United States Archives - Page 21 of 73

Feature

Political Storytelling and the State of the Union

An examination of the role and limits of storytelling in American political life

February 5, 2019 • by Erin A. Dolgoy, Kimberly Hurd Hale and Bruce Peabody

With the government shutdown at an end, at least for the next few weeks, President Trump and Speaker Pelosi quickly agreed to hold the State of the Union on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Of course, some commentators have openly wondered how much the address still matters, especially in an age of constantly shifting news ...

Political Storytelling and the State of the Union

Blue Monday

Mitch McConnell and the “For the People Act of 2019”

Thoughts on power grabbing and democracy

February 4, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This is the Democrat plan to restore democracy? A brand new week of paid vacation for every federal employee who’d like to hover around while you cast your ballot? A Washington-based, tax-subsidized clearinghouse for political campaign funding? A power grab. It’s smelling more and more like exactly what it is. Thus ...

Mitch McConnell and the “For the People Act of 2019”

Democracy

On Media Mess and Its Alternatives

Islands of Totalitarianism and Democracy continued

February 1, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

When people meet in their differences, as equals, develop a capacity to meet and talk in the presence of each other, and develop a capacity to act together in concert, they constitute political power, an island of democracy. For Hannah Arendt, in fact, this is political power in contrast to ...

Feature

Reconsidering the History of Race through Peyote

How categories of belonging are made in Mexico

January 31, 2019 • by Alexander S. Dawson

Loyalties begin with a sense of belonging, a sense of who is on the inside and who is on the outside. I suppose that historians almost invariably interrogate notions of loyalty as we imagine our historical subjects; how they experienced their connections and obligations, and how this in turned shaped ...

Reconsidering the History of Race through Peyote

Blue Monday

Why a Green New Deal is a Great Idea

It links public responsibility, ecological sanity, and economic justice at a moment of manifest political irresponsibility

January 14, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

We are now entering the fourth week of Donald Trump’s most recent historic achievement in the ongoing horror show that is his presidency: the federal government has for all intents and purposes ceased to function. Damon Linker summarized it well in a recent column: In a little under three weeks, the shutdown has ...

Feature

Why We Need to Listen to Rashida Tlaib

Defending liberal democracy from Trumpism is not a distraction for the Left

January 10, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Last week saw the swearing in of the new, Democratic-controlled Congress, the fruit of the “blue wave” that swept across the country last November. The 116th Congress has been rightly hailed as “historic” for its demographic diversity. The country’s first female speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was re-elected, and ...

Feature

How Being Labeled with ADHD Made Me a Meth Addict

The self-fulfilling prophecy of a diagnostic label

January 10, 2019 • by Maggie Mosbarger

I woke up in a plastic bed to a nurse with a thick Russian accent asking me to sit upright so that she could draw my blood. It was a peculiar way to start my first full day in the Fairfax Behavioral Health facility. The night before, I had been ...

How Being Labeled with ADHD Made Me a Meth Addict

Feature

President as Prisoner

Trump has walled himself into a losing position

January 9, 2019 • by Sanford Schram

Back in 1989 Bill Grover published a great book, The President as Prisoner. In that book, Grover argued that, regardless of who occupied the position of President, that person was likely to be seriously constrained by political pressures and institutional constraints. Politically, the president is constrained by powerful interest groups, especially ...

Feature

The New History of Capitalism

And what it owes to poststructuralism

January 9, 2019 • by Andrew Seal

Where did the new history of capitalism come from? I would like to break from the common sense narrative and argue that the new history of capitalism should not be understood as rooted in or as a response to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Certainly the crisis drew attention to the field ...

Feature

“Fault Lines,” Dry January, and the Sex Recession

Past Present Episode 161

January 8, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Niki, Neil, and Natalia welcome Princeton historians Kevin M. Kruse and Julian Zelizer to discuss their new book, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974, followed by a discussion of “Dry January,” and new findings that young people are having less sex. Here are some links ...

“Fault Lines,” Dry January, and the Sex Recession

Blue Monday

On Calls to Impeach the Motherfucker

The Democratic Party needs a “dialectic” between the words of Tlaib and the words of Pelosi

January 7, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker.” Thus declared Rashida Tlaib last Thursday night while speaking at a MoveOn event just hours after being sworn in as a new Congresswoman. A shitstorm of controversy ensued. Across the political spectrum Tlaib was denounced for her “vulgarity.” The New York Times headline reporting on her statement neatly summed up the response of ...

Feature

Older Men’s Bargaining Power Hit by 36% Decrease in Job Tenure

2.9% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in December

January 5, 2019 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported a 2.9% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in December, which represents no change from November. Despite the low headline unemployment rate, changes in job tenure over the last 30 years have reduced older workers' bargaining power, especially older men. In 1987, the ...