Dlittle30

LATEST ARTICLES ( 893 )

• Democratic Socialism in the 1930s

  

  Is it still possible to think big in western democracies about social and economic change in a way that substantially improves the lives and freedoms of most... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2022 SOCIETY

• River Warfare in the US Civil War

  

  The mental images that most Americans have of the American Civil War involve the scenes of major land battles -- Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg. Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2022 SOCIETY

• Confronting Evil in History

  

  My short book Confronting Evil in History has just been published in Cambridge Elements in the Elements in Historical Theory and Practice series edited by Danie... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2022 SOCIETY

• Malcolm Muggeridge on the Holodomor

  

  Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990) was a much-read English left journalist, critic, and international observer and a close friend of George Orwell in the 1930s. Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2022 SOCIETY

• Better-functioning Organizations

  

  A recurring topic here is the potential for large and costly failures created by the dysfunctions of complex organizations (link). Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2022 SOCIETY

• Sliding Towards "semi-fascism"

  

  President Biden's September 1 speech on the political threats posed to our democracy by the language and actions of far-right GOP leaders and elected officials... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2022 SOCIETY

• Social Cognitive Frameworks and Social Class

  

  It is evident that all of us "filter" the social worlds that we inhabit according to a set of expectations, assumptions, stereotypes, and values. Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2022 SOCIETY

• Philosophers and Marx in the 1950s

  

  In the 1960s, as an undergraduate and eventually a graduate student in philosophy, I had the strong impression that Anglophone philosophy did not pay much... Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2022 SOCIETY

• Organizational Factors and Nuclear Power Plant Safety

  

  image: Peach Bottom Nuclear PlantThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has responsibility for ensuring the safe operations of the nuclear power reactors in the... Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2022 SOCIETY

• A Trump-era Atrocity

  

  The family separation debacle during the Trump presidency seemed horrible at the time. Thanks to a superb piece of investigative journalism in the Atlantic, we... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2022 SOCIETY

• Resisting Authoritarian Populism

  

  The rise of an organized effort to create an authoritarian right-wing government in the United States is palpable. Unhinged Republican elected officials call fo... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2022 SOCIETY

• Can We Avoid Catastrophe?

  

  The three greatest threats we face today seem almost insurmountable. They include global climate change, whose consequences are potentially catastrophic for... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2022 SOCIETY

• The Growing Risk of Authoritarian Rule in the US

  

  Thomas Edsell's piece in the August 3, 2022 New York Times offers a truly chilling view of the plans currently underway by Donald Trump and his supporters for... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2022 SOCIETY

• Is There a Working Class in the US?

  

  There is certainly a working class in the United States, and it is a majority of the population (persons who earn their livelihood through wage-paying... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2022 SOCIETY

• Gross Economic Inequalities in the US

  

  An earlier post (link) highlighted the growing severity of inequalities of wealth and income in the United States, as well as Elizabeth Warren's very sensible... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2022 SOCIETY

• English Socialism

  

  What were the social conditions that led many English intellectuals in the 1930s to engage in fundamental critique of the society in which they lived? Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2022 SOCIETY

• HB Acton's Version of Marxism

  H. B. Acton gained celebrity with the publication of Illusion of the Epoch in 1955, supposedly as a serious philosopher's even-handed exposition of the... Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2022 SOCIETY

• Sidney Hook's Theory of Education in a Democracy

  

  Philosopher Sidney Hook is best remembered for his debates with other philosophers and engaged political figures about Marxism and Communism (link). Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2022 SOCIETY

• A 1934 Debate About Communism Among American Philosophers

  

  The appeal of Marxist socialism -- communism -- as an alternative to the consumerism, inequality, and exploitation of European and American capitalism was a... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2022 SOCIETY

• Paradigms, Conceptual Frameworks, and Denkkollektive

  

  Image: Ludwik Fleck as prisoner / scientist in BuchenwaldAn earlier post opened a discussion of the "historical turn" in the philosophy of science in the early... Read more

  Posted on 28 June 2022 SOCIETY