Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom

Russia’s imperial dreams and the tragedy of Central Europe

Some in the West are amazed that Russia is losing this war so far. Others are surprised by the courageous ways in which Ukrainians are resisting attacks and defending themselves with determination. Yet the opposite has happened. Ukraine has never been further away from Russia and closer to Western Europe ...
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Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom

The Global Rise of Xenophobia, the New Issue of Social Research

The New School journal unveils its latest issue

The rise of Xenophobia, globally, has unfortunately become increasingly virulent. The latest issue of Social Research, through a set of case studies, draws connections between the personal and the political with contributions from Marci Shore, Erika Lee, Bálint Madlovics, Irena Grudzińska Gross, Sina Arnold, Jocelyne Cesari, Mehmet Kurt, Munawwar Abdulla ...
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The Global Rise of Xenophobia, the New Issue of <em>Social Research</em>

What Use Is Fact-Checking Against Fact-Free Politics?

The rise of false histories by real politicians

In early November, a report to the United Nations written by Christian Schmidt, the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, was leaked to the press. In it, Schmidt warned that the country was in danger of falling apart, with a “very real” prospect for a renewed civil war waged by ...
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What Use Is Fact-Checking Against Fact-Free Politics?

Breaking the ‘Otherness’ Fixation

Diversity is held at the pinnacle of progressive thought, but full inclusion is far from becoming a reality

_____ I arrived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in 1988. In Iran, I had been active in a revolution that later became an Islamic revolution. I felt connected to leftist movements all over the world, and the idea of international solidarity gave me strength and hope for the future. With ...
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Breaking the ‘Otherness’ Fixation

On the Uses and Disadvantages of Historical Comparisons for Life

A conversation between Irena Grudzińska-Gross and Dwayne Betts

Marci: As you know, the original impetus for this forum was horror of the children being taken away from their parents at the American border, and my saying to Stephen Naron that we should use material from the Fortunoff archive to prepare a film about parent-child separation during the Holocaust. ...
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On the Uses and Disadvantages of Historical Comparisons for Life

Good and Evil

An excerpt from On Love and Tyranny: The Life and Politics of Hannah Arendt

_____ Goodness exists, even in the darkest of moments. It is worth remembering this—that the violence and brutality of the war did not only bring out the worst in people. The darkness also inspired goodness, bravery, and responsibility. There are countless examples of people who, often at great risk to themselves ...
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Good and Evil

The Seamy Side of the Politics of Small Things

Turkey Poland, China, the United States and beyond

I recognized that the reviewer had a point and decided to answer the question by adding a chapter: “2004: The Church, the Right and the Politics of Small Things.” In it, I showed how micro-politics, politics in the details of social interaction, in churches with links to the Republican Party, ...
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The Seamy Side of the Politics of Small Things

Far-Right Populism is Bad Enough

On fascism, populism, and democracy

From more or less mad Roman emperors to -- of course -- Adolf Hitler, by now it would seem easier to name historical figures to whom Donald Trump has not been linked than ones whom he has been said to resemble. By the same token, there has been a deluge ...
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Far-Right Populism is Bad Enough

QAnon as a Byproduct of a Broken America

Alienation, anxiety, and religion

QAnon is a conspiracy theory alleging that the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, is battling an organized and criminal deep state—which also happens to be a Satan-worshipping cabal of pedophiles engaged in sex-trafficking—and that this battle is moving towards an apocalyptic showdown in which our president will ...
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QAnon as a Byproduct of a Broken America

The Enigma of Rescue

On a recent history of The New School for Social Research

The New School for Social Research holds a story of rescue dear. This is the tale of how its co-founder and first president, the economist Alvin Johnson, climbed a mountain of correspondence and paperwork to save scores of German scholars after Nazism’s rise to power in the early 1930s. Johnson ...
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The Enigma of Rescue