In its totality, public discourse in America over the most important and often the most trivial issues of the day is not discourse at all. Under the conditions of late modernity, public discourse as a rational exchange of competing positions […]
Way of Improvement
It’s was a nice prayer Mike Johnson, but Thomas Jefferson probably didn’t pray it
In case you missed it, Mike Johnson was re-elected Speaker of the House today. Watch his speech here: At the fourteen minute mark, Johnson said: …I was asked to provide a prayer for the nation. I offered one that is […]
Commonplace Book #299
Debunking is an important democratic task, but in a late modern context where there is very little agreement as to what constitutes facts or truth or how to arrive at them consensually, these strategies will never fully gain traction with […]
The Author’s Corner with Albert J. Churella
Albert J. Churella is Professor of History at Kennesaw State University. This interview is based on his new book, The Pennsylvania Railroad: The Long Decline, 1933–1968 (Indiana University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write The Pennsylvania Railroad? AC: Most of […]
What the Emancipation Proclamation did
The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. It was an executive order stating that all enslaved people in the rebellious states were free and would be recognized and maintained as such by the Union government. Here is […]
Commonplace Book #298
Protests notwithstanding, the social media industry itself seems mostly indifferent to the loss it has contributed to. A large part of this change in disposition was due to the business model upon which the industry was established. Profitability was driven […]
J.L. Bell on “myths and misinformation” about 1775
Over at Boston 1775, Bell sets the record straight: Learn more about these seven points here.
Carlos Lozada: “Whenever someone agrees wholeheartedly with something I write, I die a little inside.”
“Knee-jerk agreement” makes The New York Times columnist “suspicious.” Here is a taste of Lozado’s column: I know opinion columnists are supposed to be in the persuasion business, and that makes agreement the coin of the realm. But instant, knee-jerk […]
The Author’s Corner with Matthew Bernstein
Matthew Bernstein is Editor of the Wild West History Association Journal and teaches English at Harris Newmark High School and Los Angeles City College. This interview is based on his new book, Team of Giants: The Making of the Spanish-American War (University […]
Commonplace Book #297
The family is a weak institution compared to the popular culture industry. Parents may have limited success, but the institutional power of the entertainment industry and of the internet more broadly ensure that any success is, at best, temporary… The […]
Evangelicals respond to the death of Jimmy Carter
He was the first “born again” president and he was elected during Newsweek magazine’s “Year of the Evangelical.” So what are evangelicals saying about the recent death of Jimmy Carter? Christianity Today is running an obituary by historian David Swartz. […]
Kai Bird: “Mr. Carter remains the most misunderstood president of the last century.”
We included this article/post in our recent Jimmy Carter/The Way of Improvement Leads Home roundup, but I reread it this morning and thought it was worth reposting. Here is Carter biographer Kai Bird’s February 2023 New York Times piece: Mr. […]
Carter: “I come here speaking to you today about your subject with a base for my information founded on Reinhold Niebuhr and Bob Dylan.”
This morning I read Randall Balmer’s piece at Politico, “Jimmy Carter: The Last Progressive Evangelical.” Here is the part of Balmer’s article that focuses on Carter’s 1974 Law Day address at the University of Georgia: One of the venerable traditions […]
Return to Turkey Mountain
Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on my “Life on Turkey Mountain” feature at Current. (This piece was originally published earlier in the year, but it got more attention this time around. Thanks to Current editor Robert Erle Barham […]
The Author’s Corner with James Chappel
James Chappel is Gilhuly Family Associate Professor of History at Duke University. This interview is based on his new book, Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age (Basic Books, 2024). JF: What led you to write Golden Years? […]
Commonplace Book #296
Despite Charles Kesler’s loathing of nihilism, his political theory thus has a hidden nihilistic side–not in theory but in practice. In theory, Kesler was battling for the restoration of a natural right anthropology, one grounded on the self-evident truth that […]
Greg Abbott sends his condolences to Rosalynn Carter
Yes, you read that correctly. Here is the Texas governor’s official statement on the death of Jimmy Carter: “Cecilia and I mourn the loss of former President Jimmy Carter alongside millions of Americans across the country. Our nation remains the […]
Eric Miller on Christopher Lasch and the Carter “malaise” speech
Yesterday, upon hearing of the death of Jimmy Carter, I posted his July 15, 1979 “Crisis of Confidence” speech (also known as the “malaise” speech). In his award winning book Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch, […]
The Author’s Corner with Holly M. Karibo
Holly M. Karibo is Associate Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies at Oklahoma State University. This interview is based on her new book, Rehab on the Range: A History of Addiction and Incarceration in the American West (University […]
Commonplace Book #295
In a strangely prophetic passage that suddenly began to be quoted widely in 2016, [Richard] Rorty even predicted that a hyper-moralized leftist politics indifferent to material conditions would eventually drive “members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers” into the […]