The Big Winter Snow
Before Christmas each year, long before the first flake fell, my brother and I would start whispering about the snow—the […]
The Art of the Compromise
Revised and Updated Paperback Edition Arrives November 22 November 22 marks an anniversary worth remembering. On that day in 1787,
The Day the Judiciary Lost Its Cool
How the Bork hearings turned the Supreme Court into a partisan stage When Senator Ted Kennedy rose on the Senate
The Founding Myth — A Nation of Settlers?
A new talking point circulates through certain corners of the Internet: America is a nation of settlers, not immigrants. The
When Anger Finds a Target
Free speech under fire: what Charlie Kirk’s murder reveals about us, not them. I am a conservative and a Republican.
The M&M Fallacy: What Candy Teaches Us About Race and Genetics
Preface I hesitated to write this post. Conversations about race carry deep history and emotion, and as a white American,
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TBRCon 2025: Building the Conversation
The Tennessee Book & Reader’s Convention (TBRCon) returned to the Knoxville Expo Center on September 13–14, and so did I.
Breaking News: How Assassination Shaped American Media—and Vice Versa
How fast truth travels determines how a nation grieves. In 1865, the newspaper made Lincoln’s death a story of unity
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The Hall Monitors of Democracy
(or, Why I Don’t Trust Fact-Checkers) A certain species of modern hall monitor exist who now patrols the internet instead
The Day a Flame Went Out
This weekend, I’m beginning the journey of writing my next nonfiction book. The idea has been simmering for a while: