Think Piece – Page 36

Pushing at the Seams: US Intellectual History

by guest contributor John Gee Intellectual historians, I’ve heard it said, are people who argue about what intellectual history is. The field of US intellectual history has been marked in recent years both by growth—one might even say rebirth—and by… Continue Reading →

Mandatory Reading: The Novel and the College Course in the Early American Republic

by guest contributor Rob Koehler Like a lot of college students today, Daniel Tompkins (1774-1825) spent much of his four years at the newly named Columbia College [now University] writing essays. Foreshadowing his later political commitments as New York Governor… Continue Reading →

November 16, 2016 1

Religion in Late-Nineteenth Century American Life?

by contributing editor Yitzchak Schwartz Henry Adams (1838-1918) returned home from his Grand Tour in 1860 and came of age in American elite society as the American bourgeoisie underwent the most profound cultural, social and intellectual shifts it had experienced… Continue Reading →

November 14, 2016 1

Social Media in an Analog Age: The Henry Subscription (1898-1899)

by guest contributor Elizabeth Everton In a 2009 interview, Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, drew upon the dictionary definition of “tweet” – “a short burst of inconsequential information” – to characterize his creation. Ten years after Twitter’s inception, few would persist… Continue Reading →

November 9, 2016 3

“They’re Going to Be Bused, Whether You Like it or Not”: Urban Whites and the Surprising Origins of Metropolitan School Desegregation

by guest contributor Michael Savage In the United States, segregated metropolitan areas are a national phenomenon, with heavily minority inner-cities typically ringed by much wealthier and predominantly white autonomous suburbs. According to 24/7 Wall St., America’s three most segregated cities… Continue Reading →

November 7, 2016 0

Keeper of Language Games: G.H. von Wright at 100

by guest contributor David Loner This past month I attended a symposium held at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge in memory of the Finnish logician and Cambridge professor of philosophy G.H. von Wright (1916-2003), who this June would have been 100…. Continue Reading →

November 4, 2016 0

Performing Migration: Corridos, Mexican Masculinities, and American Empire (1917-1932)

by guest contributor Monique Flores Ulysses Growing up as the child of a Mexican mother, when I heard Alejandro Fernández’s rendition of the popular corrido “Paso del norte” blasting out of our old speakers on a Saturday morning, I knew… Continue Reading →

November 2, 2016

The Brain-for-Itself: Soviet Psychoneurologists Debate the Psychophysical Problem

by guest contributor Jamie Phillips At a meeting of the Society of Psychoneurologists-Materialists in Moscow in 1930, the Chairman of the Society, Aron Zalkind, appraised the current the state of their field in the Soviet Union, and spoke in particular… Continue Reading →

October 31, 2016 0

“Herman Melville’s New York, 1850” at The New York Society Library

by guest contributor Charles Cuykendall Carter The New York Society Library’s current pop-up exhibit explores the life and experiences of Herman Melville in New York City, during the time leading up to the 1851 publication of Moby-Dick. The more specific,… Continue Reading →

October 26, 2016 0

Impermanent Dwellings: Bookstores and Feminist Approaches to History

by contributing editor Brooke Palmieri It would make an amazing opening sequence to a film: the camera catches the glint of chrome, leather, motorcycle, boots, asphalt. A helmet is secured, and a stack of books and belongings piled onto the… Continue Reading →

October 24, 2016 2

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