As historians, we display the same love of searching for agency as any mom who enters a really messy room with trepidation yet determination—every toy box has been emptied, and the Legos strewn across the floor dare you to walk […]
Search Results for: So What Can You Do With a History major
When “a sixty-minute episode featuring an actor, a novelist, and a champion boxer might attract an audience of nearly 10Â million”
Over at Literary Review of Canada James Brooke-Smith reflects on the lost art of public conversation. Here is a taste of his piece, “Where’s Johnny?“ Executives at ABC tried to scotch the first episode of The Dick Cavett Show before it was […]
Why don’t more theology students take history courses?
At the school where I teach there are ample opportunities for students to shape their intellectual experience through a double “major” or a “minor” or two. Just the other day, for example, I was talking to one of my academic […]
Your favorite professor might be a dirtbag
Your favorite professor might be kind of a dirtbag. Dirtbag, in this case, referring to climbing subculture and people willing to eschew running water and good housing to spend their time scaling rock faces. According to climbinghouse.com, “dirtbagging emerged out […]
Christian Nationalism: Stew or Seasoning?
It’s not simply a question of taste
George Packer on historical research today: “What begins in research ends in dogma”
Here is the veteran journalist’s recent piece at The Atlantic: The new fatalism has its own historical causes, and they’re not hard to see: the failures of the War on Terror and the neoliberal economy, stubborn inequality, the disappointments of […]
Why some conservatives hate college
A Current Affairs piece by Matt McManus and Nathan J. Robinson begins with a quote from right-wing MAGA pundit Charlie Kirk’s book The College Scam: “Where did Anthony Fauci acquire the medical authority and credibility to impose a lockdown on […]
Everything in season: why you will love and likely sometimes hate your alma mater
College is an interesting time. You get constant social approval for Chili’s and Taco Bell. Staying up all night to read Beowulf isn’t all that weird. You worry about “printer money” and parking and what you’re doing for spring break. […]
Mintz: History should be relevant, but not at the expense of nuance and complexity.
Check out Steven Mintz’s piece at Inside Higher Ed. Anyone who reads this blog will know that I agree with him. I’ve staked a lot on Mintz’s claim in the title of this post A taste: I understand that at […]
REVIEW: What Hath Law to Do with Democracy?
In de Dijn’s history of freedom, the relationship is not entirely clear
Historians Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer on the state of the Republican Party
The Princeton University historians are the editors of Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About our Past. Here is a taste of their recent interview with Vanity Fair: I know both of you are particularly public-facing […]
Why Everyone Is Watching Yellowstone. And Why You Should Too.
Can anything disarm our ignorance of the people we think we know?Â
Rep. Scott Perry references Frederick Douglass from the House floor. Historian David Blight is having none of it.
I have never voted for Scott Perry, but he does represent me in the United States House of Representatives. Perry is the chairman of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. He refused to cooperate with the House committee investigating January 6th […]
History in crisis
Historian Jon Lauck‘s editorial at Middle West Review has been making the rounds on social media. The piece is behind a paywall, but here are the first couple of paragraphs: You can see it in the empty chairs. History conferences […]
REVIEW: Bono, Christian Neoliberal (but also, perhaps, a little bit more)
If Bono is a picture of our moment, he’s also used his faith to shape it
Who are we? Support Current by becoming a patron in this giving season.
If you read our mission statement you will learn that: Current is an online journal of commentary and opinion that provides daily reflection on contemporary culture, politics, and ideas. We seek to ground ourselves in the broad tradition of American democracy—a tradition […]
Court evangelical James Robison: Trump acted “like a little elementary schoolchild”
The Washington Post is covering a speech by the seventy-nine-year-old James Robison at the November 16 meeting of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. Read the Post piece here. According to its website, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) […]
Personal Blows from All Angles
The wellbeing of young families is under threat
Heather Cox Richardson on writing history’s first draft
The Boston College history professor’s Letters from an American is the most read newsletter on Substack. Here is a taste of John Wolfson’s interview with Richardson at Boston College Magazine: How did Letters from an American get its start?I had a Facebook […]
REVIEW: A Winner’s History of the Catholic Church
John McGreevy’s story calls into question the future of the Church itself