Black (Alien) Lives Matter
[This post is part of the USIH Blog’s participation in this year’s edition of the For the Love of Film blogathon, hosted today by This Island Rod. This year’s theme is science fiction. And, as always,...
View ArticleB.B. King, The Blues, and African American Identity [2]
Last week people across the world mourned the passing of Blues legend B.B. King. His legacy as a musician has been secure for decades. One of the hardest working men in show business (at the least...
View ArticleConfederate Flag Blues
When the terrible events of June 16 took place, I had little reason to think we were on our way to another debate about the Confederate flag. Yet, here we are. And while momentum builds to take down...
View ArticleTa-Nehisi Coates: Scribe of the Post-Soul Age [12]
Between the World And Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ letter to his son, is a meditation on African American life in America in 2015. And that needs to be remembered, especially when others compare Coates to,...
View ArticleCustomer Service from Kimball’s Tenured Radicals [12]
Roger Kimball opened his 1990 jeremiad Tenured Radicals with a chapter called “The Assault on the Canon,” and concluded that chapter with a discussion of “the Stanford debacle.”[1] Kimball adduced the...
View ArticleBowen Babies [1]
Word is beginning to filter through my university that, due to an enormous expected state budgetary shortfall, brought about by a combination of cheap oil and mindless tax-cutting, my institution is...
View ArticleAmy Kass and Me: On Our Shared Scholarly Affinities and Differences [1]
I first learned of Amy Apfel Kass while writing my dissertation. She too had written one on great books promoters, titled “Radical Conservatives for a Liberal Education” and completed in 1973. I...
View ArticleEmpire, This Is: Reflections on the Star Wars Saga and Everyday Empire [26]
After the smashing success of Star Wars in the late 1970s, everyone—of a certain age—was looking forward to the release of The Empire Strikes Back, which occurred in 1980. Everyone wanted to see what...
View ArticleBooks That Matter: Twenty-Five Years of Gender Trouble, a Guest Post by...
The following post is by Claire Bond Potter, Professor of History and Director of the Digital Humanities Initiative at the New School and author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of...
View ArticleAn ad hoc Canon for the 1980s [43]
Yesterday I started reading Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Apparently, I’m not the only one who was recently inspired to delve into this 1980s bestseller; when I went online last weekend to order...
View ArticleIntellectual History Books for the Spring [5]
Today’s post will be a brief summation of intellectual history, and intellectual history-related, books coming out this spring. Some of them, in fact, are already out. Regardless, it is clear that 2016...
View ArticleThe Element of Surprise
On November 9, 1989, I was having a beer with a friend at Conte’s Pizzeria in Princeton, NJ, when I glanced up at the tv behind the bar. People were climbing on the Berlin Wall. It’s hard to express...
View ArticleThe Center Would Be Lost
Last week I (finally!) read Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. After the jump, I discuss a key theme of the text, a discussion that necessarily requires major plot spoilers. So, caveat lector! At its...
View ArticleMother Angelica, the Culture Wars, and the Catholic Church
One of the most famous nuns in recent history, both in the United States and world, passed away this past Sunday. Because of Mother Mary Angelica‘s creation of the Eternal Word Television Network...
View ArticleTo “B” or Not to “B”: On Capitalizing the Word “Black”
Last fall, I got some pushback from one of my dissertation readers on my capitalization of the word “Black,” with a marginal note along the lines of “Why are you capitalizing ‘Black’ and not ‘white’?”...
View ArticleReconsidering Jesse Jackson: The Caricature, The Person, The Politician – Part 1
Today’s post begins a four-part argument about the history and significance of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., as a political activist and thinker. My thesis is this: A full reconsideration of the...
View ArticleReconsidering Jesse Jackson: The Caricature, The Person, The Politician – Part 2
Today’s post is the second in a four-part argument about the history and significance of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., as a political activist and thinker. The first installment is here. My thesis...
View ArticleReconsidering Jesse Jackson: The Caricature, The Person, The Politician – Part 3
Today’s post is the third in a four-part argument about the history and significance of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., as a political activist and thinker. The first two installments are here and...
View ArticleA Relativist Utopia?: The Politics of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Guest Post by Mike O’Connor By most metrics, the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) dwarfed that which its predecessor Star Trek had received on NBC during its initial 1966-69 run....
View ArticleReading and Reflecting on Election Day, 2016
I find myself unsure of what to write about on this day, only a few days after the surprising victory of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. At this point, I have read far too many...
View Article![Spike Wilner Trio – Contrafactus (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]](http://imghd.xyz/images/2024/03/16/rzshek9rqf4lc_600.jpg)
/pic9807551.png)
