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The Renegade Ideas Behind the Rise of American Pragmatism

William James, Charles Peirce, and the questions that roiled them.
by John Kaag, Douglas Anderson via Literary Hub on January 9, 2020

John Dewey's Experiment in Democratic Socialism

Despite his reputation as a liberal, Dewey's staunch commitment to democracy put him on a collision course with capitalism.
by Alexander Livingston, Ed Quish via Jacobin on January 8, 2018
President Jimmy Carter seated in the Oval Office of the White House, 1980.

How Jimmy Carter Became a Cold War Hawk

Jimmy Carter is associated with an idealistic “human rights agenda.” In reality, he was paving the way for Ronald Reagan’s aggressive anti-communism.
by Seth Ackerman, Aaron Donaghy via Jacobin on December 29, 2024
An eagle in its nest of the American flag, which holds eggs representing the states.

From Woke to Solidarity

On two new books that critique identity politics and seek a new vision of political culture.
by Michael S. Roth via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 24, 2024
Reagan and supporters at a campaign rally in 1984.

Reagan Resurgent?

Commentary on America’s 40th president often misses how the Gipper blended principles and pragmatism for a truly conservative statesmanship.
by Anthony Eames via Law & Liberty on December 4, 2024
Ronald Reagan preparing for a broadcast on Voice of America.

Whose Ronald Reagan?

Fighting over the legacy of a conservative hero in the era of Trump.
by Susan B. Glasser via Foreign Affairs on October 22, 2024
Alexander Hamilton, with superimposed map of Atlantic world.

The Return of Hamiltonian Statecraft

A grand strategy for a turbulent world.
by Walter Russell Mead via Foreign Affairs on August 20, 2024

Henry Kissinger, Who Shaped World Affairs Under Two Presidents, Dies at 100

He was the only person ever to be national security adviser and secretary of state at the same time. He was also the target of relentless critics.
by Thomas W. Lippman via Washington Post on November 30, 2023
Protester holding a sign that states, "To serve and protect who?" at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

Has Black Lives Matter Changed the World?

A new book makes the case for a more pragmatic anti-policing movement—one that seeks to build working-class solidarity across racial lines.
by Jay Caspian Kang via The New Yorker on April 21, 2023
Frank Lloyd Wright, a letter, and Edith Carlson

How to Fire Frank Lloyd Wright

The untold story of a world-renowned architect, an obsessive librarian, and a $5,500 house that never was.
by Philippa Lewis via The MIT Press Reader on October 13, 2021
Black and white photo of John Maynard Keynes and wife Lydia Lopokova

Left, Right and Keynes

Today's centrists are a hot mess.
by Zachary D. Carter via In The Long Run on September 23, 2021
Illustrated man with a top hat, sitting next to headstones.

The Left Side of History

Historians have been too much the ideological allies of Progressivism to permit themselves to see its master flaw.
by Allen C. Guelzo via Claremont Review of Books on May 4, 2020
Illustration of Lincoln consulting with military figures in a tent.

Did Lincoln Really Matter?

What the Civil War tells us about who has the power to shape history.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on February 10, 2020
Trump with hands folded and eyes closed, as if in prayer.
partner

Explaining the Bond Between Trump and White Evangelicals

It's all about an agenda — and it's nothing new.
by Matthew Avery Sutton via Made By History on November 21, 2019

The Contradictions of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The Supreme Court justice may have been heralded by many of his progressive peers, but the legacy he left behind is far more ambiguous.
by Brenda Wineapple via The Nation on August 13, 2019

The Political Odyssey of Sean Wilentz

How one of America's original Bernie Bros became an outspoken critic of the left.
by Timothy Shenk via The Nation on May 20, 2019

A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy

The Green New Deal’s mastermind is a precocious New Yorker with big ambitions. Sound familiar?
by Robinson Meyer via The Atlantic on February 19, 2019

William James and the Spiritualist’s Phone

A story of a philosopher, his sister, and belief.
by Emily Harnett via Lapham’s Quarterly on February 4, 2019

Robert F. Kennedy Is Remembered as a Liberal Icon. Here's the Truth About His Politics

For many American liberals, RFK became a symbol of not just a better past, but also a better future that might have been.
by David E. Kaiser via TIME on June 5, 2018
A drawing from a 1908 cookbook of an aspargus shortcake, a savory cake made with leftover aspargus and topped with hardboiled eggs.

An Economic History of Leftovers

Americans’ enthusiasm for reheating last night’s dinner has faded as the nation has prospered.
by Helen Zoe Veit via The Atlantic on October 7, 2015
Black and white photograph of a lake.

Not So Close

For Henry David Thoreau, it is only as strangers that we can see each other as the bearers of divinity we really are.
by Ashley C. Barnes via Commonweal on March 18, 2025
Ronald and Nancy Reagan smiling and waving at victory celebration.

Honey, I Forgot to Duck

Reagan’s capacity to inhabit and generate legend stemmed from his own impulse to substitute pleasing fictions for inconvenient facts.
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on January 15, 2025
NASA's administrator shows a model of the space shuttle to President Jimmy Carter.

What Spaceflight Owes to Jimmy Carter: The President's Little-Known NASA Legacy

Jimmy Carter, skeptical of NASA's shuttle, saved it with funding despite delays and opposition. His Voyager message carries hope deep into space.
by Denise Chow via NBC News on December 30, 2024
William Rehnquist

The Late Supreme Court Chief Who Haunts Today’s Right-Wing Justices

William Rehnquist went from a lonely dissenter to an institutionalist chief—and his opinions are all the rage among the court’s current conservatives.
by Duncan Hosie via The New Republic on October 23, 2024
"We the People" collage.

Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?

Some scholars say that it’s to blame for our political dysfunction—and that we need to start over.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on September 23, 2024
Ronald Reagan

What If Ronald Reagan’s Presidency Never Really Ended?

Anti-Trump Republicans revere Ronald Reagan as Trump’s opposite—yet in critical ways Reagan may have been his forerunner.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on September 9, 2024
Teenagers marching in civil rights rally holding large sign reading "Black Power."

Black Church Leaders Brought Religion to Politics in the ‘60s

But unlike today's white Christian nationalism, Black church leaders called for healing internal divisions through engagement.
by Tobin Miller Shearer via The Conversation on September 6, 2024
Headlights on the road and a forest fire on the horizon.

Meaning in Decline

The surprising influence of premillennial eschatology on American culture.
by Daniel G. Hummel via Comment on September 5, 2024
Political cartoon showing Supreme Court Justice Sutherland handing a woman worker a decision on minimum wage.

The Most Conservative Branch

Stephen Breyer criticizes recent Supreme Court decisions and argues for a more pragmatic jurisprudence.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on August 29, 2024
Photo of Supreme Court Justices posing in gowns.

The Origin of Specious

Originalism is not so much an idea as a legal-industrial complex divided into three parts—the academic, the jurisprudential, and the political.
by Garrett Epps via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024
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