Category: Society
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 5
Chapter five is, so far, the most contemporary essay in Du Bois’s book. In it, he considers the city of Atlanta and what it says about the future of both African Americans and the South more broadly considered. He begins...
On Father’s Day, Living in Losses, and Home
There’s nothing that can prepare you to touch your father’s arm and find that it’s frozen. I should have known, of course. Doctors had told us what they were doing and said he’d be cold. But it’s one thing to know...
A Brief Commendation: The Addicts Next Door
I cannot remember reading an essay that has moved me as much as Margaret Talbot’s devastating New Yorker piece on our opioid crisis. The prose is mostly unadorned, because it can be. Many of the stories Talbot recounts are so...
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 4
In chapter four Du Bois reflects on his time teaching at a black one-room schoolhouse in rural Tennessee. As such, most of the chapter is simply taken up with recounting what life looked like for an itinerant black school teacher...
Martin Bucer’s Strenuous Life
Reading Sen. Ben Sasse’s recent book The Vanishing American Adult reminded me of a chapter I read about the home life of Martin Bucer, a 16th century pastor and leader in the Protestant Reformation. Though his lifestyle was not that aberrant amongst the...
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 3
We’re continuing our exploration of Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk today with a brief overview of chapter three. Chapter three may well be one of the most timely in the entire book. Though primarily about Booker T. Washington, the issues that...
The Teddy Roosevelt Option: Ben Sasse’s Plan to Save the Country
Let’s get this out of the way right off: The Vanishing American Adult is not a political book. So says author Ben Sasse.
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 2 Overview
One of the main points Du Bois is developing throughout his book is that, to quote him directly, “the defining problem of the 20th century [was] the color line.”
Blogging Through W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk–Chapter 1
One of the persistent criticisms of much of the reflection up to this point on the orthodox church’s place in the contemporary west is that what we’re really talking about is the white orthodox church’s place in the contemporary west. Matthew Loftus...
A Social Justice Warrior in King Roderick’s Court
Last Thursday’s “Time for the Benedict Option?” discussion hosted by Plough, First Things, and The American Conservative was a great summary of the Benedict Option debate so far and where things ought to go from here. You can watch the...