I included this Matthew Crawford Hedgehog Review piece in my last Sunday Night Odds and Ends, but I thought I would call attention to it again in a separate post. Here is a taste of “Why Individualism Fails to Create […]
Way of Improvement
18 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
Today, fifty evangelical leaders from Wisconsin urged Harris, Walz, Trump, and Vance to “reflect biblical principles on immigration.” Evangelical relief agency World Relief was behind the letter to the candidates. The central argument is this: “The vast majority of American […]
The Author’s Corner with Geoffrey Wawro
Geoffrey Wawro is University Distinguished Research Professor of History and Director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas. This interview is based on his new book, The Vietnam War: A Military History (Basic Books, 2024). JF: […]
19 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
Franklin Graham is still very upset about how “Evangelicals for Harris” used his father’s image in a campaign ad. The man who has supported Donald Trump in the last two elections is suggesting that the Evangelicals for Harris crowd does […]
The Nebraska prairie populist who might win a Senate seat
Dan Osborn is an independent running for a Deb Fischer‘s Nebraska U.S. Senate seat. And he really has a chance. According to 538, he trails Fischer by less than one percentage point. Here is a taste of Justin Vassallo’s profile […]
The Author’s Corner with Richard L. Kagan
Richard L. Kagan is Arthur O. Lovejoy Professor Emeritus and Academy Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. This interview is based on his new book, The Inquisition’s Inquisitor: Henry Charles Lea of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024). JF: What […]
Bret Stephens offers Kamala Harris a closing argument
The New York Times columnist writes a closing argument for Harris: My fellow citizens, When the tumultuous history of this year’s presidential election is written, future generations will note that the choice boiled down to this: the certainty of division […]
20 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
Many on the Christian Right continue to remain nervous about surveys suggesting that large numbers of evangelicals may not vote in November. Over at the conservative website TownHall.com, a conservative writer named Rachel Alexander is shaming these evangelicals who plan […]
The Author’s Corner with Brett Bannor
Brett Bannor is the manager of Animal Collections at the Atlanta History Center. This interview is based on his new book, American Sheep: A Cultural History (University of Georgia Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write American Sheep? BB: […]
The Atlantic endorses Kamala Harris
And in the process it makes a pretty strong case why Trump cannot be the next president. This is only the fourth time the magazine has weighed-in on a presidential election. The Atlantic endorsed both of Trump’s previous opponents (Clinton […]
“Edit with a pen, as if you were conducting a symphony”
I loved this piece on the late magazine editor and writer Lewis Lapham. The author is Elias Altman, a former Lapham staffer. I was a regular reader of Lapham’s Quarterly before it went on hiatus. Now that Lapham is gone, […]
The Author’s Corner with Anthony J. Stanonis
Anthony J. Stanonis is an independent historian of the American South. This interview is based on his new book, New Orleans Pralines: Plantation Sugar, Louisiana Pecans, and the Marketing of Southern Nostalgia (LSU Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]
21 days until Election Day. What are evangelicals saying?
This week I helped Newsweek writer Khaleda Rahman with a piece on “Evangelicals for Harris.” Here is my contribution: Others were more skeptical that the group could sway enough evangelical voters toward Harris. “Frankly, I don’t think Evangelicals for Harris […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: On mining universal laws from anecdotes Does Kamala Harris support late-term abortions? A case for civics Willie Mays and Birmingham David Brooks: Republican exile Intellectual independence requires submission to authority. […]
A night with National Book Award finalist Eliza Griswold
On Thursday night I got the chance to chat with writer Eliza Griswold about her new book Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church. A few days before this event, which was held […]
The Grimace factor
My New York Mets are still alive in the MLB playoffs. This is from June 2024: By day I am a historian. By night I am a baseball prognosticator! 🙂
The Author’s Corner with Andrew Sillen
Andrew Sillen is a visiting research scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University and a former Professor of Paleoanthropology and the Founding Director of Development at the University of Cape Town as well as the Vice President of […]
The Author’s Corner with Rachel Louise Moran
Rachel Louise Moran is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas. This interview is based on her new book, Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America (University of Chicago Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]
The Author’s Corner with Caroline Winterer
Caroline Winterer is William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor by courtesy of Classics at Stanford University. This interview is based on her new book, How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in […]
The Author’s Corner with Andrew Lipman
Andrew Lipman is Associate Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University. This interview is based on his new book, Squanto: A Native Odyssey (Yale University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Squanto? AL: Squanto began as an offshoot of […]