On the @equatormag.bsky.social podcast, Benjamin Moser previews his forthcoming book, “Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History,” with discussion of the Democrats funding a “liberal genocide” in Gaza and the Nakba of Palestinians as an “ongoing event.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Concluding slide for a conference presentation on Trump’s philosophy of history 💯

Wonderful keynote by Aleida Assmann to open the 2026 INTH conference in Tallinn, Estonia, on Germany’s shifting temporal regimes since 1945, from forgetting and erasure of the Nazi past to the rise of memory culture and the persistence of the past as a traumatic burden—with some analogies to the US

In NLR 158: Tom Stevenson interviews Richard Overy. One of Britain’s leading historians discusses the Second World War as a terminal contest between imperial-colonial systems. newleftreview.org/issues/ii158...

The absurdity of these negotiations being shaped by Trump expecting a very large, icy birthday present www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

Great interview with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins on the state of intellectual history and the perils of excessive focus on “knowing your enemy” through analysis of Trump and the right at the expense of building left futures and progressive alternatives. www.theideasletter.org/essay/intell...

“In Germany, the reality of Israel and Gaza, and even the ongoing wars in Iran and Lebanon, is less significant than German guilt, and the subsequent pride in memory culture, which is regarded as a kind of vaccination that will prevent Germans from ever again feeling such guilt.”

In an interview for the blog, Natasha Piano reflects on her new book, Democratic Elitism, which argues that American political science came to equate "pure democracy" with competitive elections by misreading the Italian School of Elitism. @harvardpress.bsky.social

Coal-burning power plants released more mercury last year, according to an analysis by The New York Times. It reverses a downward trend of emissions of a metal that interferes with brain development.

Oh great. Luckily @dwallacewells.bsky.social always keeps his doom radar switched on: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/o...

Brb libbing out for a hot sec www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/o...

Happy birthday, Karl Marx! Marx was born on this day 208 years ago. His work helps us not only understand capitalism but fight for a world free of exploitation and domination.

Germans confront Nazi past of family members through new digital archive

New State Laws Land Blows Against Shared Governance, Tenure: Many legislatures have wrapped up their regular sessions. Inside Higher Ed provides a rundown of major legislation that passed in nine of these states. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Nancy Fraser on German Staatsräson: “At root, philosemitic McCarthyism is antisemitic in both senses—anti-Jewish and anti-Arab. Its true aim is to advance the self-esteem of the German establishment rather than the well-being of Semites.” @newleftreview.bsky.social newleftreview.org/issues/ii158...

One week to submit! The JHI Blog welcomes pitches for a forum on the conceptual history of technology. Submit a proposal by May 7. Read the call for complete information: www.jhiblog.org/2026/03/18/c...

Celebrate this coming May Day by listening to Disha Karnad Jani's interview with Edward Baring about his latest book, “Vulgar Marxism," and the relationship between Marxist theory and the practice of worker education. @uchicagopress.bsky.social

“Beckert insists that capitalism seeks to commodify ever more of the world and of human experience, a defining feature of the system that ensures that the arc of capitalist history has always bent toward the degradation of dignity and the shrinking of freedom.” www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/why-...

“Beckert insists that capitalism seeks to commodify ever more of the world and of human experience, a defining feature of the system that ensures that the arc of capitalist history has always bent toward the degradation of dignity and the shrinking of freedom.” www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/why-...

$10 says the consulting fees paid to McKinsey are higher than the cost of the academic programs being slashed www.post-gazette.com/news/educati...

Glad to have seen Peter Gordon launch his elegant short intellectual biography of Walter Benjamin today in NYC. Its literary style charms on every page, and it answers some central enigmas of his life. Some "pearls" from the book subtweeted below. @yalepress.bsky.social @jewishlives.bsky.social

Germany has had its thumb on Israel’s side of the scale since reparations began in 1952 (then as now largely weapons used for war crimes). The land of genocidal Staatsräson could never be a fair mediator for the conflict. Fanciful and dangerously unrealistic proposal. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/b...

Israeli genocide scholar Omer Bartov will have his book on Zionism and genocide translated into 9-10 languages, but not Hebrew. He even offered to translate it himself, but not a single Israeli publisher would go near it. Not even the ‘leftwing’ ones. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

“The Frankfurt School worried about the ways in which mass culture could shape consciousness… But in the “upside down” conspiracy version of their work, these concerns are transmuted into evidence of their own success.” open.substack.com/pub/thebattl...

This Friday! Don’t forget to RSVP @natashalennard.bsky.social @joncatlin.bsky.social

Hungary's recent election heralded the end for Europe’s swamp king and EU antagonist, Viktor Orbán.

Starting a mid-decade redistricting war only to end up with -1 seats is the same fine strategic genius and subtle grasp of game theory that brough us the Strait of Hormuz.

Quite the choice of words!

“Hampshire’s announcement comes after the Huron Consulting Group recently projected that nearly 450 of the nation’s 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year campuses could shutter or merge within the next decade.” www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/ap...

"What happened in Gaza is not the Holocaust. What happened in Gaza is a particular genocide that happened in Gaza. Very different from the Holocaust, but conforming to the definition of genocide by the UN, which... is the only one that matters." - Omer Bartov www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Was just rocked to my soul by the oratory of UBuffalo Professor Henry-Louis Taylor in a keynote on reclaiming urban planning from racial capitalist wealth accumulation and gentrification, and then he mentioned his daughter….. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Now I get it!

Awesome to have Rochester Mayor Malik Evans open our symposium on Climate Havens today at the @urochester.bsky.social Humanities Center!

Next week I'm glad to be responding to Seyla Benhabib's recent book on critical theory and law at NYU's Remarque Institute. RSVP required: as.nyu.edu/research-cen...

On the JHI Blog, Lilia Endter interviewed Peter Gordon about his new book, Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver, discussing Benjamin's idiosyncratic methodology, the role of identity categories in writing a biography, and Benjamin's "aberrant" use of Marxist concepts. @yalepress.bsky.social

I am broken-hearted at the terrible news that my alma mater, @hampshirecollege.bsky.social, after 56 yrs, is closing. Its death is a victory for conformism, for corporatism, for higher education's dull love of hierarchy & status. It's a grievous defeat for imagination & experimentation.

“There is nothing innocuous left… Even the blossoming tree lies the moment its bloom is seen without the shadow of terror; even the innocent 'How lovely!' becomes an excuse for an existence outrageously unlovely.” - Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia

Habermas understood that the possibility for German–Jewish dialogue after the Holocaust depends on commitment to universal law. But when the past demands silence about the present, that possibility is denied, writes Omri Boehm www.eurozine.com/dialogue-and...

Elad Lapidot: "Our problem is that Judaism today has for some groups become an ideology of genocide. We need to face that now; any moral understanding of Judaism needs an immediate response to that. Are you working to stop the genocide? And what are you doing to stop it?"

Elad Lapidot: "What is being paraded around today as anti-antisemitism is basically the new antisemitism....What is being created with this bogus fight against antisemitism is a new wave of antisemitism." jewishcurrents.org/when-jewishn...

The inimitable @deborahfeldman.bsky.social on Germany today: “Of course we’re headed for disaster. What I can tell you for certain is that we’ll have a chancellor from the far-right party relatively soon, and that we’ll have fascism again.” @blnreview.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Excited for this event next week on climate havens—zones of refuge for climate migrants as vulnerable places become unlivable—including the Great Lakes region and Western NY. A collaboration between @urochester.bsky.social Humanities Center and RIT. Details here: events.rochester.edu/event/humani...

Interesting speculation from Stuart Jeffries prompted by Peter Gordon's new biography of Walter Benjamin. Contra Adorno, perhaps Benjamin might have found some "pearls" in American culture worth redeeming. @jewishlives.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/8484...

In an interview with Aaron Berman for the blog, David McNally discusses his most recent book, Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History. Their interview centers on the subjectivity and political theories of what McNally terms the "chattel proletariat." @redprof.bsky.social @ucpress.bsky.social

"Hormuz has made the end of American hegemony imaginable. It has also shown that, perhaps for the first time, the Global South possesses the political will and ideas needed to build a new international order." www.equator.org/articles/the...

Oof! www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/hab...

Kind of thing that should be read aloud in front of a tribunal.

One intellectual titan remembers another. There is perhaps no one better placed to write on the passing of philosopher Jürgen Habermas than the preeminent intellectual historian Martin Jay. What an honor to feature Jay's piece on Habermas's passing in Open Society's Ideas Letter.

Not generally the biggest fan of Stanley's "fascism"-mongering, but here his evocation of Soviet totalitarianism to characterize the artificiality of contemporary obedience and consent with regard to Israel seems apt: substack.com/home/post/p-...

The conclusion of Omer Bartov’s forthcoming book, Israel: What Went Wrong?: “One can only wish Zionism had been transcended—historicized, liberalized, and universalized—when the time was right, eight decades ago.” @fsgbooks.bsky.social

"The moment Israel invokes international law to frame everything above ground in Gaza as a potential shield, it operationalizes the law itself as a tool legitimizing genocide." Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini for @rosaluxstiftung.bsky.social www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/5...