Curtis Bowman

J.G. Fichte and the Atheism Dispute (1798–1800)

In 2010 Yolanda Estes and I published a book of translations and commentary devoted to Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the Atheism Dispute of 1798-1800. We had landed the book with Ashgate Publishing, who brought out an initial print run in hardback that sold a few hundred copies. I don't really know how many. No one ever gave me any sales figures.

A few years ago Ashgate was acquired by Routledge, who continued to sell the original hardback edition. Yolanda and I were happy about this, of course, but we knew that the hardback was too expensive for most people. Fortunately, though, at the end of 2020 the book was finally made available in paperback. 

This is great news. Yolanda and I put a lot of work into the book, and I've long feared that my translations would never really be read by many people because of the prohibitive expense of the hardback edition. But now the book is available at a much more reasonable price.

You can go to this page to buy the book in three formats: hardback, paperback, and as an ebook.

Richard J. Evans Reviews Thomas Childers's "The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany"

Richard J. Evans, author of a ridiculous number of books about German history, reviews Thomas Childers's The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany.

Thomas Frank Reviews Hillary Clinton's "What Happened"

I always turn to Thomas Frank for insight into how the Democrats manage to lose elections that they should be winning. So, naturally, I was intrigued by his review of Hillary Clinton's What Happened.

The professional self-satisfaction and willful blindness of the highly credentialed professional class has a lot to do with her loss, says Frank, thereby continuing the sort of criticism that he has been offering of the Democratic party for a long time.

Thomas Frank on What John Podesta's Hacked Emails Reveal About the Liberal Elite

Thomas Frank looks at what John Podesta's hacked emails reveal about the liberal elite. It's no surprise, Frank says, that they take care of themselves and their own. So if you don't belong to the meritocracy, then you're out of luck.

Frank discusses the liberal meritocracy at length in Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, especially in chapter one. 

Trying to Understand the Dallas Sniper

If you're trying to understand Micah Johnson's motivation for his attack on Dallas law enforcement, you might want to compare his case to that of Mark Essex. I don't know, maybe it will help.

I first became aware of Essex's shooting spree when I read chapter 8 of Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans: The Rise of the Modern Multiple Murderer. I was just re-reading Leyton's analysis, and I realized that one of his main sources, which I had thought was out of print, is actually currently available in paperback. I'm referring to Peter Hernon's A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper.

I haven't yet read Heron's book, but it's now on my reading list.

Dwight Garner Reviews Nancy Isenberg's "White Trash"

Dwight Garner reviews Nancy Isenberg's White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

Thomas Frank Talks About His New Book and the State of the Democratic Party

Thomas Frank just published a book entitled Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? You can watch him talk about it in this video:

I've been a fan ever since Mr. Frank published What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America in 2004. So I'm looking forward to reading his new book.

Kanan Makiya Discusses His New Novel "The Rope"

Yesterday I happened to hear part of an interview with Kanan Makiya on NPR in which he discussed his latest book The Rope, a fictionalized account of the early aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

His name rung a bell, and after I tracked down the interview on the NPR website, I realized that Mr. Makiya is the author of Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, which I read many years ago when it first appeared.

Michael Scammell Discusses the Rediscovered German Manuscript of Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon"

This is news to me. Apparently, the original German manuscript of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon was rediscovered last July after it had been missing for seventy-five years.

Michael Scammell got hold of a copy and compares it to the English translation in this article.

Thomas Frank on Donald Trump's Supporters and Their Anger at Trade Agreements

I developed a soft spot in my political heart for Thomas Frank after he published What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America in 2004. It seemed to me that he correctly identified how the Republican party uses culture-war politics to stir up white working-class voters, and that such support usually comes at the expense of their economic well-being. True, I was rather critical of Mr. Frank's handling of the importance of religious conviction, but there is much in his book that I still find convincing. Be that as it may, I take his views seriously, and so I'm always happy to come across new work from him.

In that spirit, then, I recommend that you read this article on the role that the rejection of trade agreements plays in generating white working-class support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. It's not the whole story, of course, and Mr. Frank knows as much, but he is clearly correct to pay attention to what Trump is actually saying on the campaign trail, and if you look at videos or read speeches, you'll see that Trump spends a lot of time denouncing trade agreements that he and his supporters hold responsible for gutting American manufacturing.

By the way, just so you know, both of my parents were born and raised in Kansas. I too was born there, but I grew up in Texas.