What we've been up to

Web Features: It's still January, but the midterm elections are fast approaching. Once the months of campaigning and debating come to an end sometime after November 8, the news media will, alas, start to turn its attention toward the next presidential election. As in other campaign seasons, we can look forward to a horse-race form of journalism that, in lieu of more substantial analyses of the divisions and desires of the American people, focuses primarily on one cartographic representation: the electoral college map.

This map filters all of the complexity of American politics into a dichotomy of red and blue. And although it is extremely useful to journalists and politicos, it's a map that shapes how all of us understand ourselves and the world, argues Richard Hughes Gibson, associate professor of English at Wheaton College and frequent THR contributor.

It's not just reductionist, writes Gibson, it's actively harmful to politics:

"Spend even five minutes with Politico's information-rich 2020 election results database, and you will find that the red state-blue state symbolism is a gross oversimplification of our current political landscape. As a political theorist friend of mine likes to say, 'All states are purple states.' In his view, the red state/blue state binary is often more marketing than analysis—a description of what we hope or fear is happening rather than a careful assessment of a place's history and future."

The Fall 2021 issue is now out from the paywall—for now. Catch up on our latest essays and reviews…

Richard Hughes Gibson reviews The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680–1790 by Ritchie Robertson.

Colin Gordon reviews The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America by Gabriel Winant.

Isaac Ariail Reed reviews Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought by Tae-Yeoun Keum.

"You're Not the Boss of Me" by Rita Koganzon

Carl Elliott reviews Quality of Life: A Post-Pandemic Philosophy of Medicine by Robin Downie.

"The Critic's Critic: George Steiner and the art of hopeful failure" by Richard Hughes Gibson.

Charles Mathewes writes about Augustine of Hippo and the modern predicament.

"Authenticity in Fashion" by Richard Thompson Ford.

B.D. McClay writes about self-care.

"Anything But True Love: Vladimir Nabokov's Anti-Erotic Masterpiece" by Talbot Brewer.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy on the unmanageable growth of awareness days.

"My Identity Problem" by Alan Shapiro.

Jonathan Malesic writes about Substack journalism.

"Chasing Phillis Wheatley" by Tara A. Bynum.

Brad East reviews Blood Theology: Seeing Red in Blood- and God-Talk by Eugene F. Rogers.

"The Fake Book of Negroes" by Gerald Early.

Malloy Owen reviews History Has Begun by Bruno Maçães.

"How to Be Yourself: The Studied Art of the College Application Essay" by Joseph E. Davis.

Charlie Riggs on COVID-19 masks and the politics of sincerity and authenticity.

Recommended Reading

From the archives: What is scientific research for? Most of the major research institutions in our society—universities, corporations, and the government—have an answer to that question: Scientific research produces products and knowledge for the competitive market. But as Paul Scherz, associate professor of moral theology and ethics at Catholic University of America and visiting fellow at the Institute, argues in his essay for the Fall 2016 issue, "Trivial Pursuits: The Decline of Scientific Research," something important is lost when the pursuit of scientific knowledge is justified not by genuine curiosity or the desire to understand the world but by venture capital dollars:

"As a society, we have moved from valuing knowledge as understanding to placing a higher priority on knowledge as a producer of technology and practical results. This new emphasis has deep implications for the practice of science and may even portend the obsolescence of scientists themselves. It is not implausible, some say, that computer algorithms mining Big Data might soon replace human imagination and creativity in formulating and realizing market-driven research agendas."

From further afield:

THR managing editor Leann Davis Alspaugh writes at The New Criterion about book culture in medieval Bologna.

Buzzfeed journalist Emily Baker-White reports on smartphone apps that keep and sell the information from people's prayers.

At Boston Review, Mark D. Jordan reviews the final volume of Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality, now published in English.

Dan Darrah writes at Jacobin about the TV show "Succession" and what it can teach us about the history of capitalism.

At the Institute…

Next week: Please join us for this seminar on Thursday, February 3, from 12:00-1:30 PM in the Large Seminar Room at Watson Manor (3 University Circle, Charlottesville) or by Zoom. (Zoom participants should join at 12:15.) Peter Skerry will sort through the contradictory evidence from his years-long study of this most recent and controversial chapter of American pluralism. Peter Skerry teaches political science at Boston College. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Bookings Institution, a Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and is currently a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Please go to the Institute website for more information and to register.