Archives for December 2024

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Zablatt on the fate of American democracy

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This conversation between New Republic editor Michael Tomasky and the the authors of How Democracies Die is worth your time. Here is a taste: TOMASKY: What’s your long-term prognosis for American democracy? LEVITSKY: Mine is evolving. I’ve been repeating the same prognosis […]

The Author’s Corner with Samantha Ege

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Samantha Ege is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. This interview is based on her new book, South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago’s Classical Music Scene  (University of Illinois Press, 2024). JF: What led you […]

The Author’s Corner with Jason S. Lantzer

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Jason S. Lantzer is Assistant Director of the Butler University Honors Program. This interview is based on his new book, “Prohibition Is Here to Stay”: The Reverend Edward S. Shumaker and the Dry Crusade in America (University of Notre Dame […]

Life on Turkey Mountain

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The world of my boyhood is gone. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped longing for it. 

Commonplace Book #293

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While not understood sociologically by most on the right, the intent of these new speech codes and the cultural commitments they represented brought into relief both the cultural and economic alienation of working-class, small-town, and more often than not, religious […]

The Author’s Corner with Patrick Parr

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Patrick Parr is Professor of English at Lakeland University Japan. This interview is based on his new book, Malcolm Before X (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Malcolm Before X? PP: Back in 2012, I’d […]

David Brooks: Christian

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Listen to The New York Times columnists share the story of how he journeyed from agnosticism to Christianity.

Commemorating the Greenwich Tea Burning in 1974

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Yesterday I wrote about the 250th anniversary (December 22, 2024) of the Greenwich Tea Burning. You can read my remarks at the event here. I recently came across a short documentary on events in Greenwich surrounding the 200th anniversary of […]

Commonplace Book #292

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The most obvious and also the most pervasive mechanisms for protecting the power, privilege, and status of the new meritocrats, though, would be through the development of distinct linguistic innovations–ways of speaking (politically correct speech cods–words like Latinx, whiteness, lgbtqia2s, […]

Today on BYU Radio (SiriusXM channel 143)

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I recently chatted with Julie Rose for an episode of her Top of Mind show on BYU radio (Channel 143 on your SiriusXM dial.) Here are the show notes: Can America guarantee free expression of religion in public as an […]

The Author’s Corner with Michael O’Malley

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Michael O’Malley is Professor of History at George Mason University. This interview is based on his new book, The Color of Family: History, Race, and the Politics of Ancestry (University of Chicago Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write […]