JamesDoes history (as a discipline, or practice) have a direction?But absolute growth in data in no way implies better — more accurate — understanding. At present, we have access to more historical…Sep 24, 2019Sep 24, 2019
JamesYou Don’t Memorialize the PresentFor good reason, current U.S. law prohibits memorials to conflicts less than a decade in the past. Opinions change: events tend to lose…May 29, 2018May 29, 2018
JamesRobot LoveThe word robot is of recent pedigree, less, in fact, than a century old. It was popularized by Karel Capek, a twentieth-century Czech…Feb 11, 2017Feb 11, 2017
JamesThe Hippie and the ProfitPortland, as a wit once put it, is where the young go to retire. This was deemed worthy of immortalization as an American sketch comedy…Jan 30, 2017Jan 30, 2017
JamesThe End of HistoryDoes history have an arrow? Is there a directionality to events? Can we develop an historical teleology? Or is history, literally, a…Jan 23, 2017Jan 23, 2017
JamesEurope and the Conquest of the WorldThere is one great question in historiography: why something, not nothing? In other words, why human development? (Industrialization is the…Jan 23, 2017Jan 23, 2017
JamesDiversity and the RobotThe robots are coming. Fears over automation come in cycles; we are currently in an upswing now. If fear of outsourcing (replacement by…Jan 16, 2017Jan 16, 2017
JamesYou Don’t Have a PhoneWe live in the age of the phone. The phone is the defining technology of our times; it is the best-selling product category ever; it is the…Jan 10, 2017Jan 10, 2017
JamesReview of “Red Globalization.”Every coin’s face has its obverse, every earthly imperium a counterpart, every war the mirrored hatreds of its participants. In the Cold…Dec 29, 2016Dec 29, 2016