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political polarization

If the 2024 election is any indication, America is less polarized

John Fea   |  December 9, 2024

Here is Harvard University law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos at The Washington Post: Here’s a shocker: One of the unnoticed themes of the recent election was depolarization. The electoral chasms between groups of voters shrank compared with four years earlier. This was […]

The Author’s Corner with Tyson Reeder

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 22, 2024

Tyson Reeder is Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University. This interview is based on his new book, Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison’s America (Oxford University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]

The Author’s Corner with Brian Judge

Rachel Petroziello   |  April 15, 2024

Brian Judge is a Policy Fellow at the Center for Human-Compatible AI at the University of California, Berkeley. This interview is based on his new book, Democracy in Default: Finance and the Rise of Neoliberalism in America (Columbia University Press, 2024). JF: […]

The Author’s Corner with Elizabeth Kalbfleisch

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 19, 2024

Elizabeth Kalbfleisch is Associate Professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University. This interview is based on her new book, Making the Radical University: Identity and Politics on the American College Campus, 1966–1991 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024). JF: What led […]

Can the United States Constitution survive the social media age?

John Fea   |  August 16, 2022

The United States Constitution, James Madison argued, only works when people are spread-out geographically. Social media shrinks that distance. Here is a taste of political scientist Danielle Allen’s piece at The Washington Post. When we teach constitutional history, we often […]

The Author’s Corner with Sarah Purcell

Rachel Petroziello   |  April 12, 2022

Sarah Purcell is L.F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College. This interview is based on her new book, Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led […]

The Author’s Corner with Gene Zubovich

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 14, 2022

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: […]

The Author’s Corner with Marita Sturken

Rachel Petroziello   |  January 19, 2022

Marita Sturken is Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University Steinhardt. This interview is based on her new book, Terrorism in American Memory: Memorials, Museums, and Architecture in the Post-9/11 Era (NYU Press, 2022). JF: What led […]

The right wing echo chamber is growing

John Fea   |  December 6, 2021

In a 2009 New York Times column Nicholas Kristof brought attention to The Daily Me. He wrote: When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that […]

Michelle Cottle offers a “dictionary for these polarized times”

John Fea   |  April 10, 2021

The premise of Cottle’s piece at The New York Times is that Democrats and Republicans no longer speak the same language. Take, for example, the phrase “fake news”: Pre-Trump, most folks thought of fake news as media sources that trafficked […]