Fiona Stafford– When Jane Austen spoke of being “in love with” Clarkson, in a private letter of 1813, she was referring to the indefatigable antislavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson and his splendid History, which charted the progress of the abolitionist movement. Two hundred years later, the name of Clarkson would be
Brooke Erin Duffy— With the skyrocketing growth of the independent employment economy, entrepreneurialism has emerged as a profoundly romanticized ideal for workers and career aspirants alike. A survey published last year by the Economic Innovation Group reported that sixty-two percent of eighteen to thirty-four year olds have considered launching their
Robin Prior— The year 1940 could have been disastrous for Britain and for the West. Any number of events that occurred during that year might have seen Germany victorious over Britain. As Churchill said of another series of crises in another war, “The terrible ‘If’s’ accumulate.” If the government of
Irwin F. Gellman— The state of current scholarship on Richard Nixon requires me to state, at the outset, that I am neither for nor against him. My purpose in writing The Contender was never to boost Nixon’s historical reputation—nor to depress it—but rather to provide the basis on which any
Why was the FCC created and what was its original purpose? Thomas Hazlett, former chief economist of the FCC, discusses the politics of the FCC and issues like censorship and net neutrality.
Marcia Bartusiak— Early last year, the field of astrophysics announced one of its biggest discoveries. A cosmic phenomenon that Albert Einstein had predicted a century earlier was at last detected directly. Two massive black holes collided, their spectacular merger generating huge ripples—gravitational waves—in the very fabric of space-time. After spreading
Justin du Rivage— Alexander Hamilton was barely out of his teens when he mounted his swashbuckling defense of the Continental Congress in 1774. If colonists failed to stand up to Parliament, he told his fellow New Yorkers, before long their “tables, and chairs, and planters, and dishes, and knives and
Josh Chafetz— It’s hard to keep track of all of the ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign and administration. At the very least, we know of inquiries by special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI under the auspices of the Justice Department and by four separate congressional committees: the House
What role does social media play in networked protests? Zeynep Tufekci discusses this, online privacy, and how to combat fake news online.
Valerie Neal— In the 1960s, Americans were clear about the reasons to embark on travel across the vast new ocean of space. More than once, President John F. Kennedy presented a clear and compelling rationale, best distilled in a speech delivered at Rice University on September 12, 1962. Near the