Today is primary day in Wyoming. It is likely that Liz Cheney will not win her GOP primary race against Trump-backed Harriet Hageman. This piece explains why. Over at The Bulwark, American historian James Banner lauds Cheney for defending the […]
Way of Improvement
Do you need help with history grant writing?
Check out this webinar sponsored by the Organization of American Historians: This webinar will help historians connect their existing aptitudes and skills to the process of institutional grant writing. Historians already engage in most of the common doings of the […]
Babylon in early America
Kristopher Stinson, a graduate student at George Mason University, is the author “American Babel: History and Empire in the Early American Republic,” an essay in the Summer 2022 issue of the Journal of the Early Republic. In a short post […]
Can the United States Constitution survive the social media age?
The United States Constitution, James Madison argued, only works when people are spread-out geographically. Social media shrinks that distance. Here is a taste of political scientist Danielle Allen’s piece at The Washington Post. When we teach constitutional history, we often […]
What should a college graduate know about slavery?
Historian Steven Mintz offers twenty-three things any college graduate should know about slavery. I like the idea of this post, but I would be happy if my general education (non-majors) students knew a handful of these facts. Here is a […]
A national conservative defines “national conservatism” as an effort to “legislate toward a Protestant vision” for America
The so-called “national conservatives” are meeting next month in Miami. Speakers include Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Missouri senator Josh Hawley, political scientist Yoram Hazony, First Things editor R.R. Reno, historian Wilfred McClay, and Southern Baptist seminary president Albert Mohler (we […]
American historian Sean Wilentz on Marco Rubio’s “fake populism”
Distinguished Princeton historian Sean Wilentz was recently part of a group of historians (and others) that Joe Biden invited to the White House to discuss the fate of American democracy. Marco Rubio called the group “elitists” and “snobs” working against […]
Does Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of…the U.S. Constitution?
A lot of people grow tired of me calling this stuff out. I grow tired of having to call it out. But somebody’s got to do it. This stuff is not going away anytime soon. If the words of the […]
Why presidents can’t keep their documents
There is a reason why the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last week. Here is a nice explainer from National Public Radio: For the first two centuries of U.S. history, outgoing presidents simply took their documents with them […]
Evangelical roundup for August 15, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Study: 25% of American evangelicals have spoken in tongues. The first few tweets in Lisa Sharon Harper’s twitter thread on the Beth Moore grape crushing tweet: Beth Moore plays with her critics: The Winnipeg […]
Eric Metaxas and Charlie Kirk have a Christian nationalist meltdown in the wake of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago
Conservative evangelicals went crazy after the FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach. (I haven’t seen much from them after we learned Trump had classified nuclear documents). We chronicled some of the initial reaction here. […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Museum bathrooms St. Augustine and slavery Max Norman reviews Jeff Deutsch, In Praise of Good Bookstores What happens to your tax return? The history of tenure Political writing Charlie Kirk […]
Song of the Day
After an exhausting summer, I could really use a week or so at the Moonlight Motel (preferably one near the Jersey shore) before the start of the semester. Here is Bruce:
Donald Trump in 2016 on “classified information”
From The Washington Post:
Jacqueline Doyle shares her experience writing for Current
Earlier this week we published Jacqueline Doyle‘s piece “What Grows on Trees.” Doyle is professor emeritus of English at California State University, East Bay, and author of The Missing Girl. Her creative nonfiction has earned numerous Pushcart nominations and seven Notable Essay […]
What’s popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: John Fea, “Remembering Ron Sider“ Jacqueline Doyle, “What Grows on Trees“ John Fea, “How to Be a Fascist Dictator“ Nadya Williams, “Bad Citizens in a Democracy“ John Fea, “With Every […]
Beth Moore tweets about grapes. Theobros and their wives go nuts.
Beth Moore lives inside the head of some conservative evangelicals, especially those who believe that women should submit to the authority of men. The popular Bible teacher recently published an update on what appears to be a new hobby: growing […]
John Erickson, champion of the Bible cause, 1933-2022
I started my 2015 book The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society with these words: John Erickson sits at a table in his home in Crawford, Nebraska, on a chilly March 2015 morning. He is sipping bottled […]
Evangelical roundup for August 11, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land? Samuel Escobar remembers Ron Sider. Evangelicals will discuss evangelicals after Roe v. Wade. This evangelical, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, does not want Donald Trump to run in 2024. It […]
Franklin Graham sounds more like a member of a Trump cult than a Christian leader
Yesterday Franklin Graham appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network to offer his opinion on the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Watch: Let’s break this down. 00:40ff: The host, Doug McKelway, describes how the execution of […]