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
Category: History
Labor Day Reading List 2023
September 4, 2023
In the latter half of the 19th century, growing labor movements and unions pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the contributions of American workers. On June 28th, 1894, President… 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
Ep. 119—The World’s First Media Celebrity
August 29, 2023
Acclaimed translator Sarah Ruden talks with us about her new biography, Vergil: The Poet’s Life. In this volume of the Ancient Lives Series, Ruden uses evidence from Roman life and… READ MORE
Supreme Hubris: A Conversation with Aaron Tang
August 28, 2023
In Supreme Hubris: How Overconfidence Is Destroying the Court—and How We Can Fix It, legal scholar Aaron Tang tackles the Supreme Court’s public legitimacy crisis and proposes a solution that… 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
The Calamity of an “Idea”
August 10, 2023
Nelly Lahoud— Within less than two years of conceiving the idea, Usama put it into action. On September 11, 2001, and on Usama’s orders, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes,… 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
The Curious Bibliography of Empire
August 3, 2023
Kirsten Schultz— A “bibliographic curiosity.” That was how the Brazilian writer, diplomat, and bibliophile Manoel de Oliveira Lima (1867-1928) described a manuscript that he acquired in 1897 at the auction… READ MORE
A Conversation with Trudier Harris on Bigger: A Literary Life