Category Archives: Academia

“I was always slightly less Foucauldian than I sounded”: A profile of Stephen Greenblatt

Posted on 2 October 2011 by

[The Boston Globe] In Sunday’s Boston Globe, in the Ideas section, I’ve got a profile of Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt. In his new book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, Greenblatt writes about the fifteenth century’s rediscovery of Lucretius and … Continue reading →

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Notes on the Johnstown Flood National Memorial (and on David McCullough)

Posted on 29 August 2011 by

[The New Republic] The New Republic‘s just put out a special 9/11 issue, and I’ve got a feature in it on the long struggle to build the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I don’t have a lot more to … Continue reading →

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A review of A Black History of the White House

Posted on 15 January 2011 by

[San Francisco Chronicle] In tomorrow’s San Francisco Chronicle, I’ve got a review of Clarence Lusane’s new book A Black History of the White House. Lusane’s is a subject worth tackling, though he doesn’t always live up to his material. Slavery crops … Continue reading →

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More Mark Twain

Posted on 19 December 2010 by

[On the Media] Well, now Mark Twain’s Autobiography has really arrived. On this week’s Saturday Night Live, Bill Hader trotted out his terrific Julian Assange impression. “If I am falsely imprisioned for one more day,” Hader-slash-Assange says, “anyone purchasing Mark … Continue reading →

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A Profile of Jill Lepore

Posted on 30 October 2010 by

[Boston Globe] In this week’s “Ideas” section of the Boston Globe, I’ve a profile of Jill Lepore and her new book The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History. Lepore was a great interview. (A … Continue reading →

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