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...
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...
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....
Here is Isaac Chotiner at The New Yorker: “Douthat is highly skilled at addressing liberal Times readers in a manner that makes clear he is not one of them, without allowing them to think that he actually holds views—about Donald Trump, say,...
It’s not news that teenage mental health is on the decline in recent years. But recently released data by the CDC indicates that the situation is most bleak for teenage girls. This was especially true for girls somewhere on the...
Over at The Nation cultural critic George Scialabba reviews a new biography of Catholic moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (Chris Shannon reviewed it for Current here) and a collection of essays by political philosopher Richard Rorty. Here is a taste: Fifty...
Check out Claremont-McKenna College political scientist Jon Shields New York Times piece on conservative thought in American colleges and universities. A taste: Every year I ask my students, most of whom are quite liberal, to read books in this conservative...
Close readers of this blog will recall that I recently added some quotes from Michael Walzer to my commonplace book. The quotes come from Walzer’s latest book The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” as an Adjective. Walzer is...
I finally finished the Harper’s forum, “Is Liberalism Worth Saving?” The forum featured Patrick Deneen, Francis Fukuyama, Deirdre McCloskey, and Cornel West. Here are a few things I highlighted: Deneen on populism: The other form of populism that liberalism fears...
What is a beautiful soul? In 2020 essay at Liberties, cultural critic and humanities professor Mark Lilla defines it this way: What is a beautiful soul? For Schiller, who coined the term, it was a person in whom the age-old...
Check out Matt Johnson’s piece on the late Christopher Hitchens at The Bulwark. The piece is excerpted from Johnson’s forthcoming book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment. Here is a taste: In...
I reread this today. It was published July 7, 2020 in Harper’s: Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls...
Jay Green’s Current piece,” The New Shape of Christian Public Discourse” has drawn a lot of attention–good and bad–on social media this week. Here is Jay’s gracious response to those who engaged with the essay. Stay tuned. In the spirit...
If you have been following the Twitter debate over Jay Green’s Current piece, “The New Shape of Christian Public Discourse,” you might also be interested in Daniel William’s interview with Green over The Anxious Bench blog. Here Jay brings further...
I hope you get a chance to read historian Jay Green’s piece today at Current. Green writes: “I don’t think there has been a time in my life when the need to secure and reenergize the liberal tradition has been...
I missed this when it appeared last month. Several intellectuals, many from the world of religion and theology, published “An Open Letter Responding to the NatCon ‘Statement of Principles.’” Signers include Paul Griffiths, David Bentley Hart, Eugene McCarraher, John Milbank,...
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...
Gene Zubovich is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Buffalo. This interview is based on his new book, Before the Religious Right: Liberal Protestants, Human Rights, and the Polarization of the United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). JF:...
Sean P. Cunningham is Associate Professor of History at Texas Tech University. This interview is based on his new book, Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR (University Press of Kansas, 2022). JF: What led you to...
I just learned about Christian cultural critic Rodney Clapp‘s recent book Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of Our Age. (I have never met Clapp, but he was the acquisition editor at Baker Books who offered me a contract for Why...
