Here is Saturday Night Live:
Archives for 2023
When was America great?
Donald Trump wants to “make America great again.” But when was America great? Was it 1776? The Gilded Age? The 1950s? The 1980s? “Greatness” is not a historical category of analysis. We can certainly report on people in the past […]
How big is Africa?
As this map shows, the continental United States, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, most of Eastern Europe, Greece, India, Japan, and China can all fit inside the continent of Africa. HT: Sam Wineburg
Evangelical roundup for October 23, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? If Christianity Today‘s reporting is correct, Argentinian evangelical voters are more concerned about political corruption and the economy than abortion. I appreciate the fact that National Public Radio contacted historian Daniel Hummel for this […]
Friends and Relations, Part II
There are times when our desire for moral clarity can lead to us being complicit, or worse, in events far from our ken.
LONG FORM: The Responsibility of Time
The son of a Louisiana statesman looks back at the world of Huey P. Long
David French: “The Worst Scandal in American Higher Education Isn’t in the Ivy League.”
When you have a free moment check out the website or twitter feed of Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center. You will find articles with titles like this: “Why Young Evangelicals Are in Danger of Becoming Puppets for Climate Marxism.” […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Historians tell ghost stories George Will compares Trump to George Wallace. The United Auto Workers strike is still going. Here is a piece comparing Shawn Fain to Walter Reuther. The […]
What do landscaping, vanilla lattes, and Current have in common?
Not much. Except for this:
If you want a revealing glimpse into the MAGA evangelical movement, check out the responses to Russell Moore’s recent tweet.
Sometimes there are small moments that illuminate much larger social and cultural patterns. Historians are always looking for these moments. I thus hope future historians of evangelicalism will find this post. After Joe Biden’s speech to the nation on Thursday […]
Steven Mintz on ethics education in American universities
I am a regular reader of University of Houston historian Steven Mintz’s blog at Insider Higher Ed. In his most recent post, he responds to Ezekiel Emanuel’s New York Times op-ed on ethics education in American universities. We wrote about […]
The “most radical thing” universities “have accomplished in the 21st century is hiking their tuition rates and plunging millions…further into debt”
Here is Bates College environmental studies professor Tyler Austin Harper at The Atlantic: The most popular major at Harvard, Yale, and many other supposedly leftist universities is economics—not exactly the subject of choice for aspiring anti-capitalists. At the University of […]
N.T. Wright on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and vocation
Readers of this blog know that I am a big N.T. Wright fan. His book on the resurrection, The Resurrection of the Son of God, strengthened my Christian faith. Today I want to call your attention to Wright’s new book […]
Jim Jordan takes a third shot at the House speakership. This time he’s invoking the Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong, and 2 Timothy 4:7
As I type, the House of Representatives is about to consider Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan’s candidacy for Speaker of the House. On the first vote, Jordan was unable to garner the 217 votes he needed. 20 Republicans voted against him. […]
In School Board Fights, Love—Not Liberty—Overcomes Fear
Wielding cookies and conversation for the common good
A blessing of unicorns: a weekly roundup
This week’s roundup includes Israel, museums and archaeologists behaving badly, surprises of ancient source survival, and the challenges of homemaking.
Monmouth University (NJ) will build a new building for The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music
Here is Chris Jordan at The Asbury Park Press: This building is born to educate. The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music announced on Wednesday, Oct. 18, that a new center on the campus of Monmouth University will […]
Election denier Sidney Powell just flipped
This is huge. Sidney Powell was “in the room where it happened.” She is now working for the prosecution in the Georgia election fraud case against Donald Trump and others. Here is CNN: Former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty […]
Evangelical roundup for October 19, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Evangelicals in Jordan call for “peace and justice” in the Middle East. Iowa evangelical kingmaker Bob Vander Plaats is now endorsing school board candidates. Shane Claiborne stays on message: How a “Charismatic Baptist” became […]
Ethical dilemmas and targeting civilians in war
In our discussions of civilians in war, whenever we start sounding like Julius Caesar writing about the Gauls, in terms utterly devoid of all sympathy and compassion, this should give us pause.