Unpacking the allegations against prominent Princeton historian Kevin Kruse — Many things can be true at once. In this essay, I hope to distinguish what is arguably true — what can be reasonably asserted using the evidence at hand — from what is either insufficiently-supported speculation, flawed interpretation, or intentional misrepresentation. It would be both lovely and rare for polemicists…

When politics becomes dangerous, writers must be both careful and brave — If the Restoration dramatists were on Twitter today, their subtweet game would turn the entire platform into a smoking ruin. Compared to these literary rivals and sometime political foes, we are all rank amateurs. …

On Johnson, Boswell, and Macleod’s Books of Vancouver — Samuel Johnson is one of those writers I read about but never read in college. He was the gleaming pole star in a constellation of eighteenth-century London “wits” who collectively created the persona of the literary man (as opposed to the scholar). …

Getting my library sorted and organized is going to help my writing — I moved across state lines less than a year ago, and I am only just now getting my library organized to suit me. I’m still in the middle of the process, and there’s a great deal of work ahead, but the hard physical labor is done. …

The newspaper of record has beclowned itself with yet another execrable editorial about “cancel culture,” but if we point this out, then we are obviously part of the problem — It is time to state the obvious: free speech is not a threat to free speech. Speech about the rights guaranteed us under the First Amendment is not a threat to the rights guaranteed us under the First Amendment. Similarly, what people say about college professors, or the classroom, or…

More words of my badly written sh*tty first draft that you probably shouldn’t even be reading — Not sure what is misfiring in my writerly brain, but my current drastic re-set / fix involves just publishing my random thougths in no particular order without revision. This is the stage of writing I call “puke on a page,” and no one ever sees this stage of the process…

Part 1 of ? — Dear reader, forgive me, but I am desperate, and you are my help. Let me explain: I am to give a talk in just a few days on the topic of the current state of free speech in higher education…or the need for free speech in higher education…or threats to…

A Cold Warrior’s survival skills for the 21st century — My grandmother was an impassioned person with strong political views (surprise!). She subscribed to news magazines, she religiously watched the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, she clipped articles from newsletters and newspapers about current events or current political debates and pushed them like drugs on family members, trying to make one brother…

Easy, quick, cheap, and delicious, like…Well, anyhow, it’s really good — I made this soup tonight for three reasons: 1) Today was a wild windy day in northern California, with a crisp blue sky and a stiff north breeze. Not wintry cold, but still too cold. (Hello, March!) It made me hanker for something homey and warm. 2) I have a…