In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen

"All of this steered my own work in a new direction. I decided to write a critical genealogy of another cherished contemporary ideal: freedom. I wanted to examine why the identification of liberty with a minimal state, which seemed so dominant in the 2010s, had come about. In exploring this question, I was able to build both on my own earlier work on French eighteenth and nineteenth-century political thought as well as on a vast literature on early-modern conceptions of freedom produced by Quentin Skinner and other Cambridge School historians. In his seminal Liberty Before Liberalism, Skinner had recovered an older way of thinking about freedom he called republican (or neo-Roman) which equated liberty not with an absence of state interference, but with establishing popular control over state power.[16]"

At The Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum, Annelien de Dijn writes about "How I became an Intellectual Historian."

"To Quantify the Unquantifiable"

"But Lindsay Rogers might have had a more fundamental critique than that: The idea of political polling was broken to start with. It was a falsely scientific way to put numbers on a concept that can't be measured in the first place, and which changes shape every time you try. And indeed, it is the very elusiveness of political opinion—its resistance to being pinned down—that makes democracy necessary. When we measure mass or distance, we know we can do so accurately. But our values, attitudes and opinions are not concrete but fluid. They change with time—in the days and weeks before an election, as well as in the years in between them. Which is precisely why democracy requires that every few years, we vote anew."

David Greenberg at Politico recalls "The Political Scientist Who Warned Us About Polls."

And at Vox, Dylan Matthews interviews David Shor about contemporary polling problems.

"All the Things You Want in a Colleague, Friend, Teacher and Scholar"

"Liberalism and the forces opposed to it were the themes of much of Brinkley's work. He came of age in the 1950s and '60s, when conservatism seemed so far outside the mainstream that critic Lionel Trilling declared liberalism 'not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition.' But by the end of the '60s, with the rise of the so-called New Right and divisions among liberals brought on by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, critics and scholars were reconsidering their 'consensus' that only liberal thought mattered.
"'Nothing has become clearer over the past 30 years—both in historical scholarship and in our experience as a society—than that the consensus agreement, on that point at least, was wrong,' Brinkley wrote in 1998."

Hillel Italie at the PBS Newshour writes an obituary for historian Alan Brinkley.

Eric Foner at The Nation, David Greenberg at Time, and Yanek Mieczkowski at History News Network write appreciations.

The New Prophet of Negro Freedom

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2019 Pulitzer Prizes, including Jeffrey C. Stewart for biography and David W. Blight for history.

"Who Could Have More Riches Than That?"

"Burnett was something of a hot ticket on the academic circuit. In 1931, he and his wife, Martha Foley, had founded Story magazine, which they still ran, and their acumen for spotting new talent had made their hundred-page monthly a must-read for the big New York publishers. In its first few years, Story had featured debut works by William Saroyan, Nelson Algren, Conrad Aiken, Kay Boyle, John Cheever, Wallace Stegner, and Carson McCullers—an eye-popping list that would soon include Norman Mailer, Jean Stafford, Richard Wright, Joseph Heller '50GSAS, Truman Capote, and Tennessee Williams.
"But little did Burnett know, in the spring of 1939, that the writer who would become Story's most fabled discovery was seated in the back row of room 505."

Paul Hond at Columbia Magazine tells the story of J. D. Salinger's first publisher.

"The Revolution That Almost Was"

"Much about our modern times can be traced back to a single summer and what changed--or more accurately, what didn't."

Julia Alekseyeva at The Nib provides a cartoon history of May 1968.

Gulf Fires

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes, including Caroline Fraser for biography, and Jack E. Davis for history.

"The Academic Version of the 'Casting Couch'"

"Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment and has not spoken publicly about the allegations. A university spokesperson said via email that while Harris remains an employee, he 'has withdrawn from his teaching, advising and other student-related activities. Columbia is deeply committed to fostering an environment that is free from gender-based discrimination and harassment.'"

Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Education reports that Prof. William Harris of Columbia University has stopped working with students in the wake of a sexual-harassment lawsuit.

"We Should Not Give Them Power Over Us by the Way We React to Them"

"If we hold ourselves to these standards, the way that students have engaged in the past does not work. Across the country, students have responded to these individuals by protesting, by shouting them down, by drowning them out. From Middlebury to Berkeley, these protests have gained national media attention and enraged people across the political spectrum, but have done little to stop these bigots from coming to campuses or to protect communities of students.
"In many situations, protests are extremely valuable. Over the past year, as the Trump administration repeatedly threatened Muslim Americans, undocumented individuals, LGBTQ persons, and more, Americans across this country stood up in some of the most prolific forms of civic activism in our nation's history. In these situations, protests can be inspiring, can build community, and can set the stage for real progress.
"Yet, we must be able to realize when certain forms of protest are not working. When students shout down extremists, these bigots are empowered rather than erased; the bigots receive media coverage, and with it, legitimacy that they should never have."

In the Columbia Daily Spectator, the executive board members of Columbia University Democrats pursue a wise strategy.

Columbiana

Edward Burmila at The Nation and Heather Cox Richardson at We're History discuss the history of Columbus and Columbus Day, respectively.

"It Illuminates the History of Not Only the School, but of New York, Too"

"After the revolution, King's College changed its name to Columbia. Then slavery was abolished gradually in New York. Little by little Columbia's direct connection fades away. But New York City in the 1830s and '40s is still very tied into the cotton trade. We don't like to think about this as New Yorkers, we like to think of it as a bastion of liberalism. But New York was a pro-slavery city. The economy was very connected to the South and to slavery."

Gillian B. White at The Atlantic interviews Eric Foner about Columbia University and Slavery, a historical research project.

Hamilton's Barbarian Trials

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2016 Pulitzer Prizes, including Lin-Manuel Miranda for drama, William Finnegan for biography, and T. J. Stiles for history.

Madison's Border Frontier

Columbia University awards the 2016 Bancroft Prize to historians Mary Sarah Bilder, Deborah A. Rosen, and Andrew Lipman.

Empires of Cotton and Necessity

Columbia University awards the 2015 Bancroft Prize to historians Sven Beckert and Greg Grandin.

Encounters at the Heart of the Pope and Mussolini

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2015 Pulitzer Prizes, including David I. Kertzer for biography and Elizabeth A. Fenn for history.

"It's Not a Race"

"The students, he said, could understand the city better by seeing where its history had taken place, and some prepared for the all-nighter the way marathon runners prepare for an important race. 'I took a nap to get ready,' said Camille Richardson, an undergraduate from Atlanta. 'And I ate a big carb dinner.'"


In The New York Times, James Barron follows Columbia University history professor Kenneth T. Jackson's late-night bicycle ride through Manhattan.

The Internal Fuller

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2014 Pulitzer Prizes, including Megan Marshall for biography and Alan Taylor for history.

"There’s a More Literate Readership Now"

"The way Mr. Snyder uses language also sets him apart from other comics writers. It’s more precise, more controlled—appropriate enough for a writer who received a master’s degree in fine arts from Columbia University and who teaches a graduate course in comics writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Here’s the opening of 'Batman: The City of Owls':

"'I’ve always believed the best way to know a city is to stay close to the ground. To feel the cracks in the sidewalk under your shoe. The strange bright silence of the park under snow. The hissing sparks that come down when the elevated train passes overhead on Third Avenue.' So long, Bam! Pow! Zzzttt!"

Dana Jennings in The New York Times profiles comics writer Scott Snyder.

Devil Embers in the Black Count Grove

Columbia University announces the winners of the 2013 Pulitzer Prizes, including Tom Reiss for biography, Fredrik Logevall for history, and Gilbert King for general nonfiction.

The Mortal Code

Columbia University awards the 2013 Bancroft Prize to historians W. Jeffrey Bolster and John Fabian Witt.