This post is an essay by Hrishikesh Joshi, a philosophy professor at University of Arizona. It comes from his Substack, Desert Philosophy. Here's a link to the original. He's dealing with an issue that has increasingly drawn my interest. It's something that we in the 21st century too often forget. In our focus on the … Continue reading Hrishikesh Joshi — The Grim Old Days
This post is a reflection on Edward Slingerland's new book Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. John Tierney wrote a lovely review of the book in City Journal, which I'm reproducing below. Here's a link to the original. After the review, I provide some of my favorite passages from the … Continue reading Edward Slingerland on How Drinking Is Essential to Civilization
This is a piece I wrote a few years ago, which had been rattling around in my head for a long time. The issue is to figure out what role histories of education should play in the formation of educational policy. My short answer is that we should produce the histories we need rather than … Continue reading Why We Need Histories of Education
This post is an overview of the book I published two years ago. It’s available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. The title is The Ironies of Schooling. It's available as both an e-book and paperback. As I did with my earlier book, Being a Scholar, I published this one myself using Kindle Direct … Continue reading The Ironies of Schooling
This post is an essay by Gordon Wood that was published a while ago as in op-ed in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. I thought it was worth remembering what an insightful historian he was, after the news of his recent death. His focus is on why the American colonies produced … Continue reading Gordon Wood: What Explains the Genius of the American Founders?
This post is a commentary on a new book by Michael Magoon, From Poverty to Progress: Understanding Humanity's Greatest Achievement. The topic is one that makes a lot of academics, and progressives in particular, nervous. Is it really ok to suggest that history sometimes means progress? That sounds like what they used to call Whig history, … Continue reading Michael Magoon — From Poverty to Progress
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 analysis of alternative theories for explaining the historical development of American schooling. It was published in 2014 in the Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy. Here's a link to a pdf of the original. I wrote it as a way to frame the major theories of schooling for students in my … Continue reading Theories of the Historical Development of American Schooling
This post is a tribute to the Normans and how they came to shape modern Europe. It draws primarily from the book The Normans: From Raiders to Kings by Lars Brownworth and also from an essay in Unherd by Ed West. The Normans were Vikings who in the ninth century conquered a piece of France … Continue reading How the Normans Shaped Modern Europe
