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Jan 22, 2025 | 
lrb.co.uk | Jackson Lears |Thomas Jones
Your browser does not support the audio element. Ronald Reagan, as Jackson Lears wrote recently in the LRB, was a ‘telegenic demagogue’ whose ‘emotional appeal was built on white people’s racism’. His presidency left the United States a far more unequal place at home, with a renewed commitment to deadly imperial adventures abroad. Yet he had a gift for making up stories that ‘made America feel good about itself again’.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
lrb.co.uk | Max Boot |Jackson Lears
Afew days after Ronald Reagan died in 2004, I was hurrying through Newark airport when I spied his smiling countenance on the cover of the Economist, accompanied by a caption in big block letters: THE MAN WHO BEAT COMMUNISM. This preposterous tribute succinctly summarised the conventional wisdom regarding the end of the Cold War. The Good Guys had won, led by the genial but implacable Cold Warrior.
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Jun 13, 2024 | 
laphamsquarterly.org | Alain de Botton |Peter Stothard |Jackson Lears |Thomas Geoghegan
However powerful our technology and complex our corporations, the most remarkable feature of the modern working world may in the end be the widely held belief that our work should make us happy.
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Apr 22, 2024 | 
laphamsquarterly.org | Edward Castronova |Jackson Lears
The Campaigns of Alexander, c. 145 At Troy, Alexander’s sailing master, Menoetius, crowned him with gold. Hephaestion laid a wreath on the tomb of Patroclus; Alexander laid one on the tomb of Achilles, calling him a lucky man, in that he had Homer to proclaim his deeds and preserve his memory.
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Apr 13, 2024 | 
znetwork.org | Phyllis Bennis |Jackson Lears |Jeffrey Sachs
With Israel carrying out a U.S.-armed and funded genocide in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, tensions in the South China Sea, and the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, abandoning militarism has perhaps never been more urgent. In this thoughtful roundtable, Institute for Policy Studies fellow Phyllis Bennis, Rutgers University professor Jackson Lears, and Columbia University professor Jeffrey D. Sachs reflect on the state of U.S. foreign policy and how to shift its priorities for a better world.
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Apr 12, 2024 | 
progressivehub.net | Phyllis Bennis |Jackson Lears |Jeffrey Sachs
We’re seeing that kind of continuing problem of U.S. foreign policy, and then the rising competition at the major power level — U.S.-Russia, U.S.-China, all are shifting – all are moving in a greater way towards a military competition rather than the economic competition, because that’s where the U.S. is unchallengeable; U.S. military capacity.
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Apr 11, 2024 | 
nationofchange.org | Phyllis Bennis |Jackson Lears |Jeffrey Sachs
I invited three insightful analysts of present-day U.S. foreign policy to share their thoughts in a round table discussion. Here are excerpts from Phyllis Bennis, Jackson Lears and Jeffrey Sachs. — Norman SolomonQuestion: How would you assess the most important aspects of current U.S. foreign policy? Phyllis Bennis: I think the most important aspects are the most problematic ones.
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Apr 11, 2024 | 
counterpunch.org | Phyllis Bennis |Jackson Lears |Jeffrey Sachs
I invited three insightful analysts of present-day U.S. foreign policy to share their thoughts in a roundtable discussion. Here are excerpts from Phyllis Bennis, Jackson Lears and Jeffrey Sachs. — Norman SolomonQuestion: How would you assess the most important aspects of current U.S. foreign policy? Phyllis Bennis: I think the most important aspects are the most problematic ones.
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Oct 12, 2023 | 
lawliberty.org | Jackson Lears |Dave Barfield |Elizabeth Amato |Juliana Geran Pilon
If you have been to an exercise class—or a yoga studio—or a home goods store, anytime in the past year; indeed, if you’ve ever scrolled an Instagram or TikTok feed, you’ve probably come across the ubiquitous spiritualized language of energy.
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Jun 9, 2023 | 
harpers.org | Jackson Lears
The war in Ukraine has resurrected the ultimate technocratic fantasy: a winnable nuclear war. Intellectuals at the Hoover Institution are urging American strategists to “think nuclearly again,” reestablishing the idea that nuclear weapons are tools to assert U.S. primacy over Russia and China. This isn’t just talk. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently noted “steadily increasing U.S. bomber operations in Europe”—some near the Russian border.
