Ugh. I think I hit the lowest lows in December. Between grading, tons of committee work, and the frantic end to the second grade zoom school semester, I was scrambling to get anything done. But there was a solid week of reading that mysteriously coincided with the kids break. And I managed to get through some fantastic stuff. Lots of the public policy material was prep work for my revamped “West Wing a History” course syllabus, which I’ll send in a separate posting. Anyway, here it is—the best of what I got to read in December!
(***I’ve included some football and food content too, since—let’s be honest—I spend lots of time in those worlds!***)
Kyle Riisemandel, Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture, 1975-2001 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020).
I had the privilege of being Kyle’s colleague for a few years at Rutgers-NJIT, and know that this book has been in the works for a few years. I was thrilled to see it and even more thrilled to read it! Even for an early Americanist like me (Is that even what I am anymore? I guess? who knows…) the argument Kyle offers here makes lots of sense, and his evidence—ranging from political controversies to music and film—is fantastic. Just a really engaging book overall that I will definitely be working into my courses with 20th century content.
Jeffrey Ostler, “Locating Settler Colonialism in Early American History,” William and Mary Quarterly 76, no. 3 (July, 2019), 443-50.
***Tip of the hat to Professor Karl Jacoby for pointing me to this piece again, which was even more powerful than I remembered it.
Anna Lvovsky, “Cruising in Plain View: Clandestine Surveillance and the Unique Insights of Antihomosexual Policing,” Journal of Urban History 46, no. 5 (Fall, 2020), 980-1001.
Stephanie Kelton, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Political Economy (New York: Public Affairs, 2020).
Sean Gallagher, “The Prison of Public Works: Enslaved People and State Formation at Virginia’s Chiswell Lead Mines, 1756-1786,” Journal of Southern History 86, no. 4 (Nov., 2020), 777-804.
Trevor Burnard and Aaron Graham, “Security, Taxation, and the Imperial System in Jamaica, 1721-1782,” Early American Studies 18, no. 4 (Fall, 2020), 461-89.
Dael A. Norwood, “The Constitutional Consequences of Commercial Crisis: The Role of Trade Reconsidered in the ‘Critical Period,’” Early American Studies 18, no. 4 (Fall, 2020), 490-524.
Kevin P. Tobia, “Testing Ordinary Meaning,” Harvard Law Review 134 (2020): 726-806.
Eric Segall, “Standing Outside the Law: Of Incoherence and How Legal Sausages are Made,” Dorf on Law: Law, Politics, Economics, and More from Michael Dorf, Neil Buchanan, Sherry Colb, Diane Klein, Eric Segall, and (Occasionally) Others, December 17, 2020.
Charisse Burden-Stelly, “Caste does not Explain Race,” The Boston Review, December 15, 2020.
Samuel Moyn, “Neoliberalism, Not Liberalism, Has Failed,” Commonweal, December 3, 2018.
Law and Political Economy Project, “Yearly Roundup: What the LPE Blog Published in 2020,” Law and Political Economy Project Blog, December 29, 2020.
***See especially the Symposium on Stephanie Kelton, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Political Economy (New York: Public Affairs, 2020).
Mariame Kaba, Josie Duffy Rice, and Reina Sultan, “Uncaging Humanity: Rethinking Accountability in the Age of Abolition,” BitchMedia, December 15, 2020.
Dino Christensen and Douglas Criner, The Myth of the Imperial Presidency: How Public Opinion Checks the Unilateral Executive (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020).
Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988)
Lawrence Lessig and Cass R. Sunstein, “The President and the Administration,” Columbia Law Review 94 (1994), 1-123.
Harold H. Bruff, “Presidential Power and Administrative Rulemaking,” Yale Law Journal 88, no. 3 (Jan., 1979), 451-508.
Priya Satia, “History from Below: What Shaped the Thought of E.P. Thompson…,” Aeon, December 15, 2020.
…the rare video too!
Emily Prifogle, Interview with K-Sue Park, “Conquest and Slavery as Foundational to the Property Law Course,” December 9, 2020.
….And finally, here’s the fun stuff! Footy! Food!
James McNicholas and David Ornstein, “Arsenal FC: The Decline,” The Athletic, December 17, 2020.
Paul Tompkins, “Just for the Record, Its Time to Sack Klopp, Again,” The Tompkins Times, December 15, 2020. (***BTW he doesn’t actually think it is time to sack Klopp***)
Mari Lewis, “Injuries and Turgid Football: What to Expect for the Rest of 20/21,” SBNation: Liverpool Offside, December 14, 2020.
Mari Lewis, “We Need to Stop Talking About Wijnaldum’s Contract Situation,” SBNation: Liverpool Offside, December 7, 2020.
Michael Lewis, “The Clever Tactical Tweak Helping Mourinho’s Spurs Keep Clean Sheets,” The Athletic, November 30, 2020.
Simran Hans, “Iteration 6: Simran Hans cooks Rachel Roddy,” Vittles, December 2, 2020.
Vaughn Tan, “Tan Cooks Shizuo Tsuji,” Vittles, December 18, 2020.