Ezra Klein, host of The Ezra Klein Show and co-founder of Vox, has written a perceptive book on polarization in American civil life that sets out a compelling backstory and frame for understanding the current state we find ourselves in. The emergence of deep rifts in American society and in other nations is certainly a […]
Wednesday, 27 May, 2020 by Norman Van Eeden Petersman
Motherhood, apple pie, and the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States of America: three indisputably good things, right? But what if I explained to you that “the term Judeo-Christian was always deeply contested and served a wide range of political and religious purposes”? (231) Would you reconsider your own use of the term and be […]
Thursday, 23 January, 2020 by Norman Van Eeden Petersman
What are the precursors to democratic decline? This is the question Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt set out to answer in this careful piece of historical scholarship and contemporary analysis. They cover approximately one hundred years in their survey of the death of democracies around the world. Their point is that democracies can be subverted […]
Monday, 01 July, 2019 by Norman Van Eeden Petersman
Humans have an innate desire to be respected and treated in a dignified manner. When we perceive that we have been slighted or ignored, our response is to become incensed or defiant. We search for ways to regain our dignity and rally together with our fellow sufferers when the forces we face are too considerable […]
Tuesday, 11 December, 2018 by Norman Van Eeden Petersman