Author Archives: Eric

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About Eric

Eric Miller teaches in the Department of Communication Studies at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

The Enchantments of Trumpism

Posted on November 21, 2025 by Eric

Eugene McCarraher is Associate Professor of Humanities at Villanova University. His book, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, argues that capitalist imperatives have superseded those of Christianity over time. The following was presented as part … Continue reading →

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The Devil You Think You Know

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Eric

Whitney Phillips is Associate Professor of Information Politics and Media Ethics at the University of Oregon, and Mark Brockway is Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. Their book, The Shadow Gospel: How Anti-Liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, … Continue reading →

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On Growing (and Degrowing) Problems

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Eric
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Imagined Communities

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Eric

Edward Bellamy was an American socialist author, activist, and journalist who wrote six novels in the second half of the nineteenth century. His most famous work, Looking Backward 2000-1887, inspired the formation of “Nationalist Clubs” throughout the country, each dedicated … Continue reading →

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Paradise & Pragmatism

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Eric

Chris Jennings is an historian and writer living in Northern California. His book, Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism, documents the experiences of five distinct and but related attempts at American communism around the middle of the nineteenth century. … Continue reading →

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Current

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Eric

Beach Reads!

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End Time and Time Again

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Eric

Dorian Lynskey is the author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs from Billie Holiday to Green Day and The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. His latest, Everything Must Go: The Stories We … Continue reading →

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Evangelical Narratives / Exvangelical Memoirs

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Eric

The success of evangelical youth culture in the 1990s has yielded a soul-searching generation of disillusioned exvangelicals in the first decades of the 21st century. Some of these have written books about their experience, and this paper examines the ways … Continue reading →

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Current

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Eric
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Started on the Margin Now We’re Here

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Eric

Matthew Dallek is Professor of Political Management at George Washington University. In his most recent book, he identifies the John Birch Society as the vanguard of an insurgent right-wing extremism in American politics. Known for their early embrace of conspiracy … Continue reading →

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Nostalgia for a Tragic Past

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Eric

Steven Hahn is Professor of History at New York University. His previous books, The Roots of Southern Populism, A Nation Under Our Feet, and A Nation Without Borders, have won many prestigious awards. In his latest, Hahn shows how American … Continue reading →

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The Sexual Revelation

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Eric

Benjamin E. Park is Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. His books, Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier and American Zion, provide a comprehensive view of Mormonism from … Continue reading →

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Recommended Reading – An Emersonian Summer

Posted on June 13, 2024 by Eric

Perhaps the foremost philosophical and literary figure in all of American history, Ralph Waldo Emerson is a challenging and sometimes mystifying writer. The books on this list are arranged in hope of making his life and work more accessible, and … Continue reading →

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A Recession of Charisma

Posted on June 3, 2024 by Eric

David A. Bell is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions at Princeton University. His book, Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution, documents the political influence of military … Continue reading →

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Current

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Eric
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