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The chances are growing that an unexpected consequence of the 2016 UK referendum to exit the European Union (or “Brexit”) may eventuate in the unexpected development of Northern Ireland exiting the UK, or what might be termed “NIRexit.” In other words, Brexit may lead to Irish unification. The long-cherished dream of Irish nationalists for “a united Ireland” may therefore be the inadvertent consequence...
In 2018, the Republic of Ireland abolished history as a required subject in its public secondary schools. What are the consequences for Ireland of this decision, especially in light of the importance of history to Irish self-understanding and national development? What are the implications of such policies beyond Ireland, including in the United States? This article discusses the somber prospects...
The Alfred Kazin Centennial Symposium in May 2015 took place with no external funding on a budget totaling less than $200. Despite these overwhelming limitations, this "symposium on a shoestring" proved a rich intellectual experience for all. Its success is a tribute not only to the participants but also to the example of Alfred Kazin himself and his devotion to the life of the mind and...
John Rodden summarizes the thrust of his work on modern intellectual life, the theme of which is that the uncertain future of the ``intellectual species`` warrants extended attention because it is inextricably tied to the ultimate fate of the critical intellectual itself. He presents himself as an aspirant to membership in the tradition of the literary-political intellectual represented by such writers...
Sales of Nineteen Eighty-Four and other dystopian classics have risen in response to the audacious attempts of President Donald Trump to manipulate public opinion by circulating “alternative facts” throughout the presidential campaign and since his November 2016 election victory. Various statements by Trump and his advisors that exemplify what has come to be known as the “post-factual world” account...
Did the events of September 11, 2001 “change the world,” signifying the birth of an incommensurable brave new world of heightened uncertainty and insecurity? No. That headline-grabbing claim lacks historical perspective. Rather, the Cold War has exerted a profound impact on how America wages the War on Terror simply because the intelligence, bureaucratic, and military-industrial institutions that...
The life and legacy of Irving Howe are significant not only because they represent the intellectual biography of a leading American literary-political figure of the twentieth-centuty, nor merely illuminate the historical period in which he wrote. Rather, they also bear relevance to the state of America in our own time, one in which our ideological polarization has reached extremes. This essay discusses...
Although it is rare that one can pinpoint an historical moment in which a writer’s public reputation is “launched,” the day of destiny is clear in George Orwell’s case: Sunday, 12 December 1954. BBC-TV’s adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four that night, and especially the debates in the British press that ensued for three weeks thereafter, ignited controversy that permanently boosted...
Today’s duel specters of sophisticated psychoterror and cyber warfare imperil our right to privacy and freedom. Experts warn that the cyberscape threatens to become the new war front among rival powers. Will our technology outflank our technical capacity—and our moral will—to safeguard civil liberties?
This essay discusses the uncanny parallels, paradoxes, and puzzles in the lives and careers of author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the famous George Orwell, and the virtually unknown French writer and political radical, Jean Malaquais. The striking affinities between Orwell and Malaquais, both of whom came to literary maturity in the 1930s, involve both their themes and genres. Both men fully engaged...
An unfortunate admixture of history-blinding “presentist” bias, exacerbated by today’s sound bite culture, academic overspecialization by scholars and professional historians, and polarizing polemics have led to a consensus regarding the topics of Pius XII’s conduct toward European Jewry during the fascist era. In the wake of the eightieth anniversary of the July 1933 Reichskonkordat between the Vatican...
How has Catholic higher education in the U.S. changed since Vatican II? Evolving in three historical periods in the last six decades, Catholic institutions have experienced tumultuous upheaval and radical transformation, becoming more secular or “catholic” in orientation and less orthodox or “Catholic.” This essay discusses both the positive and problematic developments of these changes, and it concludes...
The interview is a genre “coming of age,” maturing into a serious art form. This essay presents a typology for understanding this growth and how diverse patterns of literary performance have contributed to it. Five types of interviewees are discussed at length: traditionalist, raconteur, advertiser, provocateur, and prevaricator. Some speculations about national and cultural types of interviewees...
Based on extensive field research that the author has conducted in eastern Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this essay discusses the history of communist education in East Germany and its relevance for Western education today. Among the topics addressed are the differences between “propaganda” and “enlightenment” according to communist ideology, the structure of the East German system...
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