The relativity of values
Back in my twenties I had an intellectual and creative energy I don't have anymore. I was consumed by philosophy, jumping from topic to...
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- Aug 9, 2020
- 27 min
I hate economics
I'm an imbecile at economics. Over the years, I've tried to educate myself, but it never really works. My brain does philosophy and...
- Aug 7, 2020
- 10 min
Detritus from a dead poetic imagination
Life in the 21st century as we all wait consciously or unconsciously for the apocalypse is boring and driven by distractions, an endless...
- Aug 5, 2020
- 6 min
Thoughts on classical fascism
[Student notes from ten years ago.] Reading Robert A. Brady’s classic Business as a System of Power (1943), which influenced Chomsky....
- Jul 30, 2020
- 16 min
The heartbreak of staggering self-consciousness
Today I came across a copy of Dave Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and was reminded of myself in my twenties, when I was...
- Jun 29, 2020
- 15 min
Laboring Against Racism: The Textile Workers Union of America in the South during the 1960s
[An old student paper.] The conventional understanding of labor unions and their membership in the 1960s is of a conservative and...
- Jun 28, 2020
- 7 min
Old student notes on random philosophy articles
Sometimes I like to return to philosophy in order to get the sort of intellectual stimulation that reading history doesn't provide. E.g.,...
- Jun 26, 2020
- 8 min
Capitalism and colonialism
As I frequently and tiresomely reiterate, academic writing tends toward sophistry, superficiality, and obscurantism. Personally, my...
- Jun 16, 2020
- 2 min
Primary sources on Communists and the unemployed during the Great Depression
While writing my PhD dissertation a few years ago ("Down But Not Out: The Unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression"), I...
- Jun 14, 2020
- 19 min
Critical remarks on Thomas Nagel
[From 2009.] I’m reading Thomas Nagel’s famous book The View From Nowhere (1986). Nagel seems more sensible than most contemporary...
- Jun 13, 2020
- 6 min
Gender norms in a Chilean copper mine
[This was supposed to be a short outline for a student presentation I had to give. So excuse the roughness. Here are more book reviews.]...
- Jun 12, 2020
- 4 min
Student notes on "Poor People's Movements"
[Maybe it's self-indulgent of me to keep posting old notes from my student years, but just in case anyone out there gives a shit, I guess...
- Jun 9, 2020
- 8 min
Old syllabus and lecture notes
[Here are some notes from the first syllabus I wrote for the U.S. History After 1865 survey course. Below them are overly ambitious notes...
- Jun 8, 2020
- 7 min
Appreciative and not-so-appreciative thoughts on cultural theory
[These notes, for what they're worth, are from, respectively, 2010 and 2018.] Reading Raymond Williams’ classic Marxism and Literature...
- Jun 6, 2020
- 16 min
Rambling reflections on Camille Paglia
I've been reading Camille Paglia's collection of essays Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992). I disagree with a lot of Paglia's...
- Jul 30, 2019
- 18 min
Notes on a radical interpretation of the Cold War
[Also here]. I’ve been reading Gabriel and Joyce Kolko’s classic The Limits of Power: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1945–54...
- Jul 27, 2019
- 5 min
On the fight against misogyny
As a leftist, "I wish we could all just get along." Wouldn't that be nice? Maybe it would get boring pretty quickly. But a little less...
- Jul 24, 2019
- 19 min
A little misanthropy can be a healthy thing
This is from a letter Sigmund Freud wrote to his pastor friend Oskar Pfister: I do not break my head very much about good and evil, but I...
- Jul 22, 2019
- 10 min
Marxist theories of imperialism
[Years ago I took notes on the book mentioned below, which I thought I'd post here for the heck of it. Maybe someone will find them...
- Jul 19, 2019
- 7 min
A plea for honesty in discussions of sex and gender
A recent article of mine, called "Political Correctness Is Getting Out of Hand," elicited some angry emails. Not from people who...