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    Wright's Writing

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    Against liberal "pluralism"
    • Jul 10, 2021
    • 15 min

    Against liberal "pluralism"

    In the time of Trumpism, Michael Paul Rogin’s great book The Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter (1967) shouldn’t be as...
    On the inhumanity of Illinois's government in the 1930s
    • Jun 26, 2021
    • 49 min

    On the inhumanity of Illinois's government in the 1930s

    In case anyone is interested in the history of the Great Depression, particularly in Chicago, here's an excerpt from a chapter of my...
    The rise of right-wing libertarianism since the 1950s
    • Apr 5, 2021
    • 30 min

    The rise of right-wing libertarianism since the 1950s

    Sometimes as I read books I like to simultaneously summarize them, to facilitate the intellectual digestion. And also to post my notes...
    A despairing rant
    • Sep 24, 2020
    • 4 min

    A despairing rant

    These are interesting times. We have the "privilege" to be living in the era when centuries of capitalist evolution are approaching their...
    From Steve Fraser's "The Age of Acquiescence"
    • Sep 8, 2020
    • 22 min

    From Steve Fraser's "The Age of Acquiescence"

    I just finished reading Steve Fraser's masterful The Age of Acquiescence (2014), which compares the popular responses to America's two...
    The remarkable perversity of idealism
    • Aug 27, 2020
    • 21 min

    The remarkable perversity of idealism

    Many years ago, when I was a simple boy who thought he ought to know a lot about Hegel, I took masses of notes on his philosophy. Below...
    Thoughts on classical fascism
    • 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....
    Laboring Against Racism: The Textile Workers Union of America in the South during the 1960s
    • 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...
    Capitalism and colonialism
    • Jun 26, 2020
    • 8 min

    Capitalism and colonialism

    As I frequently and tiresomely reiterate, academic writing tends toward sophistry, superficiality, and obscurantism. Personally, my...
    Critical thoughts on "The Alchemist"
    • Jul 13, 2018
    • 4 min

    Critical thoughts on "The Alchemist"

    [Notes from 2006.] Reading The Alchemist, the novel that has sold tens of millions of copies. “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s...
    "Social Democracy Is the Best Form of Government"
    • May 28, 2018
    • 5 min

    "Social Democracy Is the Best Form of Government"

    [As an undergraduate at Wesleyan University I wrote hundreds of essays not all of which, I think, are worthless. Here's a short one on...
    Progressivism, or "the Triumph of Conservatism"
    • Mar 31, 2018
    • 8 min

    Progressivism, or "the Triumph of Conservatism"

    Years ago I took some notes on Gabriel Kolko’s classic The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History 1900–1916...
    Notes on Marxism and empiricism
    • Mar 21, 2018
    • 12 min

    Notes on Marxism and empiricism

    (Also see these notes.) Reading Maurice Cornforth’s Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy (1965). A good book, not dogmatic or...
    Elite pretentiousness
    • Jul 9, 2016
    • 5 min

    Elite pretentiousness

    The following is the beginning of an essay I wanted to write years ago on the concept of pretentiousness, a phenomenon the ubiquity of...
    "Sunbelt capitalism"
    • Jun 15, 2016
    • 3 min

    "Sunbelt capitalism"

    [Random journal notes.] Reading Elizabeth Tandy Shermer’s Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the Transformation of American Politics (2013)....
    Far-left, i.e., rational and open-minded
    • May 23, 2016
    • 3 min

    Far-left, i.e., rational and open-minded

    [Old notes from my journal.] A lot of mainstream people would criticize me for immersing myself in leftist scholarship and journalism,...
    Fragments on bourgeois ideologists
    • Jan 12, 2016
    • 6 min

    Fragments on bourgeois ideologists

    On neoclassical economics.— Milton Friedman wrote a famous article in 1953 called “The Methodology of Positive Economics,” in which he...
    On "The Reactionary Mind"
    • Sep 25, 2015
    • 4 min

    On "The Reactionary Mind"

    Reading The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin (2011), by Corey Robin. An elegant and erudite elaboration of...

    Wright's Writing

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