In some sense, writing is guesswork. You put words on a page and hope people like them — generally, some do, and some don’t. Writing is also an incredibly objective thing. Sentences are well-structured and paragraphs flow; if a writer…
Two hundred years ago, on Feb. 7, 1824, President James Monroe invited Revolutionary War hero Gen. Lafayette to the United States. Earlier, Lafayette had expressed his wish to visit this country for the first time since he had left it…
It was a Capitol Hill press spokesman job for a conservative Florida Congressman that got me to Washington, D.C. in 1982, where I contracted no Potomac Fever whatever. JFK was right when he described Washington as a city of Southern…
Compilations of “the most politically influential and outspoken” athletes crop up here and there occasionally. They list activists like Billie Jean King, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos, as well as overpaid, modern, but still outdated ones like Megan Rapinoe and…
Netflix’s latest hit, American Nightmare, is everything you’ve ever wanted from true crime — mystery, intrigue, and a bizarre story that may very well destroy any remaining faith you had in America’s law enforcement. On today’s episode of The Spectacle podcast,…
The last Selection Sunday of the four-team College Football Playoff era went down pretty much according to chalk. Michigan’s inclusion everybody was certain of. Undefeated, ranked No. 1, conqueror of archrival Ohio State. Nobody for a moment doubted their bona…
Congress has extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which keeps “the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers” in place until April 2024. The renewal was bundled with the National Defense Authorization Act, approved by 147 Republicans, and will…
Few things in the cultural landscape are instantly recognizable as quintessentially American: Elvis, apple pie, and the diner. In fact, it’s not unusual to find all three housed together in a chrome-trimmed roadside package. Although these mainstay eating establishments that…
For decades, I taught a course in European economic history that stressed the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath and spent a couple of lectures talking about the Roman Empire and other ancient civilizations. The Roman Empire lasted over 500 years…
