When Frances Hill looks at the Bush administration’s response to the terrorist attacks of 2001, she sees striking parallels to the witch hysteria of 1692. In both instances simple-minded religious and nationalistic fervor predominated... Read More

There are a couple of ways a politician might convince voters that he’s their guy. He can demonstrate strong leadership, or he can pander. Unfortunately, says the author, former U.S. Senator from Illinois, most of today’s politicians... Read More

During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush accused Al Gore of being “a thinker.” His reproach of the wonkish Vice President seemed to score points with the electorate. Why? Isn’t thinking a quality Americans would... Read More

Computer keyboards could be different, as could the conventional Western toilet. The author wants to know how and why these objects and others came to be the way they are. For Molotch, holder of a joint appointment as professor of... Read More

Traditionally, literary magazines act as a proving ground, identifying and publishing emerging writers. Unfortunately, most literary magazines are marginal operations, chronically under-funded and faced with daunting problems of... Read More

On a September evening in 1931, Oxford scholars Jack Lewis and Ronald Tolkien talked late into the night. They discussed myth and metaphor and grappled with Lewis’s religious issues. Ordinarily, such a late-night confab would be of... Read More