Benjamin Wetzel is Assistant Professor of History at Taylor University. This interview is based on his new book, Theodore Roosevelt: Preaching from the Bully Pulpit (Oxford University Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Theodore Roosevelt? BW: In the fall […]
political history
The C-SPAN presidential rankings are here!
C-SPAN asked scholars to rank the presidents in terms of public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with Congress, vision, the pursuit of justice, and “performance within the context of the times.” The list […]
Are we in the midst of a third American revolution?
CNN legal scholar Carrie Cordero and historian Ed Larson at USA Today: We are all familiar with the first American Revolution: an actual war, a rebellion for self-governance. But it was not long after that Thomas Jefferson called the election of 1800 […]
On fighting “a guerilla battle at the grassroots of a generation of lower-middle-class people who feel betrayed and exploited”
Here is Rick Perlstein in Reaganland on the rise of the New Right in the 1970s: That notion–conservatism as an ideology for working people–was another New Right theme. [Richard] Viguerie’s father had been a construction worker; his mother toiled in […]
The second episode of “A History of Evangelicals and Politics” podcast is here!
Episode 1: “The Religious Making of a President” (our second episode) dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this brand new narrative history podcast. In this episode I talk about the differences between my conversion experience […]
What is conservatism?
As historian Joshua Tait reminds us, the meaning of the term “conservatism” has been a contested one in the United States. In his recent piece at The Bulwark he compares a circle of writers in the 1940s and early 1950s […]
The longest filibusters in U.S. history were launched to stop the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964
Here is Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post: At his first White House news conference Thursday, President Biden said he agreed with former president Barack Obama that the filibuster is “a relic of the Jim Crow era.” This follows a Tuesday statement […]
Why do people say that the Senate filibuster is racist?
Here is Zack Beauchamp at VOX: The question of what to do about the filibuster — the once-arcane Senate rule that creates a de facto 60-vote threshold for major legislation — is arguably the most important topic in Washington, DC, […]
Historians assess the Trump presidency
Historian Julian Zelizer gathered an esteemed group of American historians at Princeton to assess the Trump presidency. Here is a taste of Jennifer Schuessler’s piece at The New York Times: From the day he took office, Donald J. Trump had […]
The Author’s Corner with Dennis Rasmussen
Dennis Rasmussen is Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. This interview is based on his new book, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders (Princeton University Press, 2021). JF: What led you to write Fears of […]
The Author’s Corner with Van Gosse
Van Gosse is Professor of History and Chair of Africana Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. This interview is based on his new book, The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (The John […]
The Author’s Corner with Benjamin T. Arrington
Benjamin T. Arrington is Site Manager at James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio. This interview is based on his new book, The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880 (University Press of Kansas, 2020). JF: What […]