Author: TheConversation

By Jerald Podair, Professor of History, Lawrence University What happens when a former president decides he wants his old job back, regardless of what stands in his way? As Donald Trump launches his third run for the White House, it is useful to look back at another ex-president, Theodore Roosevelt, whose campaign to regain the office from his successor, William Howard Taft, divided the Republican Party and ensured the victory of Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the presidential election of 1912. In my view as a scholar of 20th-century American history, Roosevelt’s sense of entitlement, moral narcissism and belief in...

By Sarah Azaransky, Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary An annual feast day is held for Episcopal saint Pauli Murray, the first Black woman to be ordained by the denomination: an affirmation of her many contributions not only to the church, but to social justice in the United States. Saints exemplify “what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and make a difference in the world, and Pauli Murray is one of those people,” Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry said when Murray gained the status of a saint in 2012. I am a scholar of religion...

By Christine D. Gonzales-Wong, Assistant Professor of Counseling, Texas A&M-San Antonio For the past few months, religion has never been far from U.S. headlines. The Supreme Court has overturned constitutional abortion rights. Congress is debating whether to codify protections for same-sex marriage. Courts have been asked to decide whether religious schools and business owners have to hire, serve or acknowledge LGBTQ members and organizations. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Southern Baptist Convention after a consultant’s report revealed a history of sexual abuse and cover-ups – and new lawsuits alleging abuse in the Catholic Church continue...

By Derek T. Muller, Professor of Law, University of Iowa Presidential elections are complicated. All 50 states and the District of Columbia hold simultaneous elections in November. The states and the district certify those results. But that is not the end of it. When people cast votes, they are actually voting for a group of people called “electors.” Groups of these presidential electors meet in December. They send their votes along to Congress, which counts them in January. The presidential candidate who gets the majority of electoral votes is, finally, declared the winner. There are known weaknesses in these...

By Thomas Adam, Associate Professor of International and Global Studies, University of Arkansas Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way. Such perceptions about Christmas celebrations have, however, little basis in history. As a scholar of transnational and global history, I have studied the emergence of Christmas celebrations in German towns around 1800 and the global spread of this...