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intellectual history

The Author’s Corner with Peter Ekman

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 15, 2025

Peter Ekman is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life and at the Berggruen Institute. This interview is based on his new book, Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt […]

Reaping the whirlwind

Gillis Harp   |  January 6, 2025

Viereck saw this coming.

The Author’s Corner with Holly M. Karibo

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 30, 2024

Holly M. Karibo is Associate Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies at Oklahoma State University. This interview is based on her new book, Rehab on the Range: A History of Addiction and Incarceration in the American West (University […]

In the Fall of 2024, history matters

John Fea   |  November 7, 2024

Here is Harvard intellectual historian James Kloppenberg at Commonweal: Before entering graduate school I had read a little book by the Oxford historian E. H. Carr, What Is History? I found his answer persuasive: it is a practice of interpretation. Historians can […]

The Author’s Corner with Kenneth S. Sacks

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 18, 2024

Kenneth S. Sacks is Professor of History and Classics at Brown University. This interview is based on his new book, Emerson’s Civil Wars: Spirit and Society in the Age of Abolition (Cambridge University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]

The Author’s Corner with Keidrick Roy

Rachel Petroziello   |  September 25, 2024

Keidrick Roy is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. This interview is based on his new book, American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism (Princeton University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]

The Author’s Corner with Cara Rogers Stevens

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 7, 2024

Cara Rogers Stevens is Associate Professor of History at Ashland University. This interview is based on her new book, Thomas Jefferson and the Fight against Slavery (University Press of Kansas, 2024). JF: What led you to write Thomas Jefferson and the […]

J.G.A. Pocock: “the ultimate outsider-insider”

John Fea   |  December 19, 2023

Last week we called your attention to the death of historian J.G.A. Pocock with a roundup of tweets from historians and other intellectuals reflecting on his legacy. Over at The Critic, Yuan Yi Zhu argues that Pocock’s “Antipodean” (New Zealand) […]

Historians and other intellectuals remember J.G.A. Pocock

John Fea   |  December 15, 2023

One of the greatest intellectual historians of the post-war area, J.G.A. Pocock, died this week at the age of 99. During graduate school I devoured Pocock’s work. His commitment to reading texts in their historical contexts continues to shape me […]

What did the founding fathers mean by “virtue”?

John Fea   |  October 30, 2023

Recently a follower on one of my social media sites asked me for some reading material on the 18th-century understanding of virtue. I have tried over the years to inform many of my fellow evangelicals that when the founders talked […]

Call for Papers: “Intellectual Histories of the American Revolution”

John Fea   |  October 6, 2023

I just got this call for papers in the mail. It looks like a great conference and they are even willing to pay your way to Ireland! CFP: Intellectual Histories of the American Revolution: Kylemore Abbey, Ireland, 15-17 August 2024 […]

Chris Rufo: “Intellectual historian” or “intellectual bully”?

John Fea   |  August 8, 2023

Chris Rufo is a conservative activist whose claim to fame is an appearance on the old Tucker Carlson show on Fox News. That appearance caught the attention of then president Donald Trump. Since then, Rufo has become Ron DeSantis’s point […]

The Author’s Corner with Jan Wim Buisman

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 13, 2023

Jan Wim Buisman is a retired Lecturer on the History of Christianity, now a Guest Researcher at the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR). This interview is based on his new book, Lightning in the Age of […]

The Author’s Corner with Richard N. Langlois

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 23, 2023

Richard N. Langlois is Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut. This interview is based on his new book, The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise (Princeton University Press, 2023). JF: What led you […]

The Author’s Corner with Jesse Olsavsky

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 29, 2022

Jesse Olsavsky is Assistant Professor of History at Duke Kunshan University. This interview is based on his new book, The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835–1861 (LSU Press, 2022). JF: What led you to […]

The Author’s Corner with Claire Arcenas

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 1, 2022

Claire Arcenas is Associate Professor of History at the University of Montana. This interview is based on her new book, America’s Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life (University of Chicago Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write America’s […]

The Author’s Corner with Kyle Mays

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 13, 2022

Kyle Mays is Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. This interview is based on his new book, City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of […]

The African American Intellectual History Society announces the finalists for its 2022 Pauli Murray Book Prize

John Fea   |  March 9, 2022

The finalists are: Tamika Nunley, At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. (University of North Carolina Press) Jarvis Givens, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching (Harvard University Press)  Karen Cook Bell, Running From Bondage: […]