The members of Erstwhile’s editorial board share their summer reading plans. In the last two years, we have had a great guest post reminding us of the value of reading fiction and our fiction summer reading list. This year, we offer (for the most part) one fiction and one non-fiction work that we’re hoping to get to…
Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente examines the relationship between neoliberalism and the spread of market thinking to the proliferation of different conceptions of truth, competing truth-claims, and the “post-truth era.” There’s truth that lives And truth that dies I don’t know which So never mind — Leonard Cohen, “Nevermind” (2014) Politicians’ increasingly widespread use of…
Erstwhile contributing editors Sara Porterfield and Caroline Grego write about their experiences at the American Society for Environmental History’s 29th annual conference, this year held in Riverside, California, from March 14th to 18th, in a dialogue format. In 2019, the conference will be held in Columbus, Ohio, from April 10th to 14th. Introduction Caroline:…
In the fifth installment of “The Monuments Among Us” series (see Sara Porterfield’s post on Bears Ears here, Travis May’s discussion of British memorials here, Alessandra Link’s reflection on Louisville’s city parks here, and Caroline Grego’s review of South Carolina house museums here), Erstwhile contributing editor Graeme Pente draws attention to the National Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. Covering…
The word “fascist” has been used as an epithet rather casually in the last two years, especially in commentary on US politics. In the hope of bringing clarity to this slippery term, Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente sat down with Dr. Mike Ortiz (Ph.D., CU Boulder, 2017), whose dissertation focused on global anti-fascism in the interwar period, and…
Erstwhile contributing editor Caroline Grego interviews Dr. Natalie Mendoza, a postdoctoral research associate and founder of the History Teaching and Learning Project at the University of Colorado Boulder’s history department. The transcript below has been lightly edited, and the interview’s audio is available in the embedded Soundcloud file. Caroline Grego (CG): Hello and welcome…
The word “fascist” has been used as an epithet rather casually in the last two years, especially in commentary on US politics. In the hope of bringing clarity to this slippery term, Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente sat down with Dr. Mike Ortiz (Ph.D., CU Boulder, 2017), whose dissertation focused on global anti-fascism in the interwar…
The word “fascist” has been used as an epithet rather casually in the last two years, especially in commentary on US politics. In the hope of bringing clarity to this slippery term, Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente sat down with Dr. Mike Ortiz (Ph.D., CU Boulder, 2017), whose dissertation focused on global anti-fascism in the interwar…
The word “fascist” has been used as an epithet rather casually in the last two years, especially in commentary on US politics. In the hope of bringing clarity to this slippery term, Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente sat down with Dr. Mike Ortiz (Ph.D., CU Boulder, 2017), whose dissertation focused on global anti-fascism in the interwar…
In the fourth installment of “The Monuments Among Us” series (see Sara Porterfield’s post on Bears Ears here, Travis May’s discussion of British memorials here and Alessandra Link’s reflection on Louisville’s city parks here), Erstwhile contributing editor Caroline Grego considers how two house museums in her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, could provide a counterpoint to Confederate statuary. The featured image…
Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente offers a correction to the distorted image many Americans have of his home country of Canada. Despite the idealized view most American liberals have of the country up north, Canada faces a host of its own social and political troubles. Most Americans don’t think of Canada very often. Unless, of course,…
In the third installment of “The Monuments Among Us” series (see Sara Porterfield’s post on Bears Ears here and Travis May’s discussion of British memorials here), Erstwhile editor Alessandra Link reflects on three city parks in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Link makes abstract and concrete connections between the Kentucky frontier mythology enshrined in the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and…
Contributing editor Caroline Grego reflects on the similarities between how southerners and westerners form their regional identities, based on her childhood in the South and living in the West for the past six and a half years as a graduate student. I am lying in a natural rock hot springs pool at Valley View Hot…
As part of our coverage of Native American Heritage Month, Erstwhile guest author Kerri Clement takes us inside the 2017 Indigenous Comic Con, held November 10-12 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This annual event brings together self-proclaimed “Indigenerds” from around the country to celebrate nerd life and their Indigenous heritage. Attendees show off elaborate costume constructions…
Managing Editor Julia Frankenbach offers a poem seven years in the making. Originally composed in the author’s sophomore year at Mount Holyoke College, the poem has endured flurries of adjustment, gradually rooting itself in the northern California landscape as the author focused her studies there. Like the unpredictable layering process for British artist Rebecca Vincent’s original monotypes…
