Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: John Fea, “How to Be an Activist Historian“ Timothy Larsen, “REVIEW: How’s that Post-Christian Thing Goin’ for Ya?“ Nadya Williams, “Gorbachev’s Legacy: Moscow (Still) Doesn’t Believe in Tears“ John Fea, […]
Evangelical roundup for September 8, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Creation care and Georgia evangelicals. Racism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center continues to promote this guy: Evangelicals want more Christians in America. Latino evangelicals Anne Kennedy of The […]
Critical race theory opponents at Grove City College are still not satisfied
As the new academic year begins, the anti-CRT crowd at Grove City College is still not happy. Get up to speed on this story here. Here is the latest post at the “Save GCC from CRT” website: On May 13, […]
Biden Defends Democracy
The president’s speech at Independence Hall was appropriate and necessary
Chris Lehmann remembers Barbara Ehrenreich
We lost a great cultural critic and writer last week. I have benefited immensely over the years from Barbara Ehrenreich‘s work on social class in America. She is well-known for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By […]
Can the GOP be saved?
No. Or at least that’s what longtime Republican insider and former Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol believes. The guy who tried to tap David French to run against Donald Trump in 2016 is now organizing to defeat pro-Trump candidates in […]
Eugene Debs: “We never hear of Capital Day, not because Capital has no day, but because every day is Capital Day.”
OK–I realize I am a day late here, but if you read Eugene Debs‘s 1903 Labor Day message you will understand why that is OK. According to Debs, “The struggle in which we are now engaged will end only when […]
How the populist tables have turned
Over Labor Day weekend I reread Michael Kazin‘s 1998 book The Populist Persuasion: An American History and was once again reminded that throughout the course of our nation’s history populism has appeared on both the right and the left. (For […]
GOP success in November rests on the votes of women
Republican women voters are skeptical about the direction their party is moving and there is a good chance they will voice their skepticism in the November 2022 Senate races. Here is Natalie Allison at Politico: Republicans this election cycle thought […]
Evangelical roundup for September 5, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Should Labor Day be a Christian holiday? Lisa Sharon Harper on Biden’s Philadelphia speech (thread) Fox News covers Michael Gerson’s scathing anti-Trump column. Tim Keller being Tim Keller: Evangelical leaders respond to the Matt […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Barbara Ehrenreich, RIP Historian Michael Kazin on Labor Day The difference between economists and historians “When in this story does Michael Corleone really become an American?” Oliver Cromwell in America […]
John Harwood leaves CNN
What is going on at CNN? Jeffrey Toobin is out. Brian Stelter is out. And now John Harwood. Jeremy Barr at The Washington Post asks if there is a “purge” going on at the network. Read more here. In honor […]
Was Biden wrong to call MAGA Republicans “semi-fascists”?
Over at The Washington Post a scholar of fascism suggests that the phrase “semi-fascism” makes sense, historically, when applied to Trump. Here is a taste of Federico Finchelstein’s piece: President Biden has taken a firm stance on the modern-day threat […]
Will Bunch offers a “field guide” to Doug Mastriano’s world
Will Bunch of The Philadelphia Inquirer offers a guide to the “rouges’ gallery of religious zealots, election deniers and militia types surrounding Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign. The guide includes short bios of Abby Abildness, Grant Clarkson, Jenna Ellis, James Emery, […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Timothy Larsen, “REVIEW: How’s that Post-Christian Thing Goin’ for Ya?“ AntĂłn Barba-Kay , “REVIEW: One Cheer for Purdy“ Michial Farmer, “LONG FORM: Treasure of the Broken Land“ Nadya Williams, “‘Joshua Was […]
How to Be an Activist Historian
Putting the “history” back into “activist history”
Become a Current patron at our annual rate and get a 10% discount!
Did you know that Current patrons can now choose to support us annually or monthly? Click the red SUPPORT button to join us with an annual subscription, and get a 10% discount. Existing monthly subscribers who switch to an annual […]
Nyack College becomes Alliance University
In the mid-1990s I taught Western Civilization as an adjunct professor at Nyack College, a small Christian college in Rockland County, New York with a beautiful hillside campus overlooking the Hudson River. Recently the Christian Missionary Alliance school left Nyack […]
Evangelical roundup for September 1, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? An Assembly of God pastor and Christian Zionist is addressing evangelicalism in the age of Trump. The National Association of Evangelicals issues a “sweeping report on global climate change.” World Relief is on board. […]
The labor rights radical behind the 1963 March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place 59 years ago this week (August 28, 1963). Shawn Gude ofJacobin interviews historian William P. Jones about A. Philip Randolph, the Black socialist who spoke at the 1963 event and […]