The Crisis of University Research 2
Academia’s Pursuit Of Corporate And Government Dollars Has Undermined Its Commitment To Learning
VIDEOS: Richard Drake on Charles Beard
The following is a series of six interview videos which were recorded earlier this year by Richard and Leland Buck covering a range of questions about Charles Austin Beard, American politics and Beard’s Economic Interpretation of History. Why is it important to read Charles Beard today? What was Charles Beard’s economic interpretation of […]
Bill Kauffman’s American Conservative review of Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism
The following review of Richard Drake’s Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism by Bill Kauffman first appeared in the American Conservative May/June 2019. Home Plate by BILL KAUFFMAN The American Conservative May/June 2019 Beard Was No Trimmer Those of us old enough to have employed and even believed the […]
Andrew J. Bacevich’s review of Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism
The following review Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism by Andrew J. Bacevich first appeared March 21, 2019 on the website of The American Conservative. It is republished here by permision. Charles Beard: Punished for Seeking Peace by Andrew J. Bacevich Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of […]
Paul Buhle’s Review of Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism in the Progressive
Paul Buhle wrote an excellent review article which appeared on the Progressive Magazine’s website on February 20, 2019. The piece titled “Charles Beard: Bob La Follette’s Friend” is republished here with permission. Charles Beard: Bob La Follette’s Friend A new book corrects the record on the anti-imperialist historian—a close ally of “The Progressive’s” founder—whose work was […]
Hear Richard Drake on the New Books Network Podcast
Richard was recently interviewed by Mark Klobas for the New Books Biography podcast and discussed at length his path from Italian history to the subjects of his two most recent books on Robert LaFollette and Charles Austin Beard.
Review of Moro: L’inchiesta senza finale by Fabio Lavagno and Vladimiro Satta
Fabio Lavagno and Vladimiro Satta, Moro: L’inchiesta senza finale. Rome: Edup, 2018. 295 pp. €22.00. Reviewed by Richard Drake, University of Montana For Italians living in the 1960s and 1970s, Aldo Moro epitomized the country’s Christian Democratic political establishment. He had served in the country’s highest political offices, including stints as premier and foreign minister. […]
Taking a look back before moving forward at UM
As the University of Montana considers its future, some tested ideas about higher education may shed light on the darkened and unmarked path stretching before us. The most tested such idea of all is the humanistic tradition. The modern university took its bearings from the Italian humanists of the 14th and 15th centuries. They promised […]
Course Syllabus: The Economic Interpretation of History and Understanding American Politics Today
This is the syllabus for an upcoming course being taught at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UM (MOLLI) January 15 through February 19, 2019 titled “The Economic Interpretation of History and Understanding American Politics Today”. Course Syllabus With the publication in 1913 of An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, Charles Austin […]
The Economic Interpretation of History as a Way of Understanding American Politics
With the publication in 1913 of An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, Charles Austin Beard (1874-1948) became one of the most famous, influential, and controversial historians in America.
Italy’s Populist Earthquake
“We have the sensation of being on the eve of an earthquake,” Corriere della Sera economics writer Dario Di Vico observed on the day of Italy’s elections in early March. The results would show that some 65 percent of the electorate was opposed to the political status quo represented chiefly by the center-left Partito Democratico of Matteo […]
George Scialabba’s “Last Men and Women” Seminar at the University of Montana
George Scialabba spoke in the President’s Lecture Series at the University of Montana on Monday, 12 March. He gave this year’s Ezio Cappadocia Memorial Lecture in Politics and History in the series. An essayist and critic, Scialabba has a highly unusual background for an American intellectual. As a high school student and then at Harvard […]
Left-Wing Populism Meets ‘La Grande Crisi’: Making Sense of Italy’s Five-Star Movement
If China, now the factory of the world, has been the biggest winner in the globalized economy, Italy has been one of its biggest losers. The Italian economy has suffered from low growth and rising levels of income inequality for the past twenty years. The global economic meltdown of 2008 made Italy’s already bad situation worse. As economics writer Dario Di Vico observes in his analysis of growing income inequality in Italy, “We risk entering a lasting regime of descending mobility: the [social] elevator is going down instead of ascending….”
Review: GIOVANNI MARIO CECI. Il terrorismo italiano: Storia di un dibattito.
Review of GIOVANNI MARIO CECI. Il terrorismo italiano: Storia di un dibattito. Giovanni Mario Ceci. Il terrorismo italiano: Storia di un dibattito. (Studi Storici Carocci, no. 199.) Rome, Italy: Carocci editore, 2013. Pp. 342. €35.00. By Richard Drake The American Historical Review, Volume 122, Issue 5, 1 December 2017, Pages 1699–1700, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/122.5.1699 Published: 11 December […]
Why Every European Country Has a Trump or Sanders Candidate 1
The following article first appeared on The American Conservative on August 28, 2017. The suicide in the Friuli region of northern Italy earlier this year of a 30-year-old man, identified in the newspapers only as Michele, has become a symbol of the country’s unemployment tragedy, particularly as it affects young people. Though much worse in […]