The backlash against trans people, which has swept both the United States and the world in recent years, is not as new as it seems, according to historian Jules Gill-Peterson. She traces the emergence of trans misogynistic violence over the last two centuries, which she links to the establishment of colonialism, capitalism, and more recently … Continued
It’s been described at the most turbulent period of global class struggle in history — the turn of the 20th century when revolutionaries around the world found common cause against capital and empire. Christina Heatherton discusses the revolutionary internationalism swirling around the Mexican Revolution and the remarkable intersection of radicals at that time. Resources: Christina … Continued
White-collar professionals dominate the liberal left. They’re a convenient target of the right, which demonizes its opponents as privileged Prius-driving, latte-sipping coastal elites. But Catherine Liu argues that such professionals, as a class, impede genuinely radical social change. She posits that the class biases of the Professional Managerial Class often influence progressive politics away from … Continued
We live in an age of anxiety and crisis. And there is a long tradition of thought that liberal elites have drawn on during such moments to rescue civilization as they know it from collapse: what we would call Keynesianism today, but which Geoff Mann argues dates back to the French Revolution, centuries before the … Continued
Is Donald Trump a fascist? A rightwing populist? What about Marine Le Pen of the far right National Front, who received the support of a third of French voters in the last presidential election? Historian Federico Finchelstein discusses what the terms fascist and populist mean, not as abstractions, but looking at history. Resources: Federico Finchelstein, … Continued
While much of the public is still reeling over the election of Donald Trump, the power of his appeal may be less surprising than we think, given America’s long history of right-wing populism and the contradictions of liberalism. Steve Fraser traces the history of the notion of the limousine liberal, central to right-wing populism and … Continued
