In October 1843, Dickens and Engels witnessed the same Industrial Revolution horrors in Manchester. CD wrote A Christmas Carol. Engels began collaborating with Karl Marx on works that would eventually become Das Kapital. open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

@mikeduncan.bsky.social Hello Mike Duncan! Just finished the Martian Revolution! Wanted to say thank you for inspiring my Substack livinglitpod.com , which among other things, is an attempt to approach Great Books like you approach Revolutions. A Tale of Two Cities is first up.

Entertain yourself whole for on the birth of the Political Right and Left, the Founding Father of Conservatives Edmund Burke and the FF of the Left Thomas Paine arguing about the French Revolution. open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

At Living Literature: a manifesto on teaching literature that makes the humanities vital. Our guiding light is Supreme Court Justice and Adult Musical Theater Nerd Ketanji Brown Jackson. #booksky #edusky

open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is about revolutionary moments. A Tale of Two Cities offers the clearest way to think about our times. On Monday, I will walk you through it. If this sounds intriguing, read this and subscribe! open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

@chrislhayes.bsky.social Your conversation inspired this longform post on Charles Dickens and understanding the first par. of A Tale of Two Cities in the age of Trump. Dickens was the world's first global attention merchant! open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

My podcast Living Literature deep-dives into Stave I of A Christmas Carol. I tour you through Scrooge's London like it's Purgatory We do a deep reading of Marley's house to discover that, in Marley, Scrooge found a Rich Widower to keep him out of the debtors' prisons.
linktr.ee/livinglitpod

A Christmas Carol adaptations diminish Belle. On the page, she's bold, risking her life to dump Ebenezer. Belle bets on herself and wins. Hers is a tragic love story defined by the rise of the petite bourgeoisie in Late Industrial Revolution England.
open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

In October 1843, Friedrich Engels and Charles Dickens were both in Manchester to witness the worst Industrial Revolution squalor. Engels went on to collaborate with Karl Marx on The Communist Manifesto. Dickens wrote something more seditious: A Christmas Carol.
open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

Later this week, I will publish an episode covering Stave I of A Christmas Carol. Two years ago, my family went to the Morgan Library in New York City, where Dickens' handwritten manuscript of A Christmas Carol is on display. I was very interested to see which page would be displayed

In September, a federal judge issued a cease and desist to the Trump Campaign from using "Electric Avenue." In my first "Art In Its Place" essay, I deep-dived into the historical context of Eddy Grant's hit. Let's go to the south London borough of Brixton. open.substack.com/pub/livingli...

Living Literature tackles an Atlantic article making the rounds, "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books." Long story short: Twenty-five years of the standardized testing regime has emphasized "passages," so we don't really teach reading anymore.
www.livinglitpod.com/p/the-elite-...

Hello Blue Sky! I am a former literature teacher and lawyer, launching a podcast and newsletter about teaching humanities called "Living Literature." Season 1 will step you through Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol, episodes dropping weekly through Christmas.

linktr.ee/livinglitpod