Latest Posts

October 27, 2023

Halcyon: A Resurrection Without Salvation

Set in the opening decade of the current millennium, Elliot Ackerman’s Halcyon is a tale based on many alternative historical events—most notably, that Al Gore won the 2000 election, oversaw the capture of Osama bin Laden shortly after the 9/11 attacks, declined to launch into the Iraq conflict, and, most relevantly, funded advanced medical research that made possible the book’s central premise: the ability to revivify the dead. Continue Reading...
October 20, 2023

Is Neoliberalism Dead?

Louis Menand wrote a curious article for the New Yorker called “The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism.” The article is curious on two fronts: First, though published in a progressive magazine, the article is largely judicious and fair to the concept of neoliberalism. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2023

John Newton: From Slave Trader to Abolitionist Pastor

John Newton (1725–1807) is a pivotal figure in the English evangelical revival or awakening. His is an early example of a settled evangelical ministry in the second half of the 18th century, involving pastoral work, hymn-writing, and even mentoring the likes of a William Wilberforce. Continue Reading...
October 18, 2023

Getting Beyond Right-Wing and Left-Wing

Back in the 1970s, Sixty Minutes had a regular feature called Point/Counterpoint, which came at the end of every show. Each week there would be a different topic. Journalist Shana Alexander would present a standard-issue “liberal” version of the argument while James J. Continue Reading...
October 17, 2023

How Did George Orwell Know?

The collocation in the title captures the thoroughgoing exploration of the topic in a phrase: George Orwell and Russia. Masha Karp is not the first to ponder George Orwell’s relationship to Stalinist Russia—and the relationship of both Stalinist and post-communist Russia to Orwell—but she is the first to frame a comprehensive, well-researched study around them. Continue Reading...
October 13, 2023

Claudia Goldin Is the Ideal Academic Researcher

Harvard’s Claudia Goldin is our newest Nobel laureate in economics. Her accumulated efforts have helped us better understand women’s roles in the labor market—both historically and in contemporary society. It’s worth noting that the economics prize isn’t one of the awards funded by Alfred Nobel’s initial endowment. Continue Reading...