Interview Paul Reitter and Paul North on Karl Marx’s Capital October 08, 2024 Paul Reitter and Paul North discuss the creation, reception, and future of "Capital." Read More
Essay Up from feudalism: the Black American liberal tradition October 03, 2024 What did it mean to be an enlightened “liberal” in the United States before the twentieth century? What’s race got to do with it? Read More
Essay Ungoverning: an unfamiliar name for an unfamiliar danger September 30, 2024 The idea that those entrusted with responsibility for governing a democracy would intentionally make the state less capable—degrading its ability to collect taxes, to deliver mail, to conduct diplomacy, to prosecute violations of civil rights—is almost unthinkable. We call this “ungoverning.” Read More
Essay Narrative images, sacred places September 30, 2024 Close inspection of a "kalamkari" shows the work is exemplary of early modern temple paintings, which in form and subject mirror the concentric enclosing walls of the Hindu temple. Read More
Essay Numbing memories September 23, 2024 For over a quarter century, many millions in the US have captured moments of their daily lives and shared them online, from the mildly amusing and banal to the shocking and painful. Read More
Essay The right way to drink yerba mate September 18, 2024 The first time someone from North America tries yerba mate in the traditional style, with a gourd or cattle horn stuffed with smokey green leaves and the metal drinking straw, we often break one of the unwritten rules of the South American drink. Read More
Podcast Karl Marx’s Capital September 18, 2024 This magnificent new edition of Capital is a translation of Marx for the twenty-first century. It is the first translation into English to be based on the last German edition revised by Marx himself, the only version that can be called authoritative, and it features extensive commentary and annotations by Paul North and Paul Reitter that draw on the latest scholarship and provide invaluable perspective on the book and its complicated legacy. Read More
Reading List Smart books for humans on artificial intelligence September 17, 2024 AI’s involvement in everyday life is ever-evolving, with significant implications for how we work, live, and traverse fields from education to healthcare. As this powerful technology is incorporated into more services and products that we rely upon, here are some books that can help us to embrace human agency and navigate this new digital age. Read More
Video Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor on AI Snake Oil September 17, 2024 Confused about AI and worried about what it means for your future and the future of the world? You’re not alone. In these videos, Arvind and Sayash address common questions about AI. Read More
Essay Readers, receipts, and the history of empire September 16, 2024 As long as there have been documents, there have been functional archives. In the nineteenth century, a period of immense imperial expansion, the formation of the functional archive was tightly tied to the ideological project of empire building. Read More
Essay Charm is everywhere and it defines our contemporary politics September 12, 2024 Personality rules our politics. We pay way more attention to individual politicians, than to policies, institutions, or abstract values. Read More
Podcast Class Dismissed September 12, 2024 Elite colleges are boasting unprecedented numbers with respect to diversity, with some schools admitting their first majority-minority classes. Read More
Essay Augustine and slavery September 04, 2024 Augustine is America’s public theologian again. Digging deeper into Augustine’s thought reveals why Augustinian Christian Nationalism is unviable. Read More
Essay Charting change in a life’s journey through skills September 03, 2024 When my wonderful colleagues asked me to take on leadership of our budding Skills for Scholars series alongside the eminent former PUP director and editor-at-large, Peter Dougherty, I wanted to figure out how to find my philosophical mind within the universe of practical guides. It isn’t just that I was leaving my philosophical fun house, it was a venture out into an unfamiliar and unchartered territory. Read More
Jews, Europe, and the origins of antisemitism: A new approach August 23, 2024 The Jews—real and imagined—so challenged the Christian majority that it became a society that was religiously and culturally antisemitic in new ways between 800 and 1500. Their new self-understanding remained part of different groups’ cultural identity down to the time of the Holocaust and beyond to the present day. Read More
