The American Dream

Lawrence R. Samuel

The original definition of the American Dream was rooted in the democratic principles of both the Founding Fathers and nineteenth-century transcendentalists.

Unbinding a Nation

Johann N. Neem

The culture wars have led to a deep sense of loss for most normative Americans.

Birth of the Foodie

Leann Davis Alspaugh

Herbert Hoover’s US Food Administration did more than simply change Americans’ eating habits.

What Makes Me Black? What Makes You White?

W. Ralph Eubanks

Race is an absurdity. Yet as a means of defining and separating people, it retains its power. 

You Know This

John Thomason

A neglected hard-boiled novelist wrote on the greatest conspiracy of all.

The Odd Couple

Natasha Zaretsky

Both Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey endorse the same belief: that there are only winners and losers.

Unbecoming American

Johann N. Neem

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.

A Grand Turk in Washington

Kevin Blankinship

Writing a book about Thomas Jefferson means entering a very crowded field.

Dissent and Solidarity

James Davison Hunter

King’s arguments for freedom and justice were not only constitutional but also profoundly ethical.

How Enduring the Promise?

Andrew Lynn

It is fair to say that a new economic populism has been rendered impotent by cultural identity markers that shape voting patterns.

To Forgive Us Our Trespasses…

Nancy Isenberg

In the words of retired Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy,  “a people confident in its laws and institutions should not be ashamed of mercy.”

The Press and the Police

Sophie Haigney

When you turn to the news, what you will encounter, overwhelmingly, is crime.

Puritans’ Progress

Peter Skerry

What do we mean by culture? Don’t ask me, I’m a political scientist.

Left Behind

Nancy Isenberg

The trouble with euphemism.

The Unchosen Condition

Malloy Owen

Is there really anything left to say about White Fragility?

America’s Tailspin

Ronald Aronson

Despite obvious differences and contradictions, “we” extended across class and race and stressed our common vulnerability.

Capital Inequalities

Shamus Khan

We may well need to transcend the capital analogy.

Authenticity in Fashion

Richard Thompson Ford

Concern with authenticity seems to be unique to societies marked by conspicuous racial or ethnic hierarchies.

Chasing Phillis Wheatley

Tara A. Bynum

Learning to read for the possibility or the certainty of laughter in the writings of Phillis Wheatley.

The Fake Book of Negroes

Gerald Early

Black Americans still embrace the exodus story as the defining trope of their collective experience.

A Democratic Mythic?

Stephen K. White

Carrying forward an evolving “we” of the democratic imagination.

A Tale of Two Stories

Angel Adams Parham

Were it not for this creative, constructive impulse, the fire next time would have burned this country down many times over.

The Eternal Hope of the Wandering Jew

David Stromberg

I’ve been cursed to envision peace without ever experiencing it myself.

Getting Liberalism’s Attitude Back

Charles Mathewes

Ambivalence captures the internal nature of liberalism’s discontents.

Jumping Over Fire

Ohad Reiss-Sorokin

Amid the social turmoil of postwar Vienna, Othmar Spann’s class auditorium became a political battlefield.

The Spirit of Appomattox

Jonathan Clarke

Why is Shelby Foote's Civil War subject to so much contemporary debate?

In Search of the Broad Highway

Dave Tell

Revisiting Meredith v. Fair, we get the inside story of how critical race theory was developed in the years after Brown.

Rare Gift, Rare Grit

Martha Bayles

It’s nice to think that a gift like that possessed by Ella Fitzgerald will always find its way. But luck matters too.

Culture Wars: The Endgame

James Davison Hunter

Our contemporary culture is a culture of nihilism without nihilists.

The Humor Is Almost Lost on Us

Martha Bayles

Instead of satire, which aims at improvement, we have snark.

The Whistleblower’s Gamble

Allen M. Hornblum

The regrettable but all-too-common phenomenon of medical personnel “turning a blind eye” to unethical and injurious practices.

Toward a New Universalism

Shahrzad Sabet

The gap between our concepts of love and justice has served us poorly.

Frederick Douglass and the American Project

Richard Hughes Gibson

It would be hard to blame him if he had lost faith in the republic.

Critical Theory and the Newest Left

Alexander Stern

Corporations are not defanging a threatening ideology but welcoming it back home from a field trip.

Race, MLK, and the Allure of Made-for-TV Justice

Andrew Lynn

Media executives have honed the craft of attracting national interest to flair-ups and clashes over school board proceedings, controversial small business practices, or more recently, police misconduct.

The Model Minority Might Be Too Good at the Game

Johann N. Neem

Warikoo might have explored the ways in which Asian cultural repertoires matched up with the neoliberal transformation of our schools and colleges.

Published!

James Conaway

The official publication day came and went. I felt weirdly out of it, waiting for something I had anticipated for half my life and worked toward unremittingly.

A Jazz Age Mystery in a Reimagined America

Alan Jacobs

A murder mystery that is also an impressive sociological imaginary.

A Marriage of Sorts

Jonathan Coleman

One big and enduring reason Jerry trusted me is that he sensed that I was no stranger to the dark spot in the wood—something we shared in common.