intellectual history — Bunk History

Students hiding under desks during an air raid test

Is Liberalism a Politics of Fear?

A conversation about the Cold War’s profound and negative influence on the liberal worldview.

by Samuel Moyn, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on September 11, 2023

Andrea Casali: The Personification of History Writing on the Back of Time, early 1760s

Ego-Histories

The more that historians make their own experiences an explicit part of their work, the harder it will become to let the sources speak clearly.

by David A. Bell via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023

A photograph of Richard Hofstadter in front of a library of books.

Politics, Populism, and the Life of the Mind

An interview with Sean Wilentz on Library of America's new collection of Richard Hofstadter's works.

by Sean Wilentz, Daniel Wortel-London via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on July 27, 2020

Rendering Judgment on America

A new book systematically defends the American Founding against those who believe it was destined to end in nihilism.

by Samuel Gregg via Public Discourse on July 1, 2020

We Hold These Ideas to Be Self-Evident

Michael Kimmage considers "The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History" by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen.

by Michael Kimmage via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 29, 2019

The Supreme Court building.

Knowing How vs. Knowing That: Navigating the Past

How should we interpret the United States Constitution?

by Jonathan Gienapp via Process: A Blog for American History on April 4, 2017

Puritans drinking in a colonial pub.

Perry Miller and the Puritans: An Introduction

Historians often treat Miller as a foil, but the Father of American Intellectual history retains untapped potential to inspire new modes of inquiry.

by Rivka Maizlish via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on May 8, 2013

Ronald Reagan.

Conservatism: A State of the Field

Does recognizing the importance of conservatism in the twentieth century make us see the arc of American history in a new way?

by Kim Phillips-Fein via Journal of American History on December 1, 2011

Eagle on the front cover of Lynd's "Origins of American Radicalism" book

The Return of Staughton Lynd

A look back at the historian's work suggests that contemporary radicals may be all too invested in the myth of American consensus.

by David Waldstreicher via HNN on February 15, 2010

An image of the "Pine Tree Flag," a revolutionary era flag, waving over a crowd. On the flag is written "An Appeal to Heaven."

Revival and Revolution

A controversial historical claim grounds MAGA evangelicalism's embrace of the "Appeal to Heaven" flag.

by John Fea via Commonweal on July 2, 2024

Prehistoric people seen through a pair of glasses.

The Abuses of Prehistory

Beware of theories about human nature based on the study of our earliest ancestors.

by Udi Greenberg via The New Republic on May 10, 2024

Branko Milanovic, 2017.

The Problematic Past, Present, and Future of Inequality Studies

An intellectual history of inequality in economic theory reveals the ideological reasons behind the field’s resurgence in the last few decades.

by Branko Milanović, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on March 20, 2024

The cover of "The Deadline" by Jill Lepore.

The Hold of the Dead Over the Living

A conversation with Jill Lepore about the past decade — “a time that felt like a time, felt like history.”

by Jill Lepore, Julien Crockett via Los Angeles Review of Books on January 2, 2024

A scene from the film Orphans of the Storm depicting a group carrying a sign bearing the slogan “Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité,” 1921.

The History of Equality: It’s Complicated

The strange and contradicting development of the liberal version of egalitarianism.

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Darrin M. McMahon via The Nation on November 16, 2023

Collage of Samuel Huntington, his essay "The Clash of Civilizations," and 21st-century political figure.

Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong

His “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs turned 30 this year. It was provocative, influential, manna for the modern right—and completely and utterly not true.

by Jordan Michael Smith via The New Republic on October 19, 2023

Two Cheers for the Cold War Liberals

There are certainly good grounds to criticize Cold War liberalism. But Samuel Moyn's new book, like similar critiques, has a classic baby-bathwater problem.

by Joseph Stieb via War on the Rocks on September 15, 2023

Dangers and Enemies Everywhere

How Cold War liberalism abandoned the vocabulary of hope—and how we still live with the consequences.

by George Scialabba via Democracy Journal on September 14, 2023

Cover of "Liberalism Against Itself"

Memo to Liberals: The Cold War is Over

In “Liberalism Against Itself,” Samuel Moyn stresses the need to resuscitate an earlier and more rousing wave of thinkers.

by Becca Rothfeld via Washington Post on August 11, 2023

Adam Smith (left), George Stigler (center), Milton Friedman (right), Hyde Park streetscape in the background.

The Localist

Why did Chicago become the headquarters of free market fundamentalism? Adam Smith offers a clue.

by Jonathan Levy via Boston Review on June 28, 2023

Shredded "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

The Long Afterlife of Libertarianism

As a movement, it has imploded. As a credo, it’s here to stay.

by Benjamin Wallace-Wells via The New Yorker on May 29, 2023

Fisk University Class of 1888.

The South: The Past, Historicity, and Black American History (Part II)

Exploring recent debates about the uses–and utility–of Black history in both the academic and public spheres.

by Adolph Reed Jr. via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on April 10, 2023

A shattered painting of Adam Smith.

The Betrayal of Adam Smith

How conservatives made him their icon and distorted his ideas.

by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on February 27, 2023

Protestors on the streets during the Algerian War.

The Counterinsurgent Imagination

A new book examines military manuals as a genre to understand what armed counter-revolutionaries think of as the right way to do what they do.

by Tom Furse, Joseph Mackay via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on January 6, 2023

Statue of Liberty's torch.

Why the Philosophers Libertarians Love Always Come Out Worse for Wear

Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek have been through the wringer.

by Rebecca Brenner Graham via Slate on December 5, 2022

Adolf Hitler with high-ranking Nazi officers during Operation Barbarossa, the failed offensive against the Soviet Union, 7 August 1941.

Geopolitics is a Loser’s Buzzword with a Contagious Idea

The concept of geopolitics comes from German and Russian attempts to explain defeat and reverse loss of influence.

by Harold James via Aeon on December 1, 2022

Headstones in Mount Auburn cemetery. Photograph by Daderot at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18003519.

A Tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery

Two centuries of New England intellectual history through the lives and ideas of people who are memorialized there.

by Kathryn Ostrofsky on September 7, 2022

Panel of medieval-era paintings depicting humans and animals.

When Did Racism Begin?

The history of race has animated a highly contentious, sometimes fractious debate among scholars.

by Vanita Seth via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 19, 2022

Drawing of John Stuart Mill

Haiti, Slavery and John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was an unusual man who lived an extraordinary life devoted to a set of problems that once again dominate political thought in the 21st century.

by Zachary D. Carter via In The Long Run on June 3, 2022

Postcard image of a painting of the Mayflower at sea.

Looking for an American Myth

The fevered hunt for basic symbols.

by John Ganz via Unpopular Front on February 6, 2022

Hawaiian feathered war god.

In Defense of Presentism

The past does not speak to us; we speak for the past.

by David Armitage via Oxford University Press on January 13, 2022

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