Here is Georgetown University public policy professor Donald P. Moynihan at The New York Times: Donald Trump, the former president and current candidate, puts it in apocalyptic terms: “Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state.” This […]
Way of Improvement
Religious congregations in New Orleans are doing something about the effects of climate change
Nina Lakhani, a reporter for The Guardian, introduces us to the Community Lighthouse Network, a group of New Orleans congregations, including a Black megachurch, tackling the effects of climate change in the Big Easy. Here is a taste of Lakhani’s […]
The Marshfield Tea Burning
Ever since I wrote about the Greenwich (NJ) Tea Burning in The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America, I have been fascinated by the various copycat tea burnings and tea parties […]
The Author’s Corner with Aimee Loiselle
Aimee Loiselle is Assistant Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University. This interview is based on her new book, Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class (University […]
Consider Current on Giving Tuesday!
Looking for a gift for a friend or family member interested in politics, creative non-fiction, intellectual life, cultural criticism, social issues, and Christianity? Consider a Current membership! Members get access to all of our published content and do not have […]
“I began to feel like there’s a lot that not’s being said and a lot that’s not being written”
The one thing that I did start doing that year (2020) was talk on the phone. I’ve never been a phone talker, but, of course, that’s all you had for a while. And I would have long conversations on the […]
What is going on at The Ohio State University?
And I am not talking about three straight football losses to Michigan. John Sailer of the National Association of Scholars, a political conservative education advocacy organization, recently obtained 800 pages of “Diversity Faculty Recruitment Reports” from The Ohio State University. […]
Current’s 2023 Best of the Net Nominations
Please join us in congratulating our nominees for this year’s Best of the Net, an annual awards-based anthology for “communities of online literary magazines, journals, and individuals that do the work of creating our digital literary landscape.” These are: “Tis […]
Steven Mintz asks: “Can you be an activist and a serious scholar?”
Here is a taste of his piece at Insider Higher Ed: There is an important space where academia and activism intersect. “Public scholarship” and “engaged scholarship” can be invaluable in addressing social, political, and environmental issues. These works can provide rigorous […]
The Author’s Corner with Emily Brooks
Emily Brooks is a Historian and Curriculum Writer at the New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools. This interview is based on her new book, Gotham’s War within a War: Policing and the Birth of Law-and-Order Liberalism in World […]
Evangelical roundup for November 27, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? Do you have a story for the roundup? Watch: Tim Alberta on how Trumpism has divided evangelicals. Also here. Stay tuned, I will be interviewing Alberta on CSPAN in the coming days. Nikki Haley […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: The Atlantic on Reconstruction–then and now. Why are we so fascinated with JFK? What “industry” are you in? Seamus Heaney and “stuff”. Annotating books on TikTok and Instagram. Socialist summer […]
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Colleges chosen for general election presidential debates
They are Texas State University, Lafayette College (PA), Virginia State University, and The University of Utah. Here is Doug Lederman at Inside Higher Ed: The Commission on Presidential Debates has chosen four colleges and universities to play host to the presidential and […]
Happy Thanksgiving!
We are off today! I hope you get a chance to spend some time with family and friends.
The forgotten virtue of gratitude
Our annual Thanksgiving tradition here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. I wrote this Inside Higher Ed piece on gratitude in November 2008. I have had to remind myself of this piece a lot in the last couple of years.–JF It was a […]
The Evangelical Theological Society elects its first woman president
Her name is Karen Jobes and she is emeritus professor of New Testament and exegesis at Wheaton College. Here is Stefani McDade at Christianity Today: The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) has instated its first female president in 75 years. Karen […]
What is a liberal?
Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School writing at The New York Times, defines liberalism in 34 points: See how Sunstein unpacks these points here.
Song of the day
I recently saw a social media post asking readers to identity the first pop song they remember hearing as a kid. I am pretty sure my song was this 1973 classic from Neil Sedaka. How about you?
The Author’s Corner with Yael Sternhell
Yael Sternhell is Professor in the Department of History and Department of English and American Studies at Tel Aviv University. This interview is based on her new book, War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War […]