignoring the value of two-parent families?
In his column this week at The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof suggests that liberals need to talk about the value of two-parent families. Here is a taste: American liberals have led the campaign to reduce child poverty since Franklin […]
Eric Metaxas prepares pastors for a holy war
Metaxas spoke last night at Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Faith event and issued a call for pastors to engage in a holy war: I am reminded of Russel Moore’s recent piece at Christianity Today: “Culture War is Not Spiritual Warfare.”
Evangelical roundup for September 14, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Evangelicals talk to the dead. Is “Christian Right” an oxymoron? An evangelical higher education “hole” in New York City. Evangelicals against the death penalty in Florida. Russell Moore: “Culture war is not spiritual warfare.” […]
Hunting invisible elephants
As I look out the window, there is a large ash tree. In that ash tree is an invisible elephant. You don’t believe me? Well, prove there is no elephant in the tree. You can’t see the elephant, you say? […]
UFO Alert
The long tangle between science and religion takes an extraterrestrial turn
The real meaning of Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry against Biden
I’ll let Russell Berman explain. Here is a taste of his piece at The Atlantic: As Kevin McCarthy made his televised declaration earlier today that House Republicans were launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, the House speaker stood outside his […]
The Author’s Corner with Joseph Beilein Jr.
Joseph Beilein Jr. is Associate Professor of History at Penn State Behrend. This interview is based on his new book, A Man by Any Other Name: William Clarke Quantrill and the Search for American Manhood (University of Georgia Press, 2023). […]
Ideas in progress: Robert Fleegler on the history of smoking in the U.S.
Robert Fleegler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of two books, Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century (Penn, 2013) and Brutal Campaign: How the 1988 Election Set the Stage […]
The Rustling Ones
Hannah Szenes helps us hear the sounds of a still, small voice
“Anything that wasn’t stale tea party table talk was permitted”
Last week I asked college students to consider forming a Junto. I used the Boston Gleaning Circle as an example of such a community of mutual improvement. And today over at Zocalo Public Sqaure, writer Emily Zarevich introduces us to […]
Bayard Rustin and the politics of class
Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin was a complicated guy. Perhaps that’s why I find myself drawn to him and his work. Today The New York Times is running a piece on Rustin by writer James Kirchick. Kirchick is the author […]