Contributions by:

John Ehrenberg

Tristram Hunt, Marx’s General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels

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  Engels has always deserved more consideration than he’s gotten from his English-speaking biographers. The two best treatments of his life and work have been around for quite a while but their sophistication, length and density make them a bit unsuitable for introductory readers. That’s our loss of course, but Sam Cooke was probably speaking…

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How to Kill a Vampire

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The Republican Party has dominated American politics for more than three decades. It strode into power as the muscular guardian of white privilege, moral authority, efficient markets, male power, and military strength, but it wasn’t long before its central project came into view. The past thirty years have been a testament to its success: the…

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Ebony & Ivy: Race Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder

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Review of Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013)   It has become an article of faith that American exceptionalism starts with our lack of a feudal past. Settled by sturdy farmers and righteous artisans, the story goes, we were spared the long, bloody…

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