Should consecrated minority voices produce content that is genuinely challenging or threatening for mainstream symbolic capitalists–something that is actually unpleasant for them to engage with, something that powerfully calls into question rather than affirming their preferred values and narratives, something […]
Way of Improvement
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught our attention this week: American loneliness “Hamilton” turns ten Joseph Epstein‘s memoir Thorstein Veblen and “tradwives“ Reading obituaries Madison Smartt Bell reviews Marlene L. Daut, The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise […]
It’s the day before Trump’s inauguration. What are evangelicals saying?
Jenna Ellis is celebrating with a bottle of what appears to be Trump champagne. She calls Biden “the worst president in American history” and describes as “incoming 47.” It apparently all comes down to complementarianism and “bad theology”: According to […]
American Historical Association Council vetoes a resolution condemning Gaza scholasticide
We covered this resolution on January 8 and January 9 (Pamela Paul op-ed). Here is the original resolution: Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between […]
A populist inauguration ceremony with no people? Where is the spirit of March 4, 1829 and January 6, 2021?
In case you haven’t heard, Trump’s inauguration tomorrow will be held indoors. Due to the cold weather, Trump will get sworn-in and deliver his inaugural address in the United States Capitol Rotunda. Ronald Reagan was the last president to have […]
TikTok may be gone, but CURRENT is still here!
And we’d love your support! Here are two ways you can keep us in business: TikTok may be gone, by CURRENT is still here!
Commonplace Book #315
Far from using their elite position to meaningfully help genuinely disadvantaged members of the groups they claim affiliation with, symbolic capitalists typically attempt to leverage collective identities in the service of their individual benefit. Discussions turn on what I am […]
Commonplace Book #314
…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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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” […]
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 […]
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 […]