…in the contemporary United States, social status and a sense of victimhood seem to travel hand in hand, with each reinforcing the other. For instance, those who are genuinely marginalized and disadvantaged in society are much less likely to perceive […]
Archives for January 2025
Greenland & the Turner thesis
Is Greenland the new frontier? Is a new “Manifest Destiny” in the air? Are we seeing a revival of historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis?” Some Trump conservatives think so. Here is Ian Ward at Politico: But in the corner […]
Commonplace Book #313
Within a victimhood culture, challenging a purported victim’s claims or failing to comply with their demands is often recast as a form of abuse–a type of revictimization. To extend compassion, sympathy, curiosity, or understanding toward accused wrongdoers–to press for nuance, […]
Blessing of Unicorns: Snow, secularist violence, winter poetry, Commonplace launch, and the love of family reading
One Unicorn could be just a figment of your imagination. Herd several together, and you get a Blessing of Unicorns upon your day.
The Author’s Corner with Gregg L. Michel
Gregg L. Michel is Professor of History and Assistant Department Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio. This interview is based on his new book, Spying on Students: The FBI, Red Squads, and Student Activists in the 1960s […]
Truth and Revolution
Higher education needs the Christian university
Mr. Baseball, RIP
Bob Uecker was one of the greats:
David Brooks: We live in a “soap opera” country. The Pete Hegseth confirmation hearing is proof.
Here is The New York Times columnist: First let me hit you with some realities: Now, if you are holding hearings for a prospective secretary of defense, you would think you might want to ask him about these urgent issues. […]
Oaths matter
On Monday, Donald Trump will put his hand on the Bible and say: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability preserve, […]
The Author’s Corner with Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor
Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor is Professor of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars at the University of California, Davis. This interview is based on her new book, America Under the Hammer: Auctions and the Emergence of Market Values (University […]
Generation Beta beats: the ultimate labor playlist for moms-to-be
Labor and delivery needs a soundtrack–here are some suggestions for Gen Beta moms!
Commonplace Book #312
…sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning argue, a different moral culture has hold among contemporary symbolic capitalists–a “victimhood culture.” Victimhood cultures, they argue, operate by a different set of rules and norms as compared to moral cultures oriented around “honor” […]
Ford Continues to Teach
He still makes us believe he’s just like us
The Author’s Corner with Peter Ekman
Peter Ekman is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life and at the Berggruen Institute. This interview is based on his new book, Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt […]
The cars of the civil rights movement
Historian Travis Wright teaches us about the Sojourner Motor Fleet. A taste: On a late summer night in 1964, a small plane landed on a desolate airstrip outside Greenwood, Mississippi, carrying two of the civil rights movement’s most prominent supporters—Harry […]
Roundup: reviews of Musa al-Gharbi’s ‘We Have Never Been Woke’
We may yet run a review at Current, but for the moment, a roundup of representative coverage elsewhere.
Why the Democrats need to turn away from identity politics and toward a class-based politics
Over at Jacobin, Melissa Naschek interviews New York University sociologist Vivek Chibber about identity politics and the Democratic Party. Here is a taste: Melissa Naschek: The Democratic Party has become almost synonymous with identity politics. How did the Democrats get […]
Commonplace Book #311
When someone works for less pay than she can live on–when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently–then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of […]
Navigating the Mid-Career Blues
Taking time to reflect in the middle of one’s story
There is a “crisis of trust” in the college classroom
I am thankful to historian Seth Bruggeman for writing this piece at Inside Higher Ed. It put into words much of what I was feeling last semester in one of my classes and raises some important points about teaching college […]