Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on my “Life on Turkey Mountain” feature at Current. (This piece was originally published earlier in the year, but it got more attention this time around. Thanks to Current editor Robert Erle Barham […]
New Jersey
Smerconish: The 2024 presidential election was Wildwood vs. Stone Harbor
Excellent analysis here from Michael Smerconish. As longtime readers of this blog know, I am passionate about the Jersey shore and have often offered class-based analysis of “the shore (as we Jerseyans call it) here at the blog. Here is […]
The Author’s Corner with Katie Singer
Katie Singer is a public scholar, writer, and activist. This interview is based on her new book, Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark (Rutgers University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Alien Soil? KS: I wrote Alien […]
The Author’s Corner with Hettie V. Williams
Hettie V. Williams is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture. This interview is based on her new book, The Georgia of the North: […]
Trump can say whatever he wants about his “crowds,” but don’t come to New Jersey and make false claims about Springsteen!
Here is the Asbury Park Press: There he goes again. Former President Donald Trump once again compared crowd sizes with Jersey native Bruce Springsteen at his May 11 campaign rally in Wildwood. “I love these Saturday evenings. Is there anything […]
Donald Trump’s Wildwood, New Jersey rally was characterized by vulgarity, personal attacks, and even a pro-Hannibal Lecter reference. His evangelical supporters are silent.
My Italian grandparents spent a week or two in Wildwood, New Jersey for decades. They drove three hours down the Garden State Parkway to this honky-tonk shore town because they enjoyed sitting on the beach, walking the boardwalk, and spending […]
Christian nationalism, democratic discourse, and people from New Jersey trying harder
Last night I spoke at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania as part of a “Courageous Conversations” program sponsored by five area churches. The topic was “Christian Nationalism.” I spoke for about forty minutes and tried to […]
Republicans are not the only people getting indicted
He allegedly took bribes in gold bars. Here is The New York Times: Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey has been charged in a federal corruption indictment, the authorities said on Friday. The indictment against Mr. Menendez, a 69-year-old Democrat […]
“A magazine about America in the form of a 19th-century newspaper”
I just learned about County Highway. It’s a “magazine about America in the form of a 19th century newspaper. According to the site’s website: County Highway is a 20-page broadsheet produced by actual human beings, containing the best new writing […]
New Jersey will expand AP African American Studies courses
While governor Ron DeSantis is trying to prevent the course from being taught in Florida, governor Phil Murphy is expanding its availability in New Jersey. Here is The Associated Press: Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday that his administration is […]
The 4 New Jersey regions
Here’s a fun post for our New Jersey readers. Over at New Jersey 101.5, Bill Spadea moves beyond the “North Jersey” vs. “South Jersey” divide by suggesting that there are actually 4 New Jersey regions: North Jersey, Central Jersey, the […]
Is fusion voting the answer to our political partisanship?
Here is Blake Hounshell at The New York Times: When Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the Supreme Court majority in a landmark 1997 case, rejected a minor party’s demand that it be allowed to nominate candidates who were already […]
Borough of Freehold creates a permanent Springsteen exhibit space.
Learn more here. Here is Bruce’s speech:
Will New Jerseyans have to pump their own gas?
New Jersey is the only state in the country where drivers are not permitted to pump their own gas. That might be changing soon. Here is Matt Friedman at Politico: For 73 years, drivers in New Jersey have been barred […]
Why were Springsteen and Mellencamp wandering around Bay Head?
Last Sunday Joy and I took a day trip to Island Beach State Park, a state beach located on the southern tip of Jersey Shore’s Barnegat Peninsula. We decided to take the scenic route to our destination, driving down Route […]
The last milkmen of New Jersey
My grandfather (pictured above) was a New Jersey milkman. So needless to say, Emily Belz’s piece at World magazine caught my eye. Here is a taste: ON A RECENT SUMMER NIGHTÂ in Hawthorne, a New Jersey town not far from New […]
There will be no Bruce Springsteen rest stop on the Garden State Parkway
The Garden State Parkway intersects with NJ Highway 9 around Tom’s River New Jersey, roughly thirty miles South of Bruce Springsteen’s home town of Freehold. But the guy who was sprung from cages out on Highway 9 does not want […]
Apparently I am not the only one who gets emotional about infrastructure
One of my favorite lectures in my U.S. history survey class is on early 19th-century infrastructure. I am fascinated by the way roads, bridges, canals, and railroads contributed to American nationalism. It looks like I am not alone. Here is […]
Where does your state rank?
I am from New Jersey. New Jersey is ranked 48th in this poll. At least we beat out Mississippi, Alabama, and the District of Columbia! Obviously these people have never experienced a sunset at the Jersey shore, wandered along the […]