tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387270462009-12-08T07:00:02.692-06:00David Sehathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17896199829917692516dsehat@gsu.eduBlogger351125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-73269853149856659282009-12-08T07:00:00.005-06:002009-12-08T07:00:02.698-06:00

I first ran across the phrase "zombie ideas" in Paul Krugman's writings, either here or here---probably the latter. In the first post from November 2007, Krugman refers to this document from the Health Policy Institute, titled "Lies, Damned Lies, and Health Care Zombies: Discredited Ideas That Will Not Die." That study introduces the following phrase in its text: "These false ideas (or “zombies

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-50161690680235367982009-12-07T10:11:00.003-06:002009-12-07T11:15:42.652-06:00

I came across this choice nugget in the Introduction to Richard Rorty's Philosophy and Social Hope, and have been chewing on it for the past day."The purpose of inquiry is to achieve agreement among human beings about what to do, to bring about consensus on the ends to be achieved and the means used to achieve those ends. Inquiry that does not achieve coordination of behavior is not inquiry but

Neil Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01164998214840879849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-61666195082831238312009-12-05T07:00:00.011-06:002009-12-05T15:25:07.270-06:00

1. The Top 15 Most Important, Post-WWII Anglophone Books of Philosophy, According To Google: Brian Leiter, of Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog fame, compiled a list derived from Google search results of the Top 15 (plus Top 10 runners-up) most important philosophy books of the last 50 years. To paraphrase a comment made by Mr. Leiter on his own post, I'm not sure these books tell us anything

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-85699817944469403762009-12-03T20:09:00.002-06:002009-12-03T20:32:58.419-06:00

In history of science, my home field, we speak of knowledge: production, dissemination, transformation of knowledge; knowledge in context, geographies of knowledge, knowledge in transit, socially constructed knowledge, tacit knowledge, embodied knowledge, situated knowledge, indigenous knowledge. Random titles of history of science publications include "Cultivating knowledge in nineteenth-century

Sylwester Ratowthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04067156498053806733noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-46263038344660656402009-12-03T08:45:00.001-06:002009-12-03T08:58:28.142-06:00

By Andrew HartmanAt our most recent U.S. Intellectual History Conference, the final panel was also the most anticipated: “Assessing the Legacy of the 1977 Wingspread Conference.” The panelists were Dorothy Ross, Thomas Bender, David Hall, and David Hollinger. I would like to address one of Hollinger’s central contentions, which has lead me to reexamine his most famous work, Postethnic America:

Andrew Hartmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522689516113106871ahartma@ilstu.edu6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-83200807848626303472009-12-02T23:31:00.004-06:002009-12-02T23:42:04.101-06:00

I was going to put up a short post about this very funny thread on Crooked Timber about Scott McLemee's very funny (and smart) review of Cornel West's latest book (like the kids say, read the whole thing....the review, not the book), when, to my great surprise, I found that the Crooked Timber thread began to discuss this blog and McLemee's slapdown of me over my use of the word "Trotskyite" in

Ben Alpershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11633460882064569533noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-54619301381498225272009-12-02T08:50:00.004-06:002009-12-03T11:36:47.011-06:00

Last night, December 1, 2009, Barack Obama claimed ownership of the war in Afghanistan. Of course, the moment he won the presidency Obama inherited this war. But he embraced the war morally this evening. He made clear in his speech that he sees the war in Afghanistan as a "a time of great trial." He hopes to rally Americans behind his military strategy by reminding them that "when this war began,

Raymond J. Haberski, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02341820609540595659rjhaberski@google.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-91447874272528513022009-11-30T13:05:00.003-06:002009-11-30T13:09:26.440-06:00

[A guest post-inquiry from Neil B. Miller, Ph.D., Independent Scholar]I am in the middle of reading the English language translation of Jürgen Habermas' early work, Legitimation Crisis, for theoretical insights applicable to my current research into the transformations of New England print culture and the public sphere associated with the first Unitarian Controversy, an early 19th-century

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-52445610123382450992009-11-29T19:52:00.003-06:002009-11-29T19:54:06.654-06:00

To the extent that a field is defined by job postings, I find this advertisement fascinating:US History/Cultural History. The Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point seeks applications for a tenure track, assistant professorship in the field of US History with a specialization in US Cultural History. The ability to teach courses in one or more of the following Cultural

Lauren Kientzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09152734721428325496kientzla@msu.edu0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-78543783565525862202009-11-25T07:00:00.002-06:002009-11-25T07:00:02.777-06:00

1. Christopher Hitchens dissects the anti-intellectualism that surrounds Sarah Palin---I'm no general fan of Hitchens but he points to a number of inexplicable intellectual contradictions surrounding last year's flavor of a few months.2. The Fears And Hopes of 1958's Intellectuals---Courtesy of the University of Chicago's Law School, the concerns and thoughts of some of 1958's more eminent

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-9848779632082876922009-11-24T13:25:00.001-06:002009-11-24T13:27:42.141-06:00

I am a bit late—coming near two weeks after the conference, but I wanted to offer a brief report on some of the panels I saw. Time precludes attention to all the fine papers I heard, for I attended four panels and the two plenary discussions. So let me focus on one panel, “The Psychology of Twentieth-Century America,” a late Friday entry with a sparse audience (it deserved more) with a few

Paul Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05175489560341478563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-65251960149254410062009-11-23T21:24:00.004-06:002009-11-23T21:53:50.585-06:00

One of my favorite sessions from the second USIH conference was one put together by our own Mike O'Connor. The panel was cleverly titled, "To Market, To Market: American Thinkers Confront Twentieth-Century Capitalism," and was chaired by Jennifer Burns of recent Daily Show fame. Burns is the author of a new biography of Ayn Rand.All of the papers were excellent. O'Connor convincingly argued that

Andrew Hartmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522689516113106871ahartma@ilstu.edu6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-43277234337082696772009-11-23T09:59:00.003-06:002009-11-23T10:08:20.604-06:00

I just found out yesterday that while I was in New York, the University of Michigan hosted a one day conference entitled "Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women." The presenters are also working on a book together. Some of the broader issues my friend told me they discussed were how to access black women's intellectual life given a history of dissembling and few records, as well as

Lauren Kientzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09152734721428325496kientzla@msu.edu2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-27170058996305821692009-11-23T05:42:00.002-06:002009-11-23T05:57:48.592-06:00

I would like to announce the publication of my essay, "Christopher Lasch: Critic of Liberalism, Historian of Its Discontents," in the journal Rethinking History -- in a special dedicated to the topic of "Politics and History." The reason for announcing this here is that this essay is literally the product of the U.S. Intellectual History blog and conference. When the Call for Papers was first

Andrew Hartmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522689516113106871ahartma@ilstu.edu1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-73835546491286973412009-11-22T18:06:00.001-06:002009-11-22T18:09:42.288-06:00

(Perhaps that’s an inauspicious beginning, making an RS allusion like that…) Thanks to my colleague Andrew Hartman for inviting me to join this blog. I’ve been a “lurker” for quite a while now, checking in now and then, and I’ve always found the conversations enlightening. I am an assistant professor of history at Illinois State University. I teach courses in American Cultural and

Amy Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01517892882828120914noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-82290387568090386202009-11-17T16:10:00.003-06:002009-11-17T16:18:03.848-06:00

This sentence construction engine expresses a thought for you in the much-malinged prose of theory-inflected humanities academic jargon. I thought with finals coming up soon it might be good for a minute or two of procrastination for those who do not feel like grading. My sentence:"The reification of pop culture functions as the conceptual frame for the engendering of the nation-state."If you

Mike O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03067605151989736824hismoc@langate.gsu.edu2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-45063489389033608332009-11-16T16:04:00.002-06:002009-11-16T16:08:45.456-06:00

One of the many memorable moments of our second conference was the first: James Livingston’s plenary address, “Seeing, Hearing, and Writing the End of Modernity: From Reading Pragmatism to Watching Movies.” I found intriguing the way he used Warren Susman’s theory about “reversing the vector of intellectual history” to frame the discussion. Livingston explicitly referenced Susman’s framework in

Andrew Hartmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522689516113106871ahartma@ilstu.edu7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-60769389257117802792009-11-16T11:25:00.001-06:002009-11-16T11:29:59.694-06:00

As you probably surmised from Lauren's post below, the 2009 conference is over. It was a whirlwind two days. As such, I'm a bit tired. But despite my partiality, and the fact that I'm still processing everything, I will go ahead and fancy the conference a success. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say. If the networking and connections made by attendees results in the advancement of

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-37134642446153359412009-11-14T15:48:00.004-06:002009-11-14T17:49:07.848-06:00

At the last session of the second annual USIH conference in New York City, we had the privilege of listening to the wisdom of a host of intellectual historians who have influenced the field in significant ways. They discussed the future of the field. I'm sure many of you have thoughts about this session, but I'd like to briefly clarify a question I asked and see if any of you would like to

Lauren Kientzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09152734721428325496kientzla@msu.edu2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-33810449180781612122009-11-11T08:37:00.001-06:002009-11-11T08:43:27.838-06:00

Review of Jennifer Burns's Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford University Press, 2009). ISBN: 978-0-19-532487-7 (hardcover). 384 pp., 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4.Review by Mike O'ConnorGeorgia State UniversityAs a young, naïve and impressionable college freshman, I fancied myself as sallying forth into the wide world of intellectual discourse, and drank shallowly from a large

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-13990695595683525062009-11-03T13:54:00.003-06:002009-11-03T14:05:55.459-06:00

Call for Papers A Symposium for Honoring —and making use of—William James: In the Footsteps of William James The William James Society is planning a long-weekend symposium, August 13-16, 2010 (please note the changed date from earlier announcements), to honor the life of James on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his death. In the spirit of James, the symposium, “In the Footsteps

Mike O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03067605151989736824hismoc@langate.gsu.edu0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-10066215019135143532009-11-02T07:00:00.005-06:002009-11-02T09:43:11.957-06:00

1.a. The History of the Idea of Political Correctness: With a hat tip to John Quiggin at Crooked Timber, this old NYT story and the Wikipedia entry for political correctness got me thinking about how a history of the idea in the United States would look. It would seem that no history of the Culture Wars could be written without some accounting of the roots of p.c. But would it begin with the

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-74608903768838711002009-10-26T07:00:00.029-05:002009-10-27T09:23:49.017-05:00

1. White on Lears: Richard White recently reviewed Jackson Lears's Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America,1877-1920 for The Nation's upcoming Nov. 2, 2009 issue. It's a long review and I'm still absorbing both it and the message of Professor Lears's book. But I nevertheless recommend it because of Lears's motion to reset the paradigm from Robert Wiebe's search-for-order view of the

Tim Lacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04098955217921572372timothy.n.lacy@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-58085142214256340212009-10-21T08:22:00.004-05:002009-10-21T08:43:05.571-05:00

There's an interesting conversation afoot in two threads over on Crooked Timber about highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow (first post here, second here), which keeps leaping back and forth between intellectual history (the conversation begins with the 1949 Life magazine chart of highbrow, upper middlebrow, lower middlebrow, and lowbrow taste) and contemporary cultural analysis. In short, our kind

Ben Alpershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11633460882064569533noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38727046.post-40859053907800627162009-10-20T19:10:00.003-05:002009-10-20T20:19:27.315-05:00

I'm a Podcast junky. They are a great way to get through my commute, house cleaning, and exercise. Also, a good way to try to sate the insatiable curiosity about everything that had to be narrowed down to a subject that would fit a dissertation. Whenever I get excited about something I've listened to, I remember a comment I read when studying interdisciplinarity--that scholars tend to decry the

Lauren Kientzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09152734721428325496kientzla@msu.edu4