Lil’ Jacobins

Jonah gratefully drags a harried Niall Ferguson onto the show, which begins with Angela Merkel ...

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Jonah gratefully drags a harried Niall Ferguson onto the show, which begins with Angela Merkel and ends with “copious quantities of claret.” Listen to Jonah and Niall — mostly Niall, of the Mellifluous Voice — speak in tongues, lament the destruction of critical thinking in universities, and sneak in a jab at Woodrow Wilson [dun dun dun].

Show Notes:

–Angela Merkel on “the toughest situation” in Europe’s history

–Communities of fate, coined by our grave German friends

–The New Republic’s contest for the most boring headline

–Rescuing the nation-state, commentary by Alan S. Milward

–Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire by Niall Ferguson

–That whom Niall is not

–The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations, by Paul Kennedy

–Cornell, guns-on-campus

–Too many educated men, by Boyle

–NBER paper on how more people actually stayed home during the protests

–Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

–Civilization: The West and the Rest, by Niall Ferguson

–Piece by Niall and Eyck Freymann

–Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence Of Racism, by Derrick Bell

–For fun, the Yale Course Catalog, which Jonah perused a few years ago

–ExpressVPN.com/Remnant for 3 months free off a year-long plan

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Comments (38)
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  1. Frank Pepp

    I wasn't terribly impressed with Naill. He conflated too many things. His description of "history" was weak, perhaps purposely so. His understanding of the protest superficial and self serving. Combining the mob with the movement. He wouldn't acknowledging actual grievances we can all agree on. Simply, he was not a terribly productive or useful narrator, if a divisive and provocative one.

    Jonah is much more nuanced even when he does the same things.

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  2. Kevin Sunday

    I'm a bit unclear what Niall's actual view on these protests are. At first, he said it's a "fake kind of revolution." And then, later on, says that iconoclasm usually accompanies all sorts of murder and upheaval.

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  3. Dr. Joe

    I must confess that being an Armstrong and Getty on-air completist limits my ability to listen to every Remnant podcast (they're so long, and my commute is one-third shorter thanks to COVID-19), but I do manage to listen to every solo "Ruminant" (they are strangely comforting). Then I pick and choose the Remnants with the best guests, like KDW, Skarbek, Stirewalt and Ferguson. But I'm writing because I simply must know: where is the drum intro from??? Please enlighten us.

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  4. David Williams

    I know that this is sort of throwing out a gauntlet at our beloved host, but I want to say that Jonah is completely wrong about trying to recapture the old institutions. His heart is in the right place, but I'm not sure that he understands how the hiring and maintenance of faculty works. I'm on staff at a private liberal arts college (I'm not faculty) and my father

    1. Faculty are hired by a committee process. A faculty personnel committee of some kind oversees the process. The chair of the department will choose several (usually three) top candidates. Their CVs are given to the committee. Then the candidate is invited to campus where he or she is interviewed by the other members of the department and by the personnel committee. Usually the candidate will also talk to the majors in the department and maybe even do a lecture. Then the chair will get feedback from the committee, the students, anyone else who might have been asked, and make his recommendation. I've rarely, if ever, seen the chair recommend a candidate not approved by the committee. Then the Provost makes the hiring decision.

    2. Now you are hired. You work for three years. In your third year the faculty personnel committee will review your work. They will look at your published material, student feedback, input from your peers, they will also observe you in class. At the end of that process they will recommend that you either continue or that they end your contract. Let's say that they like you and you get to do this all over again in another three years where they will determine tenure.

    3. Now you've been employed for six years. The committee observes you in the classroom, they look at your publications, they look at your student reviews, they take feedback from peers. Then the committee recommends that you either receive tenure or that you do not. If you do not receive tenure then you are usually allowed one more year to work and look for a job elsewhere. Better hope that you didn't piss off anyone over the last six years because that person could always end up on a committee. I've seen committee members with an axe to grind make damn sure that their colleague did not continue his employment.

    4. YAY! You made it. You have tenure. Unless you steal something or start banging the students you are safe. Now I want you to consider something. All of these personnel decisions are made by faculty. They look at what you publish. They look at what you teach. I can guarantee you that some of them are "friends" and "followers" on social media. They watch your ass for seven years. What makes you think that conservatives are going to get through this process? Oh, maybe in math and sciences (BIG maybe in sciences). I mean if you are a geologist you aren't worried about the effects of igneous rocks on transgender rights. So maybe you can duck the world around you. But history? Literature? Any of the humanities or the social sciences?

    The only way to get through would be to act like some kind of undercover agent. Lie, produce work that you don't believe in. Teach things that you think are wrong. Not teach things that you think are right. Then, after seven years of lying to all of your colleagues both in professional and personal settings you would suddenly come out of the closet. Now what? You are alone, pretty much hated as a liar and a fraud. Way to go!

    New institutions don't have the same cache that Harvard and Yale have. But you aren't going to get Harvard and Yale. But there are lots of highly respected, non-ivy league schools. MIT wasn't always respected. Johns Hopkins. The University of Chicago wasn't a big deal 100 years ago. It takes time. But that's the Conservative advantage. We believe in the long run. Build top notch institutions that people want to go to. Hire great faculty and keep tuition low. It will work.

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  5. Collin Saunders

    You should talk to Hillsdale Prof. D.G. Hart about the Christian Right. He seems to have his finger on what Trump is playing when executing “christian nationalism.” Another great choice would be John Fea.

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    Kaitlin Johnson

    For one I would love a long conversation about Schumpeter! I’m currently working my way through Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy and the more help I could have in interpreting it the better!

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    Angie

    I enjoyed that and Mr Ferguson, and I love his accent...lol
    I had never heard him before and he made a lot of good points...

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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    I listened to Ayaan Hirsi Ali being interviewed by Peter Robinson a few days ago on Uncommon Knowledge. I was beyond impressed, and NOW I find out she and Niall Ferguson are married!! Love both of them, and just getting a kick out of this recent discovery! (I realize I’m not adding anything intellectual here, but sometimes it’s nice to lighten up.)

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    Kevin Johnson

    Great stuff. Service announcement: listen to pod “The Art of Persuasion” with Sarah and David and have everyone you know do so. Really, really good and some hope in dark times.

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      Anne W (Raw5254)

      Thanks for recommending. I don’t think I’ve listened to that one.

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        Angie

        It was good, plus, the new site they are talking about sounds really interesting, plus...they are going to have a real book club...lol

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          Anne W (Raw5254)

          I was excited about that, too. But, I just discovered it’s $100/year to join. I’m not criticizing them; however, my husband and I already have subscriptions to a number of things (including The Dispatch), and that’s just too much for us. I’m disappointed!

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            Angie

            Yeah, I can't afford it right now either but figured I would read the free stuff and when I can I would join...

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  10. ROBERT

    Niall Ferguson makes an awesome fill in guest! I vote to make him a regular. I really enjoyed this episode. My advice to him is to go with his father's first name choice: Icarus. That's a badass name and is fitting since he comes across as an intellectual badass! I'm certainly not going to debate him on anything.
    Now if he wants to get students to attend his class on The Reformation, then I suggest he take it up a notch and go with Kid Icarus, from the fantasy action video game. Pit, aka Kid Icarus is a badass himself - at least he is in Super Smash Brothers. College boys could not resist taking a class by a professor with the name Kid Icarus!

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