Jesse Smith

Nov 21, 2024 | lawliberty.org | Musa al-Gharbi |Jesse Smith |Nadya Williams |Juliana Geran Pilon

The phenomenon colloquially known as “wokeness” has been subject to a number of analyses in recent years. For the most part, these focus on the development of woke ideas and how they have gained social influence. Some accounts point to left-modern liberalism, others emphasize postmodernism or critical theory.

Aug 30, 2024 | lawliberty.org | Mark Hall |Jesse Smith |Samuel Gregg |Titus Techera

A moderately informed observer of American politics in the 2020s might be forgiven for perceiving Christian nationalism to be an imminent and existential threat to our political order.

Apr 4, 2024 | thepublicdiscourse.com | Jesse Smith

In 2016, Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild released her study of Louisiana bayou Republicans, Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, to great fanfare. In “What’s the matter with Kansas?” fashion, the explicit aim of the study was to understand why rural conservatives voted against environmental regulations that would improve their quality of life by curbing the pollution that wreaked havoc in their communities.

Oct 2, 2023 | thepublicdiscourse.com | Jesse Smith

In recent years, “Christian nationalism” has been among the greatest preoccupations of observers of American religion and politics, particularly those on the Left. Scholars in my home discipline of the sociology of religion have played a central role in sounding this alarm, lending an aura of social scientific legitimacy to the furor.

Jul 19, 2023 | thepublicdiscourse.com | Jesse Smith

From 2016 onward, the relationship between conservative Christianity and MAGA-style populism has generated a wide range of reactions, few of them dispassionate. Center-right evangelicals lament the populist strand of the religious right and distinguish it from the moral strand. Critics on the left argue that the populist and moral strands were always one and the same. They declare MAGA politics to be the culmination of a radicalized religious right, and issue blanket condemnations.