Including kids and families in public events is good.
family
Ideas in Progress interview: Agnes Howard on family history and the experiences of everyday life
Few topics seem as appropriate for discussing at the very beginning of a new year as family–the people who shape us and the people whom we shape in turn. And so, in this first Ideas in Progress interview of 2025, […]
The Author’s Corner with Michael O’Malley
Michael O’Malley is Professor of History at George Mason University. This interview is based on his new book, The Color of Family: History, Race, and the Politics of Ancestry (University of Chicago Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write […]
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 Lori D. Ginzberg
Lori D. Ginzberg is Professor Emerita of History and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. This interview is based on her new book, Tangled Journeys: One Family’s Story and the Making of American History (University of […]
The Author’s Corner with Elizabeth Garner Masarik
Elizabeth Garner Masarik is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York, Brockport. This interview is based on her new book, The Sentimental State: How Women-Led Reform Built the American Welfare State (University of Georgia Press, 2024). […]
This summer: low in cost, high in fun
Yes, activities that are low-cost but offer much fun are possible this summer!
The Author’s Corner with Rebecca Wellington
Rebecca Wellington is a Clinical Instructor and Director of Field Placements in the School of Education at the University of Puget Sound. This interview is based on her new book, Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption […]
“The success narratives of modern liberal life leave little room for having a family.”
Here is Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman at The New York Times: For young, secular, politically progressive men and women, having children has become something of an afterthought. Liberal conventional wisdom encourages people to spend their 20s on journeys of […]
Where have all the grownups gone? Reflections on Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is a reminder that kids can’t just raise themselves.
Ideas in progress: Ivana Greco on American homemakers
In her book in progress, Ivana D. Greco shows how homemakers played a central role in the founding and shaping of America, and in holding both the country and our communities together.
The Author’s Corner with Matthew Ward
Matthew Ward is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Dundee. This interview is based on his new book, Making the Frontier Man: Violence, White Manhood, and Authority in the Early Western Backcountry (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023). […]
Rachel Lu on the future of the family
Why have we as a society stopped building families, and how might we reverse this trend? Rachel Lu offers some answers.
Are liberals ignoring the value of two-parent families?
In his column this week at The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof suggests that liberals need to talk about the value of two-parent families. Here is a taste: American liberals have led the campaign to reduce child poverty since Franklin […]
“…this was a show with a theme, and that theme was mortality”
I wish I got the chance to see Springsteen last week at MetLife Stadium, but it just wasn’t in the cards this time around. Though it’s not the same as a concert, this reflection from an English Springsteen fan who […]
A pro-life conservative and a pro-choice liberal find common ground on a post-Dobbs family policy
Today The Washington Post is running a conversation on abortion and family policy between conservative columnist Marc A. Thiessen and liberal columnist Alyssa Rosenberg. We need more discussions like this. Here is a taste of their piece, “We disagree on […]
Martin Scorsese’s “Italianamerican”
In 1974, the famed filmmaker interviewed his parents and turned it into a documentary film. I thought I was sitting in the room with my own Italian grandparents. Oh the stories! I could listen to Catherine Scorsese talk all day. […]
Are local family ties worth the sacrifice of a career dream? Maybe so.
One of the students in my US history survey class this semester began his final family history essay by describing how close he feels to his extended family – and how close his relatives feel to him and to each […]
The Author’s Corner with Victoria E. Ott
Victoria E. Ott is James A. Wood Professor of American History and the coordinator of Gender and Women’s Studies at Birmingham-Southern College. This interview is based on her new book, The Failure of Our Fathers: Family, Gender, and Power in […]
Smart people talking about abortion
First, let me call your attention to Current contributing editor Daniel K. Williams‘s piece today at The Atlantic: “This Really is a Different Pro-Life Movement.” A taste: The enthusiastic embrace of the movement by white evangelicals in the Bible Belt […]