A12 Episode 5
Who Watches the Watchers?
In this episode, Niki investigates "Why law enforcement and the legal system failed to prevent the violence on August 11 and 12".
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Monuments to Men
An Interview and Epilogue to Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America
Martha S. Jones (MSJ): My first inspiration was the years I spent as a public interest lawyer. I represented poor people of color in lower Manhattan’s trial courts and rarely did those cases reach high courts or turn on constitutional questions. Still, I knew that my clients were fighting for fundamental ...
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The Özil Affair and the Limits of Progressive Nationalism
Why liberal nationalists can’t have their cake and eat it, too
This July, German football star Mesut Özil resigned from the national team. His resignation provides a dramatic illustration of the crisis of multiculturalism in Europe. Özil, the son of Turkish immigrants, resigned with a public letter on social media. “I am a German when we win, an immigrant when we lose,” he ...
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BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee’s answer to The Birth of a Nation
“Do the Right Thing.” “Jungle Fever.” “Malcolm X.” Now “BlacKkKlansman.” No maker of feature films in our time, or perhaps during any time, has placed so much of their work at the center of the social and political discourse as Spike Lee.
His cinematic voice is political and his platform is ...
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Evil Ways
Reflections on sometimes supporting politicians who make us sick, and on politicians and musicians who raise us up
"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington
Last Thursday night, while watching MSNBC, I was taken aback to see a new TV ad from the re-election campaign of Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana). Donnelly, along with West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, has long positioned ...
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A12 Episode 4
The Alt-Right Rises
In this episode, Niki investigates "How the alt-right fits into the history of American white supremacy, and why they chose Charlottesville as the place to make their stand".
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Michael Kimmel’s Learning Moment and Ours
A prominent professor’s rumored #HeToo behavior prompts a fundamental rethink about gender and ethics
I first met Michael Kimmel in the early 1980s, when we moved in the same profeminist men’s movement circles. We were both starting out in our writing careers, trying to reckon with what feminist women were saying and trying to reconcile it with how we understood ourselves as men. I ...
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Ágnes Heller: Orbán is a Tyrant
From the time he became the prime minister of Hungary, Orban was always interested in concentrating all the power in his hands.
Jan Smoleński: Is Viktor Orban a populist?
Agnes Heller*: I do not like the term populist as it is used in the context of Viktor Orban, because it does not say anything. Populists rely typically on poor people. Orban uses nationalistic vocabulary and rhetoric, he mobilizes hatred against the stranger and ...
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Jesse Lemisch, 1936-2018
Activist, Historian, Friend
I just learned the sad news that Jesse Lemisch has passed away.
Readers of Public Seminar and historians have known Jesse as a friend and/or a sparring partner for decades, and many more have known his name and work.
I met Jesse late in his life, but at a crucial juncture in mine. ...
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Democrats: Stop Parroting GOP Talking Points
Nancy Pelosi and the future of the Democratic leadership in the House
The dog days of August have arrived (no pun intended with respect to President Trump’s disgraceful Omarosa misogynist insult), and the topic of the week seems to be whether Nancy Pelosi should pack it in after a decade and a half as the House’s top Democrat.
As Pelosi’s chief of staff ...
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Confronting the Human Condition and the Pressing Problems of the Day
An introduction to a course on social interaction (syllabus included)
I have been teaching courses on social interaction for my entire career, most often indirectly, most recently, directly. In the past, I taught a wide variety of topical courses: on bureaucracy, the arts, culture, politics, media, publics and much more, and while I reviewed with the students the relevant literatures, ...
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A12 Episode 3
The Statue at the Center of the World
In this episode, Niki investigates "Why Charlottesville's Confederate statues opened up a battle over history and memory".
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