Read the one assigned to you and respond to these prompts:
1. What is the author’s thesis?
2. Substantial list of data supporting the thesis.
3. 3 most interesting lessons learned.
4. What does this source suggest about the state of democracy in Mexico (a paragraph)?
5. 1 question for the author.
Mexico’s erratic and authoritarian president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is scheming to end the country’s quarter-century commitment to multiparty liberal democracy. He is subverting the institutions that have upheld Mexico’s democratic achievement—above all, the country’s admired and independent elections system.
Feeling unmoored in our Age of Anxiety, I have been thinking about the importance of rituals (of which I have none). My plan for 2023—dare I confess, my resolution—is to develop something of a Sabbath ritual.
On Fridays, I teach a couple morning classes and then, unless I get dragooned into some godforsaken meeting, I have a four-hour break before my afternoon class. During one of these free periods, I will duck into the quiet study room in library and reflect on my week.
I hope to explore my week in teaching and learning, podcasting and parenting, creating and consuming.
I plan to marry this reflective writing process with some kind of Friday ritual upon my return home. Not being one for candles nor prayers, I haven’t figured that part out yet. But I reckon I can explore my quest for a meaningful week-end ritual in this newsletter as well.
This could be a foot-long nothing sandwich. But, hey. New year, new ambition.
This year I want to slow it down and reflect. Join me, will ya?
One more thing. Substackers seem to agree that newsletter readers want photos. My gut instinct was—and still is—readers want photos? Oy. Ok.
Here is my new fave family photo. It’s from our trip to Catalunya in November ‘22.
Increasing centralization of power in China and reduced in-person exchanges with the West have driven the perception that only one person’s views in China matters: Xi Jinping’s. In addition to not having much power, most assume that Chinese citizens’ views are largely shaped by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda machine. Most in Washington believe that to the extent that Chinese citizens have independent views, they would not dare to share them because of the dangers of doing so.
Here are my lecture notes for my talk, which explores Russian political culture, political participation, and civil society.
Here’s the podcast version of this talk.
This lecture explores how and why Yeltsin and the rest of the world failed to see the revolutionary situation in which Russia found itself in the 1990’s and how Putin capitalized on that chaos.
Here is a recording of my lecture
Here is an outline of my thoughts on systems thinking based rather loosely (too loosely?) on the work of David Easton and Gabriel Almond.
Here is an audio version of my lecture from the CoGoPod.
The past three weeks of Nigeria’s EndSARS protests have me listening again to late Nigerian Afrobeat star and political activist Fela Kuti’s “Sorrow Tears & Blood.”
Nigeria has been a proudly democratic country for 21 years, but its law enforcement and military retain many of the worst habits of a previous era. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is an elite, corrupt force involved in everything from citizen harassment and unlawful arrests to kidnappings and extra-judicial killings. Young Nigerians, particularly anyone with signs of wealth but no obvious links to power, are regularly targeted and “arrested,” and their only hope of release is paying an extortionate amount of cash.
The Oct. 20 shooting of unarmed, peaceful protestors in Lagos was a turning point, and a lot rests on where things go from here. As with the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, for these young Nigerians the protests have become about more than police brutality. They are about fixing a country’s weak governance and lack of accountability. They are about restoring hope.
If you prefer, you can listen to the podcast version here
If ever a politician got a bum rap it’s Neville Chamberlain. He has gone down in history as the British prime minster whose policy of appeasement in the 1930s allowed the Nazis to flourish unopposed. He has never been forgiven for ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler in the Munich Agreement of September 1938, and for returning home triumphantly declaring “peace for our time”. The very word “appeasement” is now synonymous with him, signifying a craven refusal to stand up to bullies and aggressors. What a contrast to Winston Churchill, the man who took over as prime minister and who has ever since been credited with restoring Britain’s backbone.
But is the standard verdict on Chamberlain a fair one? After all, memories of the slaughter of the First World War were still fresh in the minds of the British, who were desperate to avoid another conflagration. And anyway what choice did Chamberlain have in 1938? There’s a good case for arguing that the delay in hostilities engineered at Munich allowed time for military and air power to be strengthened.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
Come to class with detailed notes—typed or written— from this debate. Your notes should detail:
Lecture Outline:
•MAIN Causes of WWI Redux
•Limits of International Cooperation
•American Insularity
•Two Decades of Disorder
•Lies and Propaganda
•Hitler, His Henchmen, Nazis, und das deutsche Volk
2. Watch this eighteen-minute video about the casualties of WWII
3. Examine WWII casualty data as presented on Wikipedia.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Bearing in mind the sources above as well as previous knowledge, evaluate the complicated legacies of WWII.
Lecture Outline:
-The Numbers
-The Better Angels of Our Nature
-“Natural” Disasters, Manmade Disasters & Exodus
-The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover
-The 1932 Election
We hope you enjoy this collaboration between IDEAS, NHS, and Haywire to demonstrate solidarity with the BLM movement. Please support our student effort to stand with BLM by purchasing our Black Lives Matter Art Journal. In the journal you will find contributions from teachers, alumni, and students. You will also find out how to donate (hint hint).
Overwhelmed by the murder of George Floyd and the violent reactions that ensued, IDEAS presents 10 resources to offer context and to help us grapple with the situation as we see it.
This talk begins with a nuanced definition of democracy and goes on walk you through the main arguments of Levistsky and Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die.
Alternatively, you can watch Ziblatt give his talk at the American Academy in the Fall of 2019. Perhaps better to tune into the expert in lieu of this impostor 🙂
With campaigning well under way for general elections on 16 February, these are the men – and they invariably are men – who pull the strings behind the scenes.
They are political sponsors, who use money and influence to win support for their preferred candidates.
Their “godsons”, it is believed, are not always selected for their political acumen, but rather on their ability to repay and enrich their godfather.
This is a cartoon from 1933, starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was originally created by Walt Disney. By the time this cartoon was made, he belonged to Walter Lantz, who went on to create Woody Woodpecker. Confidence shows the effects of the Depression and what people need to get past it.
In the 1860s and 70s, photographer Timothy O’Sullivan created some of the best-known images in American History. After covering the U.S. Civil War, O’Sullivan joined a number of expeditions organized by the federal government to help document the new frontiers in the American West. The teams were composed of soldiers, scientists, artists, and photographers, and tasked with discovering the best ways to take advantage of the region’s untapped natural resources. O’Sullivan brought an amazing eye and work ethic, composing photographs that evoked the vastness of the West. He also documented the Native American population as well as the pioneers who were already altering the landscape. Above all, O’Sullivan captured—for the first time on film—the natural beauty of the American West in a way that would later influence Ansel Adams and thousands more photographers to come.
