Though I have not read anything he has written this century, Stephen Greenblatt has had an outsized impact on my academic career. The New Historicism he spawned granted permission to incorporate the ‘original’… Continue reading →

In a speech to an American Legion gathering, a lieutenant who had lost his leg in service spoke against the alt-right. He argued, among other things, that “private vengeance and outrages can be… Continue reading →

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake’s new book seems to be rubbing a number of Trump supporters the wrong way. Flake, it turns out, is a real and principled conservative, and that seems to make… Continue reading →

Satire doesn’t need explication. But satire, on occasion, can also provide a useful starting point for clarifying poins. Erik Wemple’s column on Chris Cillizza’s Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) does just that. Cillizza… Continue reading →

An article in The New York Times, “Hangman’s Noose, Symbol of Racial Animus, Keeps Cropping Up” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Caitlin Dickerson, reopens a family wound I’ve tried to cauterize a number… Continue reading →

The book can be purchased here. What Is This ‘America’? What is this “America” David Brooks was talking about when he wrote the following?: When America is growing and happy, the country is… Continue reading →

[The book can be purchased here.] Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, is also an entertainer and a promoter of the first rank—and he will rule that way: He will… Continue reading →

The Democrats are not going to win in 2020 simply on an anti-Trump agenda. Yet, since their traumatizing defeat last November, all they have done is help grease the skids under Trump’s Titanic… Continue reading →

What’s the difference between the two sides of white America? Can we write off one because we haven’t been able to convince it of our own (white or not) superiority? Because we see… Continue reading →