Politics Archives - Page 102 of 107

Feature

Sing the Rage

Listening to Anger after Mass Violence

July 27, 2017 • by Sonali Chakravarti

The words of Godfrey Xolile Yona, who appeared before the TRC in October 1996, exemplify the type of testimony that is the catalyst for my thinking about the significance of anger in testimony after mass violence and its relationship to restorative justice. Detained for his involvement with the anti-apartheid organization ...

Education

Why Do Schoolhouses Matter?

The Rise of Public Education in America

July 20, 2017 • by Johann Neem

In our imagined past, we idealize the little red schoolhouse, a symbol of ourselves as a community, as a public. We dreamily recall the public schoolhouse as a place where children of the village congregated; learned their reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic; and became Americans together. Certainly, as Jonathan Zimmerman argues ...

Feature

Making Russia Great Again

The Facts and Fictions of Russian Nationalism

July 19, 2017 • by Abby Schrader

On Monday, Richard D. Anderson argued that carefully managed conflict with the United States allows Putin to balance the competing demands of kleptocracy and nationalism without giving in to forces on his left or his right. Today, historian Abby Schrader explains that eliminating economic sanctions may be critical to the stability ...

Feature

The Controversy Over Democracy in Chains

A Review Essay

July 18, 2017 • by Andrew Seal

You may be aware that the new book by Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (Viking, 2017) has received a lot of notice over the past week or two. Some of this notice has been very positive, but much more has been ...

The Controversy Over Democracy in Chains

Feature

The Politics of Russian Nationalism

Vladimir Putin as Centrist

July 17, 2017 • by Richard D. Anderson

In this essay, national intelligence expert Richard D. Anderson forwards our first critical perspective: Vladimir Putin is, in the context of Russian authoritarianism, a political centrist. Promoting and managing conflict with the United States, Anderson argues, allows Putin to balance the competing demands of kleptocracy and nationalism without giving in ...

Power and Crisis

Jerusalem on the Fourth of July

Reflections a bold and immoral message to Americans

July 5, 2017 • by Michael Weinman

A leftover from President Trump’s visit here in late May, the banner’s message is unambiguous. What makes it somewhat interesting is that immediately to its left we saw another banner that depicts (in a clownish and offensive way reminiscent of the Cleveland MLB team’s infamous logo) an American Indian who ...

Feature

The Captivity of Otto Warmbier

Outsiders, Insiders, and Mad Kings

June 15, 2017 • by Ann M. Little

I’ve followed Warmbier’s story as closely as I can -- as closely as any of us can at this remove from the DPRK’s closed society, one dominated by an autocratic regime that is itself ruled by the whims of a mad king. At the same time, I have thought about ...

Feature

Mayoral Statements on Confederate Memorials

Misrepresentation and Misrecognition, yet again (Part Two)

June 12, 2017 • by Michael Weinman

In this second part of further reflections on misrepresentation and misrecognition building on posts from earlier this year, I explore this rhetorical practice with reference to the current debate concerning the removal of statues of and to “Confederate heroes.” These debates have centered on the removal of four statues in ...

Mayoral Statements on Confederate Memorials

Politics

Anish Kapoor

Against site-specific politics/For abandoning intention

June 10, 2017 • by Valentina Sarmiento Cruz

Every day, Anish Kapoor wakes up at 6:30 in the morning. He drinks a cup of tea while he catches up on email and reads the newspapers. Depending on swell of emails in his inbox and to the world’s general behavior, he prepares breakfast between 7:45 and 8:00. Kapoor eats ...

Feature

Presidential Visits to Yad Vashem

Misrepresentation and Misrecognition, yet again (Part One)

June 8, 2017 • by Michael Weinman

You will by now have seen one report or another contrasting the responses of Presidents Obama (who visited as a senator and presidential candidate) and Trump to Yad Vashem, the Israeli national museum and memorial dedicated to the victims of the Nazi Genocide, the survivors of that crime, and the ...

Feature

Trump as Ubu Roi

On the charismatic appeal of vulgarity

June 6, 2017 • by Isaac Ariail Reed

Many are the analogies for the current President of the United States. Such analogies always contain within them theoretical debates about the nature of Trump’s appeal, the prospects for his rule, and how the coterie around him will conduct themselves in relation to Trump, in relation to each other, and ...