History Archives - Page 22 of 78

Past Present

The Precarious Labor of the Fitpro

Interrogating the Political Economy of Fitness in American Life

December 16, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

These well-meaning students weren’t drunk on endorphins. Given the high price they paid for membership and training, and the picture of happy, toned affluence I projected in my hundred-dollar leggings (payment for teaching a class in an upscale boutique), while both correcting their form and calling out advice about life ...

Democracy

30 Years Ago, A Moment of Joy and Hope

December 13, 2019 • by Adam Michnik

*** I clearly remember that November evening. In my country, Poland, events of great importance were taking place. Poland’s first non-Communist government had already been operating for three months. The prime minister was Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a broad-minded catholic intellectual and long-standing advisor to Lech Wałęsa. Just at that time, a delegation from the Federal Republic ...

Activism

A Public Service

Whistleblowing, Disclosure and Anonymity

December 12, 2019 • by Tim Schwartz

In 1965, 28-year-old Peter Buxtun was hired by the U.S. Public Health Service in San Francisco as a venereal disease investigator. Shortly after starting his job, Buxtun began hearing about a little-known, ongoing study on African-American males with syphilis. To Buxtun’s ears, this didn’t sound right -- by the late ...

Past Present

Virginity Tests, International Achievement Tests, and the End of the 2010s

Episode 207

December 10, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The rapper T.I. caused controversy when he said he subjects his daughter to a virginity test every year. Natalia referred to historian Hanne Blank’s book Virgin: The Untouched History. Niki cited our discussion of the evangelical purity movement on Episode 190.Children around the world took the ...

Uncategorized

Reclaiming Victimology

Why there are no victims – only survivors

December 3, 2019 • by Alyson Cole

It’s not the poor, marginalized, or dispossessed, but those who occupy positions of privilege and power who seem most eager to assume the victim mantle today, those Lawrence Glickman classifies as “elites.” On the one hand, this is not new: American history is littered with examples of dominant groups deploying iconic imagery ...

Podcast

War Crimes, Controversial Food Takes, Indigenous Land Acknowledgments

Episode 206

December 3, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: President Trump recently pardoned three American servicemen convicted of war crimes. Natalia referred to Adam Serwer’s Atlantic piece “The Cruelty is the Point” and this New Yorker article about the 19th-century origins of the military court system. Niki recommended reading up on the case of Eddie Gallagher to understand ...

Uncategorized

Can Democracy Be Established Undemocratically?

The Ethical and Political Dilemmas of the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution

November 29, 2019 • by Muriel Blaive

November 17th, 2019 was the thirtieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. This revolution, marvelous though it was, and its aftermath, I believe, demonstrates that creating a mature democracy out of thin air is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. The apparent success of the revolution hid flaws that seemed ...

Can Democracy Be Established Undemocratically?

History

This Mess of Troubled Times

Has 1989 vanished beneath a mountain of interpretation and reflection?

November 26, 2019 • by Karl Schlögel

The processes set in motion by the disintegration of the socialist economy in eastern Europe eluded all analytical frameworks. It was a time of ‘wild thinking’, in which received ideas were reconsidered and values re-assessed. We are still living through this troubled era, writes the historian of the Soviet Union ...

Podcast

Pete Buttigieg, Groypers, and Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary

Episode 205

November 26, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: “Mayor Pete,” once a long-shot candidate, is increasingly a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Natalia referred to Michael Kruse’s POLITICO piece about the electoral viability of a gay candidate. Neil noted Buttigieg had won the 2000 Profile in Courage Essay Contest for an ...

Politics

The Prime Minister Versus History

How Boris Johnson misrepresented the United Kingdom’s past to present himself as its political heir

November 25, 2019 • by Alistair Somerville

This is an updated version of an article published at Public Seminar on July 30, 2019. Politicians like to tell stories about themselves. Leaders like to tell stories about their country. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is the first since Winston Churchill with both a prominent personal story and his ...

The New School

The Ad Paradox

Writing advertising for a university that doesn’t believe in it

November 21, 2019 • by Ricky Tucker

This year marks The New School’s centennial celebration, a paradigm example of that disparity. For October, ads for our “Learn something New” awareness campaign and The Festival of New, a series of events reflecting on our past, made up the majority of advertising in and around Union Square subway station. ...

From the Editors

As We Contemplate Change

We look at what’s possible, who makes it possible, and how people move policy

November 20, 2019 • by Claire Potter

So let’s start with how change happens. Economist James K. Galbraith leads off our politics section this week with an analysis of Bernie Sanders’ economic platform: can Bernie do all these things? Read it and find out. Next, we turn to a reflection on activism, as Nick Estes interviews Native American ...