Beneath the Feathers
September 8, 2023
Barney A. Schlinger— Setting humans aside for a moment, how many mammals did you see today? Any? If you have a dog and cat, you saw two species. A squirrel… READ MORE
Category: Essays
A Fundamental Right
September 7, 2023
Charles R. Geisst— Since antiquity, the idea of basic fairness and equity in society has been hotly debated. In many cases, the ideas remained general and very fuzzy, content with… READ MORE
How Cold War Intellectuals Destroyed Liberalism to Save It
September 1, 2023
Samuel Moyn— The Cold War ended decades ago. It seems like, well, ancient history. The same must seem true of the form of liberalism that emerged in the middle of… READ MORE
The Detective Story that Broke Politics
August 24, 2023
Luke A. Nichter— For me, December 7th is not “a date which will live in infamy,” as Franklin D. Roosevelt said in 1941. It is a date—December 7th, 2017—in which… READ MORE
Are Wars Rational?
August 8, 2023
Michael Mann— Most wars have been irrational in terms of means or ends or both together. This is because choices for war are influenced by emotions, ideologies, domestic politics, and… READ MORE
“Out of Sight, Out of Mind”
August 7, 2023
Sean M. Kelley— You’ve probably never heard of William Vernon, a lifelong resident of Newport, Rhode Island, but he was one of the biggest slave owners in American history. According… READ MORE
A Darkly Radiant Vision: The Black Social Gospel in the Shadow of MLK
August 2, 2023
Gary Dorrien— The Black social gospel tradition remains what Black historian Vincent Harding luminously called “a darkly radiant vision of America’s truth.”1 It began with Black churches that were born… READ MORE
Close Enough to Touch
July 26, 2023
Brooks Lamb— It’s 1999, and I’m five years old. I’m with my family in the long patch by the road, just a few hundred feet away from the four-way stop…. READ MORE
The Lake District and Atlantic Slavery
July 24, 2023
Nicholas Radburn— If you think about locations transformed by the transatlantic slave trade, you’ll likely recall American plantations or former slaving forts on the coast of West Africa. You are… READ MORE
Teaching Writing in an AI World
July 10, 2023
Pennylyn Dykstra-Pruim and Jennifer Redmann— Our AI world poses renewed challenges for educators. How do we address AI-supported learning conditions that disincentivize “hard” work in favor of a potentially “easy”… READ MORE
Memories of Chevreuse