In this episode, I discuss "The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America" with its authors, Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis.Par Randal Hendrickson

Christopher Hallenbrook and I discuss what he calls the "Hobbesian psychology" of the US gun debate.Par Randal Hendrickson

A conversation about Montaigne and his work with Douglass I. Thompson, author of "Montaigne and the Tolerance of Politics."Par Randal Hendrickson

Joshua Cherniss and I discuss his book, "Liberalism in Dark Times: The Liberal Ethos in the Twentieth Century."Par Randal Hendrickson

David Lay Williams and I discuss his forthcoming book, "The Greatest of All Plagues: Economic Inequality in Western Political Thought."Par Randal Hendrickson

A discussion with Elizabeth Cohen about her book, "The Political Value of Time: Citizenship, Duration, and Democratic Justice."Par Randal Hendrickson

Par Randal Hendrickson

Ian Saxine and I discuss his book, "Properties of Empire: Indians, Colonists, and Land Speculators on the New England Frontier."Par Randal Hendrickson

Robinson Woodward-Burns and I discuss his book, "Hidden Laws: How State Constitutions Stabilize American Politics."Par Randal Hendrickson

A conversation with Harvey Mansfield on Machiavelli as the "founder of modernity."Par Randal Hendrickson

A conversation with Nomi Claire Lazar about her book, "Out of Joint: Power, Crisis, and the Rhetoric of Time."Par Randal Hendrickson

A discussion with Ross Carroll, author of "Uncivil Mirth: Ridicule in Enlightenment Britain."Par Randal Hendrickson

A discussion with Joshua Greenberg, author of "Banknotes and Shinplasters: The Rage for Paper Money in the Early Republic."Par Randal Hendrickson

A chat with Stephen F. Knott, author of "The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal."Par Randal Hendrickson

Warner and I conclude our long discussion of "Persian Letters."Par Randal Hendrickson

Warner and I dig into Letter 141.Par Randal Hendrickson

Warner and I continue to dig in. Good stuff in this one, including a prison break using a file that was hidden in a cuckoo clock.Par Randal Hendrickson

Stuart Warner, who's responsible for an excellent translation of the "Persian Letters," and I discuss Montesquieu's style.Par Randal Hendrickson

A discussion with Ross Benes, author of "Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold."Par Randal Hendrickson

A conversation with Max Skjönsberg, author of "The Persistence of Party: Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain."Par Randal Hendrickson

A conversation with Zena Hitz, author of "Lost in Thought: the Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life."Par Randal Hendrickson

A conversation with Samuel Goldman, author of "After Nationalism: Being American in an Age of Division."Par Randal Hendrickson

A discussion with Kyle Riismandel about his book, "Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001." The book is a tight monograph of cultural history and critique, and it should have broad appeal across disciplines and outside of academia. Our conversation is wide-ranging: on the possibilities of punk rock history, "produc…

A discussion of the new book, "African American Political Thought: A Collected History." I'm joined by Melvin Rogers and Jack Turner, the editors of this magnificent volume. The conversation is wide ranging. We discuss the obstacles to the emergence of this field, the neglect of African American thinkers in American Political Thought, what it means…

This episode is about the state of nature, which turns out to be a lot of things, as will any concept that’s about 6,000 years old. But following my guest, Mark Somos, we've narrowed it down to about fifteen years in 18th century America. We discuss Somos's "American States of Nature: The Origins of Independence, 1761-1775."…

Dimitris Vardoulakis and I discuss his book, Spinoza, the Epicurean: Authority and Utility in Materialism.Par Randal Hendrickson

Last time, we discussed Rousseau’s "Confessions," an autobiographical work that’s meant to encourage some thinking around various questions common to life and living. This time, we turn to another thinker who made his own life central in various ways, James Baldwin. As we’ll see, Baldwin personalized his thinking–not just by being autobiographical …

In December of 1770, Jean-Jacques Rousseau completed his Confessions and gave his first reading of the book to a group of seven or so gathered at a Parisian home for the occasion. Rousseau started at nine in the morning and for the next 14 to 18 hours, he let it all hang out. Those who first heard the Confessions read were equally stunned but vario…

It turns out that working and reworking American identity is as old as the creation of the republic itself. As we’ll see in this episode, the thing called “American History” is not a static set of truths to be uncovered, but a story that has had numerous versions told by individuals with their own motivations. This and much more is uncovered in thi…

Politics relates to imagery in ways that I was able to understand anew, thanks to this conversation with Aaron Tugendhaft. He’s the author of the "Idols of ISIS: from Assyria to the Internet." We quickly enough see how the book is not so much a book about ISIS as it is an allegory for political and apolitical tendencies closer to home. Tugendhaft m…

We recorded this episode on Jan 12, just six days since a mob, whipped up by the president, breached the capitol. The first such breach since the war of 1812. So we’ve had to restart the clock, so to speak. It’s the insurrection equivalent of a workplace injuries counter: “6 days without a breach!” So we recorded six days after a mob stormed the ca…

In this episode, we discuss two things: constitutionalism and the Republican Party, which are these days opposing forces. My guests, George Thomas and Ben Kleinerman, are trying to recapture a kind of constitutionalism that goes back to the American founding thought in some ways. They don’t make that turn worshipfully, so they can be engaged reason…

I like the classical authors. They’re fun. So many of them speak in earthy remarks, like, you can’t know you’re happy until you’re dead. Stuff like that. Whatever’s the opposite of a cheerful nonsense slogan. But another reason to turn to the classics, even especially one Herodotus, is right here in this episode, which turns out to be timely–in so …

Good books will make you think of things they don’t raise explicitly, and what Ariel Ron’s book does for me is it makes me think about the stories we tell ourselves–and what work those stories do. His book, Grassroots Leviathan: Agricultural Reform and the Rural North in the Slaveholding Republic uncovers what turns out to be a social movement of n…

In this episode, I talk to Annelien de Dijn about her new book Freedom: an Unruly History. The book is a fascinating read, and the pod is a great conversation. This one will be especially interesting to those interested in politics and political thought, as de Dijn dwells on the anti-democratic character of liberal conceptions of freedom and the go…

So an ordinary guy stumbles into a conversation with two presidency scholars…. That’s essentially what happens in this episode. Jeremy Bailey, Benjamin Kleinerman, and I got together without a plan, just to discuss the argument advanced in Bailey’s book, “The Idea of Presidential Representation: An Intellectual and Political History.” Good stuff co…

Never Trumpers. Who are they? Who cares? Masters of the political universe? Conservative elites who had power till a minute ago and now have little to offer beyond what talking heads can do? Great chat with one of the guys who wrote the book on the matter, Rob Saldin, co-author of "Never Trump: the Revolt of the Conservative Elites."…

This one's fun. Let it be a break from the noise. A leaf peeping drive around the history of color with historian, and my pal, Carolyn Purnell. That she’s my pal explains the joy in my voice–joy where there’s more often doom.Par Randal Hendrickson