Dlittle30

LATEST ARTICLES ( 866 )

• Why Are English Majors Disappearing?

  

  Many universities have witnessed a decline in students pursuing majors in the humanities, including English literature. Why has this happened? Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2024 SOCIETY

• "Rigorous" Sociology

  

  There is sometimes an inclination within the social sciences to unify and "improve" the methodologies of the social sciences to allow them to be "fully... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2024 SOCIETY

• Assessing Causes in the Past (Kreuzer)

  Quantitative social scientists have something of a catechism when it comes to providing evidence for causal assertions. If we want to assert that A is a... Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2024 SOCIETY

• Popper and Parfit: the Minds of Philosophers

  

  Derek Parfit hit the philosophy firmament in the early 1960s, while Karl Popper arrived on the Vienna scene three decades earlier. Read more

  Posted on 06 April 2024 SOCIETY

• Limitations of Hobsbawm's Historical Writing

  

  A defining component of Eric Hobsbawm’s historical writings is the quartet of “Age” books: Age of Revolution, Age of Capital, Age of Empire, and Age of Extremes. Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2024 SOCIETY

• EP Thompson's Break with Stalinism

  

  E. P. Thompson was one of the great social historians of the twentieth century (link, link). He was also a committed socialist from youth to the end of his life. Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2024 SOCIETY

• Defining Disciplinary Research in the Social Sciences

  

  The "historical turn" in the philosophy of science in the 1960s and 1970s gave most of its attention to the development of the physical sciences -- especially... Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2024 SOCIETY

• Mistakes by Organizations

  

  In 1964 Jim Marshall, a defensive player for the Minnesota Vikings, committed a mistake by recovering a fumble by the San Francisco 49ers and running it into th... Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2023 SOCIETY

• Brecht on Galileo on Science

  

  Bertolt Brecht composed his play Life of Galileo (1939) (link) while on the run in Denmark from Nazi Germany in 1938. Brecht was a determined anti-Nazi, and he... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2023 SOCIETY

• Thinking About Social Class

  

  Marx's theory of social class is founded on the idea of conflict of interest defined by the property system. Marx puts the point this way in the Communist... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2023 SOCIETY

• Orwell on Historical Truth

  

  George Orwell is celebrated for his recognition of the role of political lies in the conflicts of his time. For example: "Political language – and with... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2023 SOCIETY

• An Absolutist Socrates

  

  We often think of Socrates as the ultimate "critical free thinker". He antagonized many in Athens through his relentless questioning of shared assumptions... Read more

  Posted on 13 September 2023 SOCIETY

• A Horrendous Massacre in Tamil Nadu, 1968

  

  A recurring theme in Understanding Society for the past several years is the occurrence of unfathomable atrocity in the twentieth century. Many of the examples... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2023 SOCIETY

• Moses Finley's Persecution by McCarthyism

  

  MI Finley (1912-1986) played a transformative role in the development of studies of the ancient world in the 1960s through the 1980s. Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2023 SOCIETY

• Memory and Culture After 1989 in Central Europe

  

  The years following the collapse of the socialist-Stalinist regimes of eastern Europe were not comfortable for the people of the GDR, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2023 SOCIETY

• Are Organizations Emergent?

  

  Do organizations have properties that are in some recognizable way independent from the behaviors and intentions of the individuals who inhabit them? Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2023 SOCIETY

• Marxism and British Historiography

  

  It is noteworthy that some of the very best historical research and writing of the 1930s through 1970s in Britain was carried out by a group of Marxist... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2023 SOCIETY

• A Curious Convergence Between Social Ontology and Process Metaphysics

  

  For the past six months or so I've been wrestling with how to reformulate my own thinking about the nature of the social world -- the nature of "social... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2023 SOCIETY

• A New Course on the Terrible Twentieth Century

  

  I've spent the last several weeks designing a new honors course for juniors on the catastrophes of the twentieth century. It's not a "history" course, and it's... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2023 SOCIETY

• The Generation of the Freedom Riders

  

  The courageous Catherine Burks-Brooks passed in early July in Birmingham, Alabama, at the age of 83. The New York Times ran an extensive and moving obituary... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2023 SOCIETY