Five years ago today—so my wife Laura tells me; I had thought we’d reached this point a couple of weeks ago—this blog was launched. Since then, I’ve written 901 posts, totaling, I’m guessing, about a million words, which has provoked some 16,000 comments. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, my posts are guaranteed to reach at least 30,000 people (there’s overlap in these audiences so I’m subtracting a good amount to try and account for that), and on a good day, anywhere from 10 to 20 thousand readers will come to the blog and read its posts there. I often cross-post at Crooked Timber, where I’m a regular blogger, or Jacobin, so the readership for any one post can be even higher. I started this blog […]

I’m pleased to announce that after years of frustration with the current design of the blog, I’ll be launching today a redesigned blog. Remeike Forbes, the aesthetic visionary behind Jacobin—he’s given the magazine its distinctive look, a look that captures the magazine’s original animating spirit, both intellectual and political, as no one article quite can—has been working on the redesign, off and on, for a long time. The new design is simpler, it’s more adaptable to various platforms, the text is a lot more legible (something many of you complained about over the years), and it’s got some cool features like a nifty timeline where you can scroll easily to find posts. All the links will remain the same, and if you’re a […]

I’m very happy to say that I’ll be joining the Editorial Board of Jacobin; actually, it seems I already did in December!  Since it appeared about a year or so ago, Jacobin has been publishing some of the most interesting stuff on the web. Anytime Peter Frase or Mike Beggs or Seth Ackerman has something posted over there, I drop everything and read it right away. Also, they’ve got Remeike Forbes, the smartest and coolest designer I’ve had the pleasure of talking (and listening!) to since I worked with Ginny Blaisdell at HERE. Lastly, they’ve got Bhaskar Sunkara, the young visionary behind it all, an intellectual and political impresario I insist on describing as the “Philip Rahv of our age.” […]