This post is a reflection on the peculiar history and social structure of imperial Venice, drawing on a 2013 book by Garry Wills, Venice: Lion City -- The Religion of Empire. On the surface of it, Venice was the unlikely hub of an empire. It was a city-state with a small population and no sizeable … Continue reading Garry Wills on the History of the Venetian Empire
This post is a lecture I gave at University of Luxembourg in 2011, which was published in a book, edited by Daniel Tröhler and Ragnhild Barbu, Education Systems in Historical, Cultural, and Sociological Perspectives. It draws on material from my 2010 book, Someone Has to Fail. This essay is one of 21 pieces included in my … Continue reading When Is School the Answer to What Social Problems?
This post is a recent op-ed by Ezra Klein from the New York Times. Here's a link to the original. It draws on his terrific new book, Abundance, coauthored with Derek Thompson. It's about a core problem facing the country and the Democratic Party, which is that we have made it near impossible to build major … Continue reading Ezra Klein — You Try to Build Anything, and You’re Stepping into Quicksand
This post is a commentary on a classic essay by Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” which appeared in the 1985 book Bringing the State Back In. Here’s a PDF of the original chapter. Given the state of the second Trump administration, there has never been a better to time revisit this analysis. … Continue reading The State as Organized Crime
This post is an essay by economist Branko Milanovic from his Substack Global Inequality and More 3.0. Here's a link to the original. In it he explores a fascinating historical question, which is why the Balkans have always been underdeveloped. And, as he points out, I do mean always. It was as true in Roman times … Continue reading Branko Milanovic — Why Were the Balkans Underdeveloped?
This is my first ever Pollyanna post. I wrote it last year in order to cheer myself about the world we live in. I think it still stands up. We Live in the Best of Times We seem to be in a world … Continue reading We Live in the Best of Times — Really
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
This post is a brief essay by Charles Mann that appeared recently in The Free Press. Here's a link to the original. His argument is about how we don't appreciate all of the great benefits of the civilization we currently inhabit, which is grounded in the enormous collective accomplishments of our ancestors. Here's how he … Continue reading Charles Mann — We Live Like Royalty and Don’t Know It
This post is an overview of the 2014 book by Stanford classicist Ian Morris, War! What Is It Good For? In it he makes the counter-intuitive argument that over time some forms of war have been socially productive. In contrast with the message of 1970s song by the same name, war may in fact be good for something. … Continue reading Ian Morris — War! What Is It Good For?
This post is an essay by one of my favorite historians, Johann Neem, which appeared two years ago Hedgehog Review. Here's a link to the original. His topic is the critically important question of how we can create a shared narrative for the American people -- one that incorporates the bad parts without denying the good … Continue reading Johann Neem — A Usable Past: Providing a Narrative to House the Facts of American History
