How Do We Resolve Our Differences?
Social movements versus statecraft, politicians versus facts, gun sense versus culture wars, women versus witch hunts, and more
December 9, 2021
Big Ideas
Historians Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston chatted with Public Seminar’s Greg Coleman about finding a new framework to represent the complex reality of political organizing in their book Rethinking American Grand Strategy (Oxford University Press, 2021). “A theory of grand strategy can’t be based largely on military strategy or statecraft. A theory that doesn’t take account of gender, race, the environment, public health, a wide range of cultural, social, political, economic issues that are really salient and urgently pressing, can’t be that useful.” (December 8, 2021)
“In modern Western democratic societies, social-change strategists tend to favor non-violent methods, but debates rage nonetheless: How ambitious or limited should a movement’s ends be?” In an excerpt from Rethinking American Grand Strategy, contributor Beverly Gage examines how statecraft and social movements influence one other. (December 8, 2021)
Fabricating the Past
“While historians tend to excel at fact-checking, is it really the best—or only—defense that they can wield against state-sponsored narratives founded on deliberate lies?” As a case study, Edin Hajdarpasic reviews the history of Republika Srpska, the recent political creation at the heart of the current crisis in Bosnia. (December 7, 2021)
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Witch Hunts
“Father Benedict’s family members urged him to take action against the youth accused of having worked the sorcery, despite a hospital certificate stating that cancer was the cause. Consumed by grief, Father Benedict hesitated, struggling with real doubts as to what, or who, was to blame for his father’s death, and how to respond.” Miranda Forsyth highlights the contemporary accusations of witchcraft that too often end in violence. (December 8, 2021)
Joe Biden’s America
“We all must concede that gun violence is endemic: that means we are in mitigation mode, at least for now. So let’s mitigate.” Claire Potter suggests that the way to stop school shootings is to end the culture war over guns. (December 3, 2021)
As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, several thousand protestors gathered outside. In a photo essay, Jo Freeman observes that pro-choicers were out-numbered and out-shouted by pro-lifers. (December 6, 2021)
Want to know who’s to blame for rising gas prices? A hint from Steve Max: don’t pin inflation on a president whose program spending hasn’t even started yet. (December 6, 2021)
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