James Sweet has started a pretty predictable Twitterstorm with his critique of “presentism,” and of “read[ing] the past through the prism of contemporary social justice issues—race, gender, sexuality, nationalism, capitalism.” But what is presentism? /1
historians.org/publications-a… Sweet’s column is unsatisfying, because it doesn’t do enough to acknowledge that, as many colleagues have pointed out (e.g. @susandamussen), historians always inescapably write from the present. It shapes the questions we ask, and what we consider interesting and salient. /2

Sorry to see @sullydish descending to this level of caricature, and worth making a few points about what is and what is not happening in universities today. 1st, despite what you might glean from this column, the Western canon is not being “canceled.” /1

https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1520113184643813376

@sullydish Scholars may be calling attention to racist things said by Hume and Kant, but that does not mean that Hume and Kant are no longer being taught. We can argue over how much their racial attitudes informed their philosophy. But that means, well, reading their philosophy. /2

1. So what if NATO hadn’t expanded? Worth doing a little counter-factual speculation. Would Russia have evolved into a peaceful democratic state? Would the conflicts in Chechnya that helped bring Putin to power not have taken place?
theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 2. If Putin had come to power anyway, would he have respected democracy and not evolved into a kleptocratic dictator, clinging onto power for more than 20 years? Would he not have raged against the West for his country’s humiliation?

Thread: It is scary, but also weirdly fascinating, how a coherent anti-democratic ideology is taking hold on the American right today. It has three distinct parts. /1 First, there is the idea that the United States is not a democracy, but a republic. This idea has a long pedigree, of course, going back to the founding, even if most subsequent American political history contradicts it. /2
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

I don't want to downplay the plight of adjuncts, or the massive problems in higher education, but is it true that "most students are educated by adjuncts"? We often hear the figure that 75% of all faculty are adjuncts, but that's not really true.... /1

https://twitter.com/dbessner/status/1390684245111107590

In 2018, about 27% of all college, community college and university instructors were tenure or tenure-track. Of the remaining 73%, more than half (40%) were part-time instructors, including a very high proportion of full-time professionals teaching their specialty... /2

A small thread on historical comparisons. I didn't get at this sharply enough in this piece, but on reflection, what bothers me about so many attempts to offer comparisons between the present period and the period that saw the rise of fascism... /1
thenation.com/article/societ… is how easily the comparisons slide into facile and simplistic moralism. The reason is not difficult to see. Drawing comparisons between entire societies, cultures, polities in different times and places is actually very, very hard. In our own time... /2

1. From a historical point of view, there is something fascinating, in a macabre way, about the TX governor lifting his state's mask mandate. There is at least an economic justification for opening businesses, but none whatsoever for not requiring masks. nytimes.com/live/2021/03/0… 2. It is an absolute privileging of personal choice over the public good. Now, half a century ago, the GOP was very much the party of responsibility, conformity, duty. Its president excoriated progressives for their experiments with drugs, sexual freedom, "alternate" lifestyles.

Some further thoughts on this. The idea that a state can successfully impose reforms on religion--in this case a 1400-year-old religion practiced around the world--is very French. /1
washingtonpost.com/outlook/macron… Under the Old Regime, the monarchy and the high courts often tried to shape a distinctly French Catholicism through the doctrine known as Gallicanism. In the 1750's, the high court of Paris even arrested priests who refused to give last rites... /2
gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv…

If you want to know what a lot of Trump voters think, you need to listen to Rush Limbaugh. This is from yesterday, and it really boggles the mind: "After World War II... the Soviet Union was allowed to exist... " /1
rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/08/… "... Patton wanted to keep going and wipe ’em out.. and the Americans stopped him... And the New World Order... was established at that point. And that was the beginning of the desire all of those people had for the eventual day where the world would be governed..." /2

Men on Horseback is now available at the online bookstore of your choice. Here are some thoughts on how it might contribute to current political discussions. Starting with, yes, “fascism.” amazon.com/Men-Horseback-… /1 We have been seeing long, heated arguments about whether fascism is on the rise again. Peter Gordon, for instance, has made an impassioned case for the relevance of analogies between the present day and the interwar period. nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/… /2

1. A quick thought on Peggy Noonan's wretched WSJ piece. In it, she calls the French Revolution "a moral and political catastrophe... For ten years they simply enjoyed killing each other... It was a revolution largely run by sociopaths."
wsj.com/articles/what-… 2. It reminds me of the classic scene in Monty Python's "Life of Brian," in which the John Cleese character asks, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" If you don't know it, you can watch it here: