Reposted by Matthew Novak
Reposted by Matthew Novak
I’ve been revisiting the East African Campaign, which is where it all began for me in terms of studying Africa. A new perspective or analysis of Von Lettow-Vorbeck is just the ticket!
Hot off the press and #OpenAccess, check out 'Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Career as a Colonial Officer: Learning the ‘Colonial Way of War’?' by Sibylle Scheipers: doi.org/10.1080/0308...
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Career as a Colonial Officer: Learning the ‘Colonial Way of War’?
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck is best known as commander of the Schutztruppe in German East Africa during the First World War. His previous career as a colonial officer with deployments in the Boxer Rebe...
doi.org
October 23, 2025 at 2:23 PM
I’ve been revisiting the East African Campaign, which is where it all began for me in terms of studying Africa. A new perspective or analysis of Von Lettow-Vorbeck is just the ticket!
Reposted by Matthew Novak
Had some personal reflections about visiting Thaddeus Stevens' grave last year, and what it means to fight for a cause that fails.
Equality of Man Before His Creator
Last year, around Thanksgiving, my friend Cooper drove up from Washington D.C. to visit me in Lancaster, PA, where I was visiting family. Among other things, we went to pay our respects at Thaddeus…
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com
September 19, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Had some personal reflections about visiting Thaddeus Stevens' grave last year, and what it means to fight for a cause that fails.
Reposted by Matthew Novak
Folks, for Long Library, I wrote about Austen's Persuasion, and seeing the whole of a happy life, and being of use. Hope you enjoy!
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/something-...
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/something-...
Something More, Or Less, Than Gratification
On Reading Austen's Persuasion
peterraleigh.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Folks, for Long Library, I wrote about Austen's Persuasion, and seeing the whole of a happy life, and being of use. Hope you enjoy!
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/something-...
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/something-...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
😈 Announcing Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, a procedural narrative RPG by A Sharp @radiofreelunch.bsky.social and published by us!
▶ Wishlist the game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
▶ Wishlist the game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
August 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
😈 Announcing Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, a procedural narrative RPG by A Sharp @radiofreelunch.bsky.social and published by us!
▶ Wishlist the game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
▶ Wishlist the game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
I wrote about Ichiro as a player, a legend, and a stand-up comic. I don't imagine it'll spoil anything for me to say here that I think he's the coolest and most interesting baseball player I've ever seen. defector.com/ichiro-saved...
Ichiro Saved One Last Surprise For Cooperstown | Defector
A Hall of Fame case does not get built in the same way, or out of the same things, as a legend. There are plenty of Hall of Famers who managed to build compelling cases, in the methodical and accumula...
defector.com
July 29, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I wrote about Ichiro as a player, a legend, and a stand-up comic. I don't imagine it'll spoil anything for me to say here that I think he's the coolest and most interesting baseball player I've ever seen. defector.com/ichiro-saved...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
Reposted by Matthew Novak
The medieval Knights of Ethiopia: a history of the Horse in the northern Horn of Africa (1000-1900CE)
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-mediev...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-mediev...
The medieval Knights of Ethiopia: a history of the Horse in the northern Horn of Africa (1000-1900CE)
Pre-colonial Africa was home to some of the oldest and most diverse equestrian societies in the world.
www.africanhistoryextra.com
June 15, 2025 at 1:43 PM
The medieval Knights of Ethiopia: a history of the Horse in the northern Horn of Africa (1000-1900CE)
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-mediev...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-mediev...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
I wrote about Lost Highway, its thematic connections to Twin Peaks, and its place in Lynch's career-long meditation on male violence against women and the act of seeing. Big piece for me, I hope you enjoy
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/the-evil-t...
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/the-evil-t...
The Evil That Men Do
Lost Highway, Twin Peaks, and the Problem of Culpability
peterraleigh.substack.com
April 23, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I wrote about Lost Highway, its thematic connections to Twin Peaks, and its place in Lynch's career-long meditation on male violence against women and the act of seeing. Big piece for me, I hope you enjoy
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/the-evil-t...
peterraleigh.substack.com/p/the-evil-t...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
I am very excited today to publish @arobertswrites.com's essay "What Lies and Threats" - looking at nationalist myth-making in Lord of the Rings, especially for Gondor and Rohan.
Read it for free here:
www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/what-...
Read it for free here:
www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/what-...
April 4, 2025 at 8:59 PM
I am very excited today to publish @arobertswrites.com's essay "What Lies and Threats" - looking at nationalist myth-making in Lord of the Rings, especially for Gondor and Rohan.
Read it for free here:
www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/what-...
Read it for free here:
www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/what-...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
Heroic Welfare:
Abundance and Scarcity in the Funeral Games of Iliad 23
open.substack.com/pub/joelchri...
Abundance and Scarcity in the Funeral Games of Iliad 23
open.substack.com/pub/joelchri...
Heroic Welfare
Abundance and Scarcity in the Funeral Games of Iliad 23
open.substack.com
March 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Heroic Welfare:
Abundance and Scarcity in the Funeral Games of Iliad 23
open.substack.com/pub/joelchri...
Abundance and Scarcity in the Funeral Games of Iliad 23
open.substack.com/pub/joelchri...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
Link: www.foreignaffairs.com/mexico/gover...
Thanks to @kanishktharoor.bsky.social for being a wonderful editor!
Thanks to @kanishktharoor.bsky.social for being a wonderful editor!
The Governments That Survived Inflation
A policy toolkit to tame prices—and win elections.
www.foreignaffairs.com
January 15, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Link: www.foreignaffairs.com/mexico/gover...
Thanks to @kanishktharoor.bsky.social for being a wonderful editor!
Thanks to @kanishktharoor.bsky.social for being a wonderful editor!
Reposted by Matthew Novak
January 14, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Matthew Novak
Please read Adeel Mangi’s letter to President Biden. He pulls no punches, and none deserve to be pulled. aboutblaw.com/bgA0
aboutblaw.com
December 16, 2024 at 5:16 PM
Please read Adeel Mangi’s letter to President Biden. He pulls no punches, and none deserve to be pulled. aboutblaw.com/bgA0
Reposted by Matthew Novak
sorry in advance for airing out this pet peeve of mine at such preposterous length defector.com/neither-elon...
Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars | Defector
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic ac...
defector.com
September 11, 2024 at 1:05 PM
sorry in advance for airing out this pet peeve of mine at such preposterous length defector.com/neither-elon...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
I aired my id.
And I completely understand why they could not use my original headline: “Your child does not need a comms strategy.” www.npr.org/2024/07/30/n...
And I completely understand why they could not use my original headline: “Your child does not need a comms strategy.” www.npr.org/2024/07/30/n...
The antithesis of the Olympics: Using AI to write a fan letter
In one of Google’s Olympics ads, a dad uses AI tool Gemini to craft a fan letter from his daughter to an Olympian. But it’s the wrong approach to express admiration in a star athlete – and to instill ...
www.npr.org
July 30, 2024 at 5:29 PM
I aired my id.
And I completely understand why they could not use my original headline: “Your child does not need a comms strategy.” www.npr.org/2024/07/30/n...
And I completely understand why they could not use my original headline: “Your child does not need a comms strategy.” www.npr.org/2024/07/30/n...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
a bit old but i thought that this was a useful intervention and one that gets very close to my view of the relationship between race and capitalism www.societyandspace.org/articles/une...
Uneven and Combined: Some Reflections on the “Racial Capitalism” Debate
In the context of intense debate regarding the relationship between race and capitalism – and the usefulness of formulations like “racial capitalism” – William Conroy suggests a way forward through th...
www.societyandspace.org
June 10, 2024 at 11:47 AM
a bit old but i thought that this was a useful intervention and one that gets very close to my view of the relationship between race and capitalism www.societyandspace.org/articles/une...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
"We see the hierarchies of traditional rural society, and because it’s alien and exotic, we see it as natural and idyllic, instead of merely a different system for organizing labor and wealth."
good analysis on the political economy of pastoral fantasies
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/t...
good analysis on the political economy of pastoral fantasies
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/t...
The Moral Economy of the Shire
Who paid for this? There's a certain meme that I see making the rounds on Facebook every so often about the bucolic nature of life in the Shire, from Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, an...
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com
June 2, 2024 at 10:00 AM
"We see the hierarchies of traditional rural society, and because it’s alien and exotic, we see it as natural and idyllic, instead of merely a different system for organizing labor and wealth."
good analysis on the political economy of pastoral fantasies
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/t...
good analysis on the political economy of pastoral fantasies
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/t...
Reposted by Matthew Novak
I wrote about the exhausting rich-person slap-fighting over Harvard stuff (as quickly as I could) and how stories become stories. defector.com/hiding-and-s...
Hiding And Seeking With The New York Times | Defector
A story changes simply by dint of The New York Times covering it, and how the Times covers it will go a decently long way in deciding what kind of story it will become. That is something that the peop...
defector.com
January 10, 2024 at 3:57 PM
I wrote about the exhausting rich-person slap-fighting over Harvard stuff (as quickly as I could) and how stories become stories. defector.com/hiding-and-s...