Essays Archive - Page 31 of 131

The Blob and the Mob: On Grand Strategy and Social Change

In an excerpt from Rethinking American Grand Strategy, Beverly Gage examines how statecraft and social movements intersect

December 8, 2021 • by Beverly Gage

Means and Ends As other essays in this collection demonstrate, the idea of “grand strategy” emerged out of the world of military affairs. Under the famous rubric identified by British historian B. H. Liddell Hart, “strategy” was what generals did, while “grand strategy” fell to politicians and statesmen, charged not only with winning ...

The Blob and the Mob: On Grand Strategy and Social Change

Democracy

Navigating the World of Grand Strategy with Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

The two historians talk to Public Seminar about Rethinking American Grand Strategy

December 8, 2021 • by Gregory Coleman, Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

Award-winning historians Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston spoke (virtually) with Public Seminar editorial intern Gregory Coleman to discuss their new book Rethinking American Grand Strategy (Oxford University Press, 2021). Edited by Nichols and Preston with fellow historian Elizabeth Borgwardt, the collection of curated essays discusses what American grand strategy ...

Navigating the World of Grand Strategy with Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

Politics

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

The rise of false histories by real politicians

December 7, 2021 • by Edin Hajdarpasic

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 ...

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

Activism

Photo Essay: Abortion Protests at the Supreme Court

Pro-choicers were out-numbered, out-signed, and out-shouted by pro-lifers

December 6, 2021 • by Jo Freeman

Several thousand people rallied in front of the Supreme Court on the morning of December 1. Inside, the Court heard oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Mississippi case which would limit all abortions to no later than 15 weeks. Long before oral arguments started, the pro-lifers ...

Photo Essay: Abortion Protests at the Supreme Court

Economy

Cents and Non-Cents about Inflation

No, it isn’t Biden’s fault.

December 6, 2021 • by Steve Max

Yes, inflation is back—only 6 percent as of October, which is nothing like the 13.5 percent that brought down Jimmy Carter in the election of 1980. The exact numbers don’t really matter. Rising prices, especially gasoline prices, are always bad news for the party in power. We must remember, and keep ...

Politics

Could We Learn to Live Somewhere Between “Never Again” and “Thoughts and Prayers?”

The culture war over guns must end for school shootings to end

December 3, 2021 • by Claire Potter

You know the United States is edging back to a post-Covid normal when a distraught kid takes his father’s 9 mm Sig Sauer, purchased on Black Friday, to his Michigan high school and opens fire. It is the most recent of 53 school shootings this year that have killed 17 people and wounded ...

Could We Learn to Live Somewhere Between “Never Again” and “Thoughts and Prayers?”

Race

There’s a Black Man Running Down My Street

When nice white neighbors criminalize a man for being Black and kill him it’s not just murder—it’s a lynching.

December 1, 2021 • by Mark Allan Williams

When is a murder not a murder? When it’s a lynching. On November 24, 2021—the day before Thanksgiving—many Americans let out a collective breath of relief. In Brunswick, Georgia, a jury convicted Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan of murder for hunting down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, an ...

There’s a Black Man Running Down My Street

Film

Who Should Tell Pauli Murray’s Story?

Why a white documentarian should have stepped aside and created space for a Black filmmaker

December 1, 2021 • by Benje Williams

My hand is trembling as I stick it into the dark air. I wasn’t planning on asking a question. Definitely not this question. But it needs to be asked, and I don’t see any other Black people in this theater in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. “I’m so glad My ...

Science & Technology

To Fight Covid Variants, Let’s Rethink the Sherman Anti-Trust Act!

We have another new threat, but two pills that might fight it. We know “cocktails” work but our laws prevent drug companies from cooperating to make them.

November 30, 2021 • by Donald G. McNeil Jr.

We are now threatened by Omicron, a new Covid variant with a name like a villain from a Transformers movie. Although on paper its genes look scary, we still know very little about its real-life behavior. So, while travel precautions make sense until we know more (and perhaps we could finally get serious about ...

To Fight Covid Variants, Let’s Rethink the Sherman Anti-Trust Act!

The Arts

When Diane Arbus Came to Central Park

The New York City story of a latchkey kid and a trailblazing photographer

November 30, 2021 • by Vicky Oliver

For me as a city kid, Central Park was a forbidden Eden. Even though I grew up a stone’s throw from the park, my parents forbade me to walk there, even chaperoned, even in broad daylight. And so, it’s all the more astounding that I recently found myself trotting—no, tearing over—to see ...

Politics

How to Save Local Retail

Or how to start, anyway

November 29, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

With the holiday shopping season upon us, it seems like a good time to consider local retail. Small retailers are struggling: They’ve been punished by the pandemic, of course, but the root of the problem goes back much further to the active disinterest by the powers that be in doing anything ...

Feminism

What Does It Mean to Be “Written By a Woman?”

How a misleading phrase went viral on TikTok, Twitter, and then became part of the Gen Z lexicon

November 17, 2021 • by Madeleine Janz

He could be skinny or ripped or somewhere in between, but never fat. He’s different from most of the men you meet: He doesn’t catcall, he doesn’t question your rape story, and he would never, ever put anything other than your pleasure and happiness first. He could be old or ...

Essays

Navigating the World of Grand Strategy with Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

The two historians talk to Public Seminar about Rethinking American Grand Strategy

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

The rise of false histories by real politicians

Photo Essay: Abortion Protests at the Supreme Court

Pro-choicers were out-numbered, out-signed, and out-shouted by pro-lifers

Cents and Non-Cents about Inflation

No, it isn’t Biden’s fault.

Could We Learn to Live Somewhere Between “Never Again” and “Thoughts and Prayers?”

The culture war over guns must end for school shootings to end

There’s a Black Man Running Down My Street

When nice white neighbors criminalize a man for being Black and kill him it’s not just murder—it’s a lynching.

Who Should Tell Pauli Murray’s Story?

Why a white documentarian should have stepped aside and created space for a Black filmmaker

To Fight Covid Variants, Let’s Rethink the Sherman Anti-Trust Act!

We have another new threat, but two pills that might fight it. We know “cocktails” work but our laws prevent drug companies from cooperating to make them.

When Diane Arbus Came to Central Park

The New York City story of a latchkey kid and a trailblazing photographer

How to Save Local Retail

Or how to start, anyway

What Does It Mean to Be “Written By a Woman?”

How a misleading phrase went viral on TikTok, Twitter, and then became part of the Gen Z lexicon

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