Essays Archive - Page 95 of 131

Time for a Rethink on the Worth of Work

Economists undervalue what we need most now: care workers

April 7, 2020 • by Paulo L. dos Santos

The pandemic poses new and unique economic challenges. It compromises our ability to engage in productive and commercial activities requiring close contact between groups of people—that includes most of the things sustaining a modern economy. Epidemiologists tell us this is needed for several months. Responding in a way that minimizes ...

Past Present

Tiger King

Past Present Podcast, Episode 223

April 6, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Tiger King is a runaway hit as social distancing has increased appetite for binge-watching. Niki referred to this Mother Jones article about the connection between coronavirus and the wild animal trade. Natalia referenced this New York magazine article by Robert ...

History

COVID-19: When History Has No Lessons

Facing a crisis without precedent

April 6, 2020 • by Gaëtan Thomas and Guillaume Lachenal

“With such a timely specialization, why aren’t you on CNN right now?,” asked a well-meaning individual at a gathering over drinks a few weeks ago, as the conversation inevitably turned to the coronavirus, which still seemed like a far away phenomenon. “What does the historian of medicine think of all ...

Interviews

This Body Is a Gift: Natalie Diaz

The award-winning poet on her new book, Postcolonial Love Poem

April 6, 2020 • by Natalie Diaz and Evangeline Riddiford Graham

To celebrate this achievement, we're reprinting this interview with the author, originally posted in April 2020. Native Americans account for just 0.8 percent of the population of the United States. Yet according to four decades’ worth of data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 2 percent of ...

Democracy

Populists Love the Pandemic

Populist rulers are exploiting this crisis to the fullest

April 3, 2020 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

WARSAW – Threats to national security invariably limit domestic political disputes. Now that governments have assumed a leading role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the political opposition in countries under populist rule is quickly being marginalized. In theory, the authorities in these countries could use the crisis to invoke a ...

History

Automation with a Socialist Face

Scientific-Technical Revolution in Radovan Richta’s Civilization at the Crossroads

April 2, 2020 • by Lukáš Likavčan and Benjamin Peters

What can we learn from a forgotten case study of civilizational science from a country that no longer exists? When philosopher Radovan Richta published Civilization at the Crossroads in 1966, it was a popular sensation in Czechoslovakia, and was translated into eleven languages over the next decade. This collective work, ...

Democracy

In Praise of Bureaucracy

How our patrimonial presidency endangers us all

April 2, 2020 • by Jeffrey Kopstein

But we’ve mostly disregarded one danger and it’s the one I believe is the most significant: Trump’s attack on the administrative state. The novel coronavirus bug revealed the American state, so impressive on the global stage with its ability to project unparalleled military force anywhere in the world, as shockingly unable ...

History

Our Man: the Life and Times of Diplomat Richard Holbrooke

An interview with biographer George Packer about war and humanity in the foreign service

March 31, 2020 • by George Packer and Charlotte Slivka

Charlotte Slivka [CS]: Thank you, George, for agreeing to do this interview, I really appreciate it and the whole community does especially in the face of the NBCC awards ceremony being postponed due to COVID-19. George Packer [GP]: That was a real downer but I’m happy to do it. Are you ...

Our Man: the Life and Times of Diplomat Richard Holbrooke

History

Female Husbands

A Trans History

March 31, 2020 • by Jen Manion

Female husband as a descriptive category lost its meaning in public discourse just as it proliferated in the U.S. from roughly 1878 to 1906. It had already largely fallen out of use in the U.K. Female husbands -- once defined by manhood and masculinity -- were quietly and subtly subsumed ...

Fashion

The Dharma of Fashion

If you crave fashion, make friends with your desire

March 30, 2020 • by Otto von Busch

It is said that on the eve of his enlightenment, the Buddha sat beneath a tree and was assailed by the demon Mara. Mara is literally “Death,” the personification of temptation and distraction. Using seductive images and ultimately doubt, Mara challenged the Buddha, distracting him from his goal of enlightenment. ...

Labor

Will the US Pandemic Response Strengthen Workers?

Worker protections and collective bargaining must be part of any economic recovery plan

March 30, 2020 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

But this rare moment of bipartisanship will turn out to have been a missed opportunity if it does not also reverse the long decline of worker protections and collective-bargaining power in the United States. As Lawrence H. Summers of Harvard University and many others have shown, this trend has contributed significantly to the ...

Will the US Pandemic Response Strengthen Workers?

Theory & Practice

Theses for Theory in a Time of Crisis

In a world shifting more quickly than we can consider, analysis is more important than ever

March 30, 2020 • by Benjamin P. Davis and Jonathon Catlin

Catastrophe is not “to come,” but here and now. Before the current pandemic, our way of life was already killing life on earth. State selections of who shall live and who shall die already produced medical shortages. “That things are ‘status quo’ is the catastrophe. It is not an ever-present possibility ...

Essays

Time for a Rethink on the Worth of Work

Economists undervalue what we need most now: care workers

Tiger King

Past Present Podcast, Episode 223

COVID-19: When History Has No Lessons

Facing a crisis without precedent

This Body Is a Gift: Natalie Diaz

The award-winning poet on her new book, Postcolonial Love Poem

Populists Love the Pandemic

Populist rulers are exploiting this crisis to the fullest

Automation with a Socialist Face

Scientific-Technical Revolution in Radovan Richta’s Civilization at the Crossroads

In Praise of Bureaucracy

How our patrimonial presidency endangers us all

Our Man: the Life and Times of Diplomat Richard Holbrooke

An interview with biographer George Packer about war and humanity in the foreign service

Female Husbands

A Trans History

The Dharma of Fashion

If you crave fashion, make friends with your desire

Theses for Theory in a Time of Crisis

In a world shifting more quickly than we can consider, analysis is more important than ever

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