I have friends, political scientists, sociologists, who all share an interest at least in certain kinds of science fiction.

Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.

Simple doesn't mean stupid. Thinking that it does, does.

One way in which Americans have always been exceptional has been in our support for education. First we took the lead in universal primary education; then the “high school movement” made us the first nation to embrace widespread secondary education.

Republican candidates had to appeal to their base, which is by and large elderly white people arguing with empty chairs.

The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.

Under the gold standard America had no major financial panics other than in 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, 1907, 1930, 1931, 1932, and 1933.