Christian nationalism, Christian globalism and White Americans October 21, 2022 Christian Nationalism’s threat to a healthy democracy is a popular topic these days, and with good reason. But few of the many excellent books and articles on the topic explain its origins. Read More
Traveling to the stars October 21, 2022 Barely a week goes by without learning about a newly discovered planet circling some nearby, but still quite distant, star. It wasn’t until the 1990s that scientists had compelling evidence that such exoplanets existed, and the pace of their discovery since then has been astonishing. Read More
Trust in a distrustful world October 18, 2022 US politics faces a serious trust deficit. MAGA Republicans don’t trust RINOs, leftist Democrats don’t trust their centrist colleagues, Republicans don’t trust Democrats (and vice versa), and trust in major social institutions has been weakening for decades. Read More
Listening to the desert October 18, 2022 Deserts are among the most deeply evocative landscapes in the world. They inspire fear and awe, devotion and revulsion, fascination and longing. Read More
Jonathan Kirshner on An Unwritten Future October 16, 2022 An Unwritten Future offers a fresh reassessment of classical realism, an enduring approach to understanding crucial events in the international political arena. Read More
Listen in: The Sounds of Life October 12, 2022 The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life. Read More
Capitalism: The word and the thing October 12, 2022 Capitalism is a word used variously to describe an economic and social system, a modern form of political power, a dynamic mode of production, a stage in a world-historical process running from feudalism to communism, a western object of ideological allegiance, a durable form of inequality or, more simply, a thing. Read More
A look inside Pandemic Politics October 11, 2022 The floor of the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa was awash in red, white, and blue. Eager supporters of President Donald Trump were holding signs, wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, and sporting T-shirts with expressions ranging from “Guns, God, and Trump” to “Make Liberals Cry Again.” Read More
What is viral justice? An interview with Ruha Benjamin October 11, 2022 In spring 2020, Ruha Benjamin received a DM on Twitter from her literary agent Sarah Levitt: “I’m hungry to read anything you have.” Inspired, Benjamin began writing and spent the first few months of the pandemic conceiving what would become her new book, Viral Justice. Read More
On anniversaries, time, patience, perseverance, and publishing October 11, 2022 As Cicero wrote, “we truly can’t praise the love and pursuit of wisdom enough, since it allows a person to enjoy every stage of life free from worry.” These same words of wisdom scale readily from an individual to an organization like PUP, as we navigate every stage of the book, and every stage of our life as a publisher. Read More
What I mean by landscape orientation October 05, 2022 I entered without words: Poems has been described as “landscape oriented” in every sense. Originally a photographic term, now applied to a horizontal page, landscape orientation is, for me, a poetics. A poetics that begins by questioning the term “landscape” itself. Read More
Office hours with Ruha Benjamin October 04, 2022 For this month’s Office Hours, I’m delighted to share wisdom and inspiration from Ruha Benjamin, author of the forthcoming Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want. Read More
A look inside Syllabus October 04, 2022 What really is a syllabus? Is it a tool or a manifesto? A machine or a plan? What are its limits? Its horizon? And who is it really for? And what would happen if you took the syllabus as seriously as you take the most serious forms of writing in your own discipline? Read More
The need for material literacy October 03, 2022 In a time of screen saturation, digitized images of objects and manuscripts, and an emphasis on “knowledge workers” rather than craftspeople, we run the risk of becoming materially illiterate. Read More
Book Club Pick: Viral Justice October 03, 2022 Long before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Read More