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Jimmy Carter's Biggest Failure as President
The 39th President laments his failure to be reelected—and his failure to keep the Democratic Party unified. -
America Is a Laboratory for Religious Experiments
America has always been a magnet for those fleeing religious persecution, particularly those displaced by the Thirty Years War and the backlash against the religious liberalism of the Renaissance. -
How Did American Politics Become So Polarized
Alan Abramowitz is the Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory, and a renowned expert on national politics and elections. His expertise includes election forecasting models, party realignment in the United States, congressional elections and the effects of political campaigns on the electorate. His latest book is “The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy." -
The Moral Burden of Dog Tags
The “Untold War” author first became interested in the psychology of combat by observing her father’s tight-lipped silence about World War II.
Topics
History
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IdeaFeed
How to Become More Creative
about 8 hours ago
What's the Latest Development? First, stop searching for the creativity formula. When Steve Jobs was designing Pixar's office space, the computer graphics company he founded between gigs at Apple, he wanted to locate the building's only bathrooms in a center atrium, forcing people to interact ... Read More
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IdeaFeed
NASA Breakthrough Could Revolutionize Medicine
3 days ago
What's the Latest Development? NASA's Space Biosciences Division has created a new medical tool for astronauts that could vastly improve the health of millions of Earth-bound patients. A tiny biocapsule to be implanted beneath the skin was designed to solve the problem of radiation poisoning ... Read More
Latest Ideas
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Standardized Testing: The Monster That Ate American Education
7 days ago
What's the Big Idea? As the Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration, Educational historian Diane Ravitch became known for her push to establish national standards for K-12 education. From 1997-2004, she served as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board ... Read More
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The Humble Beginnings of China's Economy
21 days ago
What is the Big Idea? It turns out that ground zero for China's economic boom was in Xiaogang, a small, rural farming village in the Anhui Province. On the night of Nov. 24, 1978, farmers from 18 households in this village drafted and signed a secret document that changed the way their ... Read More
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Who is the Real Martin Luther King, Jr.?
27 days ago
What is the Big Idea? Some of the most memorable photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King are of him standing behind a podium with his fists clenched and his arms raised. This image of King is further reinforced by his famous I Have a Dream speech where he exudes power and confidence while ... Read More
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Václav Havel's Velvet Legacy
about 1 month ago
What's the Latest Development? Timothy Garton Ash writes that the late Václav Havel, who oversaw his country's bumpy transition to democracy, was the epitome of a dissident, "because he persisted in this struggle, patiently, non-violently, with dignity and wit, not knowing when or even if the ... Read More
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China's Skill in Stealing America's Secrets
2 months ago
What's the Latest Development? China's success in obtaining the secret design of the American W-88 nuclear warhead illustrates what U.S. counterintelligence agencies have been slow to see: China not only has global economic clout, it has a top-class espionage service, even penetratring the F.B.I ... Read More
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How Will Future Historians See Us?
2 months ago
What's the Big Idea? What will historians say about our time 100 years from now? How will our world be remembered? According to Lawrence Summers, economist and former President of Harvard, a civilization's legacy has more to do with the work of its many teachers and thinkers -- artists ... Read More
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How Will Future Historians See Us?
2 months ago
Important aspects of how we live today will shock the consciences of those who look back on us, says Summers, just as we are shocked by the consciences of those in the past. What will change the way we see the world? Individuals, protests, new philosophies, and better thinking. Read More
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The Value of Forgotten Ideas
3 months ago
In this selection from his Floating University lecture, Dr. Jeffrey Brenzel presents five takeaways from reading the classics. Read More
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The Value of Forgotten Ideas
3 months ago
Editor's Note: Over the next 12 days, Big Think will be running excerpts from all the lessons that make up our first online course, Great Big Ideas. During this period, we are offering discounted subscriptions to Big Think readers. You can now subscribe and gift this course for $99. Please sign up ... Read More
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Why we Stopped Accepting Mass Atrocities
3 months ago
What's the Latest Development? Gareth Evans examines what saw the world go from complete ideological division on the response to mass-atrocity crimes to the current overwhelming consensus on the basic principles of the "responsibility to protect" (R2P) doctrine. One reason it caught on is that R2P ... Read More
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