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liberty

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 Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

Rachel Petroziello   |  May 28, 2024

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is Professor of History, French and Italian, and Law at the University of Southern California. This interview is based on his new book, The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It (Basic Books, 2024). JF: What […]

The Author’s Corner with Scott Gac

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 18, 2024

Scott Gac is Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College. This interview is based on his new book, Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America (Cambridge University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Born […]

Episode 107: “The Politics of Smallpox in Revolutionary America”

John Fea   |  December 19, 2022

The American Revolution happened in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. In one of the timeliest history books of the publishing season, historian Andrew Wehrman visits the podcast to talk about what the patriots of the American Revolution and the […]

The Author’s Corner with Olivier Zunz

Rachel Petroziello   |  May 3, 2022

Olivier Zunz is James Madison Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Virginia. This interview is based on his new book, The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville (Princeton University Press, 2022). JF: What led […]

Reinhold Niebuhr: “in a given instance the principle of freedom may have to yield to the necessities of social cohesion, requiring a measure of coercion.”

John Fea   |  December 15, 2021

Here is Reinhold Niebuhr in Moral Man and Immoral Society. He wrote this book in 1932: Society may believe that the preservation of freedom of opinion is a social good, not because liberty of thought is an inherent or natural […]

Gerson: The GOP view on vaccines is not pro-life

John Fea   |  December 8, 2021

Yesterday we wrote about Michael Tomasky’s piece titled ““The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death.” Today we have Michael Gerson’s Washington Post column, “How is the GOP’s coronavirus recklessness compatible with being pro-life?” Here is a taste: During last […]

Tomasky: The Right’s view of liberty during this pandemic is “incompatible with human life”

John Fea   |  December 7, 2021

Michael Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic. Here is a taste of his piece, “The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death”: Future historians—that is, if future historians are actual historians and not a bunch of hired-gun fascist […]

Is this what Ronald Reagan meant by a “shining city on a hill”?

John Fea   |  August 15, 2021

Today as I read New York Times writer Jamelle Bouie’s recent column on vaccines, I was struck by these words. Is it any surprise that millions of Americans treat this fundamentally social problem — how do we vaccinate enough people […]

The United States of America: Are we reaping what we’ve sown?

John Fea   |  August 13, 2021

Don’t mess with the rights of Americans. We are individuals. We are free. Mask and vaccine mandates are tyrannical. They are un-American. Don’t people know that the Bill of Rights is divinely inspired? I am not convinced that the kind […]