Johann N. Neem is professor of history at Western Washington University. He is the author of What’s the Point of College? Seeking Purpose in an Age of Reform and Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America.
When all the bad things America did are true, but none of the good things, something is amiss.
We are living through a time, however, when we cannot take our shared identity—and therefore our shared stories—for granted.
As a child, I thought that to be American was to believe in individuality, to support pluralism and equality, and to celebrate common holidays and eat common foods.
Whether revering or rejecting his work, McGuffey’s fans and detractors both manage to miss the point of his original project.
The culture wars have led to a deep sense of loss for most normative Americans.
Those committed to human rights at the global level should seek not to universalize the particular but rather to particularize the universal.
Warikoo might have explored the ways in which Asian cultural repertoires matched up with the neoliberal transformation of our schools and colleges.
We can only think critically about things about which we have knowledge.
Do Trump’s supporters represent a new Know-Nothing movement?
We do not know how to evaluate what makes up a good college education.
Jon Stewart and the age of irony.
Summer reads from THR staff and friends.