This post is an essay by Michael Elliott recently published in Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. In it he explores a topic dear to my heart, that college -- and intellectual life in general -- should be experienced as a form of play. It's not a chore that you need trudge through out a … Continue reading Michael Elliott — College Should Be Way More Fun
This post is an essay by Steven Mintz from his Substack, which I highly recommend. Here's a link to the original. He starts with a tribute to the golden age of the Broadway musical, showing how it emerged from a particular immigrant culture with its own emotional register. As the culture changed, this style of musical … Continue reading Steven Mintz — Why We Cannot Recreate the Broadway Golden Age
This post is an essay by Steven Mintz, published recently in his Substack, which I highly recommend. Here's a link to the original. It's the story of how the 1930s produced a distinct and new American voice. Not in the ornate cadences of the 19th century, nor in the provincial slang of earlier popular culture, but … Continue reading Steven Mintz — The Decade That Discovered a Distinct American Voice
This post is an essay by Julien Lie-Panis from a recent edition of Aeon. Here's a link to the original. He's addressing a problem that is suddenly quite salient in the world of Trump2. Institutions make social life possible, but they depend on in formal social pressures: norms not laws. Past presidents behaved themselves because … Continue reading Julie Lie-Panis on Guarding the Guardians — How Institutions Make Social Life Work
This post is a lovely essay by Michael Lind, which was published in Tablet magazine. Here's a link to the original. In this piece, Lind provides a rich analysis of the history of the American elite. The key to this story is that the elite used to be plural -- a set of local elites … Continue reading Michael Lind — The New American Elite
This post is an essay by Marie Newhouse recently published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's a link to the original. She is an associate professor of law, philosophy, and public policy at the University of Surrey and a visiting fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. She provides a … Continue reading Marie Newhouse — The Campus Civility Collapse
This post is an essay by Beverly Gage published recently in the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. In it, she draws on Richard Hofstadter's 1963 book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, to show how this is not the first time that American universities found themselves the target of political attacks. Let's not forget the … Continue reading Beverly Gage: The American University Is in Crisis. Not for the First Time.
This post is an essay by David Brooks that appeared in the Atlantic in 2020. Here's a link to the original. He takes advantage of the Covid hiatus in college commencements to give the kid of commencement advice that he could never deliver in front of the parents, faculty, and students assembled there. Things like: Use … Continue reading David Brooks — A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person
This post is an essay by Yascha Mounk from a recent issue of Persuasion. Here's a link to the original. The issue he raises is that there are worse things than having an inherited leadership class. The much-maligned WASP aristocrats, who long dominated leadership positions in the US, at least had the decency to take … Continue reading Yascha Mounk — The WASPs Are Gone
My new post is an essay by a philosophy professor who has adopted the handle Hilarius Bookbinder for his Substack Scriptorium Philosophia. Here's a link to the original. The point he's making is that just because something is a stereotype doesn't mean that it's wrong or useless. Sure, a lot of stereotypes are simple prejudice. … Continue reading Hilarius Bookbinder — Stereotypes as Heuristics
