Last night I read author and television script-writer Noah Hawley‘s piece about what he saw, experienced, and thought as he took a family road trip between Austin, Texas and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here are a few snippets: As we drove, […]
Way of Improvement
Amy Bass: “We witnessed the greatest sports championship game in history”
Earlier today I wrote a few words about the World Cup in a blog post on Pope Francis. But I would be remiss if I did not share sports historian Amy Bass‘s piece published today at CNN.COM. Here is a […]
The Vatican defrocks Frank Pavone
The pro-life election denier and MAGA priest is no longer a Roman Catholic priest. Here is the Los Angeles Times: The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” […]
Trumpism and American pragmatism
I just finished University of Virginia English professor Mark Edmundson‘s piece on Richard Rorty, pragmatism, and Donald Trump. Is it published in the January 2023 issue of Harper’s. I highly recommend it. Here is a taste: It has been said […]
Episode 107: “The Politics of Smallpox in Revolutionary America”
The American Revolution happened in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. In one of the timeliest history books of the publishing season, historian Andrew Wehrman visits the podcast to talk about what the patriots of the American Revolution and the […]
Why didn’t Pope Francis watch yesterday’s World Cup final?
As I have said a few times here at this blog, I am not a soccer fan. But I enjoyed watching this year’s World Cup. After viewing the final match between Argentina and France I texted my daughter, a student […]
The Author’s Corner with Gregory A. Andrews
Gregory A. Andrews is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Texas State University. This interview is based on his new book, Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875–1930 (LSU Press, 2022.) JF: What led you to write Shantyboats […]
Evangelical roundup for December 19, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical Land? The Church of England Evangelical Council gives thanks. More on the National Association of Evangelicals support for an expanded child tax credit. Jim Walls on it here. Roger Olson on fundamentalism. Evangelical Christianity is […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Fatigue Philip Rieff, therapeutic culture, and illiberalism We need more book reviews. Democracy depends on it. George Will on the University of Austin and intellectual diversity Will the Trump-era end […]
Goodbye Roger Taney
Earlier this week my U.S. history survey students answered a final exam essay question on the short-term causes of the American Civil War. I haven’t graded their essays yet, but if their blue books do not contain something about Roger […]
The original message behind the American Christmas was not very evangelical
Historian Daniel K. Williams, a Current contributing editor, explains in a recent piece at Christianity Today. A taste: Conservative evangelical Christians have sometimes been eager advocates of the modern campaign to “keep Christ in Christmas” and preserve the traditional religious meaning of […]
Remembering Grant Wahl
As I said in an earlier post, I had not read much of Grant Wahl’s soccer journalism until after his death last week. Over at Jacobin, journalist Abe Asher offers a tribute. Here is a taste of “For Grant Wahl, […]
Christopher Hitchens: “an Ă©migrĂ© from England come to the New World to tell us what the universal words of our Declaration meant, and hold us to them.”
Check out Matt Johnson’s piece on the late Christopher Hitchens at The Bulwark. The piece is excerpted from Johnson’s forthcoming book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment. Here is a taste: In […]
The Author’s Corner with Michael Trotti
Michael Trotti is Professor of History at Ithaca College. This interview is based on his new book,The End of Public Execution: Race, Religion, and Punishment in the American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led you to […]
“Sing a Song!” Bob McGrath and American music
I lost myself last night following every link in historian Kathryn Ostrofsky‘s essay on the late Sesame Street actor Bob McGrath. (It was a wonderful distraction from grading blue books!) Ostrofsky shows how McGrath brought “old music” to a new […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog:
Trump trading cards are here!
Do your kids want baseball cards for Christmas? Why get them sports cards when you can get them Trump cards instead? And they are only $99.00.! (Granted, these cards cost twice as much as a 2022 complete factory set of […]
What to expect in the new JFK files
New files will release today. Here is Philip Shenon, the author of a book on the JFK assassination, at Politico: For this nation’s army of conspiracy theorists, few long-secret government documents have whipped up so much suspicion in the 59 […]
Claudine Gay will be the 30th president of Harvard University
Here is The Harvard Crimson: Claudine Gay will serve as the 30th president of Harvard University, becoming the first person of color to hold the school’s top post, the University announced Thursday, concluding a five-month search. Gay, the current dean […]
The Author’s Corner with Leah Mickens
Leah Mickens is August Wilson Project Archivist at the University of Pittsburgh. This interview is based on her new book, In the Shadow of Ebenezer: A Black Catholic Parish in the Age of Civil Rights and Vatican II (NYU Press, […]