Essays Archive - Page 84 of 131

The Supreme Court’s DACA Ruling & Me

On being superfluous

July 1, 2020 • by José Ángel Navejas

When I crossed the border from Mexico in 1993, there were no doubts about what I would do once I arrived in Chicago: find a job in a factory, or wash dishes, or get down on my knees to scrub dirty toilets, whichever came first. In Mexico, I had grown ...

Education

Save Higher Education (From Itself)!

A federal bailout for students, faculty, and staff at colleges and universities

July 1, 2020 • by Julia Ott

More than three months into a national emergency, neither the leaders of America’s colleges and universities nor our elected officials have offered any plan to uphold higher education or any vision for its future. The ad-hoc responses of individual institutions do not suffice. Without federal relief and concerted reform, our ...

History

According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, We Should All Be Wearing Face Masks

July 1, 2020 • by Russ Castronovo

According to the nineteenth-century novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, we should all be wearing face masks. In the current moment where politics meets pandemic, the decision about whether or not to wear a face mask is a lightning rod for debates over governmental overreach and freedom of expression—and according to some, a smug ...

According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, We Should All Be Wearing Face Masks

Activism

A Tale of Three Protests — in Brooklyn

A photo-essay

June 29, 2020 • by Jo Freeman

On Saturday, May 30, I heard that a crowd was at Bedford and Tilden in Flatbush near the Sears parking lot where Covid-19 testing has been conducted for several weeks. When I got there at about 5:30 p.m, I saw two to three hundred people milling in the street. They had ...

Democracy

Donald Trump Will Get a Postage Stamp–If He Doesn’t Kill the USPS

June 29, 2020 • by Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler

In a statement released on April 30, 2020, the United States Postal Service (USPS) outlined its COVID-19 policies. But this government agency, founded at the dawn of the republic, also used the pandemic to argue for its ongoing relevance. “We provide a vital public service that is a part of ...

Donald Trump Will Get a Postage Stamp–If He Doesn’t Kill the USPS

Politics

Who Would Kick Americans Off Their Health Insurance in the Midst of a Global Pandemic?

Donald Trump, frantic to deliver for his base as his numbers slip, attacks the Affordable Care Act again

June 26, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

Just before midnight on Thursday, July 25, 2020, the Department of Justice filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act-- also known as Obamacare—the health care law that has enabled millions of Americans to get health insurance. In addition to making healthcare affordable, the law prohibits ...

Who Would Kick Americans Off Their Health Insurance in the Midst of a Global Pandemic?

Democracy

Elections 2020

An interview with Jacek Kucharczyk about the upcoming Polish vote

June 26, 2020 • by Jacek Kucharczyk, Elzbieta Matynia and Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Professors Elzbieta Matynia and Jeffrey Goldfarb asked Dr. Jacek Kucharczyk, President of the Executive Board of the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw, to talk about the current situation, before the first round of voting. Jeffrey Goldfarb (JG): Jacek, it's great for the three of us to be getting together. I’ll ...

From the Editors

How to Topple a Monument

And other thoughts about history

June 26, 2020 • by Claire Potter

On May 31, 2020, Sarah Parcak, an archeologist at the University of Alabama-Birmingham took the popular temperature and, like any good historian, recognized the need for a little public engagement. “PSA For ANYONE who might be interested in how to pull down an obelisk* safely,” Parcak tweeted, “from an Egyptologist ...

Politics

The Rise of Liberal Support for Racial Justice

The critical factor connecting protest and electoral politics today

June 25, 2020 • by Sanford Schram and Richard Fording

There has been extensive commentary about the protests over the recent murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, with some suggesting parallels to the 1960s. But a number of observers have incisively pointed out differences as well, noting the racial diversity of today’s protesters compared to those who took to the streets ...

The Rise of Liberal Support for Racial Justice

Politics

Expendable Bodies

What Sophocles can teach us about our political moment

June 25, 2020 • by Daniel Schillinger

An ancient Greek tragedy, Sophocles’s Philoctetes, can help us to think holistically about our own political moment. What Sophocles shows us is that the same bodies the polity dominates, annihilates, or consigns to suffering in isolation it also tends to use for its own ends. That political communities too often view ...

Activism

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

When monuments to racism, slavery, and empire come down, new possibilities rise up

June 25, 2020 • by Durba Ghosh and Kelly King-O’Brien

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, the movement to remove Confederate monuments has accelerated rapidly as part of a new wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Protestors argue these monuments represent institutional racism and should be removed immediately. Many governors and local politicians readily ...

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

Reviews

The Tangled Web of Familial Homophobia

A Secret Love (Directed by Chris Bolan, Netflix, 2020)

June 25, 2020 • by Jen Manion

But I was not prepared for the central role in the documentary film played by Terry’s nieces, Diana Bolan and Tammy Donahue; nor was I prepared for their jarring, casual homophobia. A Secret Love begins with Terry and Pat coming out to their families after having been a couple (they told ...

Essays

The Supreme Court’s DACA Ruling & Me

On being superfluous

Save Higher Education (From Itself)!

A federal bailout for students, faculty, and staff at colleges and universities

According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, We Should All Be Wearing Face Masks

A Tale of Three Protests — in Brooklyn

A photo-essay

Donald Trump Will Get a Postage Stamp–If He Doesn’t Kill the USPS

Who Would Kick Americans Off Their Health Insurance in the Midst of a Global Pandemic?

Donald Trump, frantic to deliver for his base as his numbers slip, attacks the Affordable Care Act again

Elections 2020

An interview with Jacek Kucharczyk about the upcoming Polish vote

How to Topple a Monument

And other thoughts about history

The Rise of Liberal Support for Racial Justice

The critical factor connecting protest and electoral politics today

Expendable Bodies

What Sophocles can teach us about our political moment

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

When monuments to racism, slavery, and empire come down, new possibilities rise up

The Tangled Web of Familial Homophobia

A Secret Love (Directed by Chris Bolan, Netflix, 2020)

Newsletter

Connect With Us