In an article published by Chronicles, titled “Wokeness and Capitalism,” Neema Parvini argues that “the woke prerequisites – mass immigration, feminism, equality laws, etc. – are the inevitable fruits of capitalism.” He argues that capitalism “pretends to make individuals ‘sovereign’ after drawing them into the labor pool, while neutralizing their attempts at political organization.”

History often remembers the 1962 coup in Myanmar as a sudden seizure of power by a power-hungry general. However, from the failed 1948 coup to the one-party authoritarian socialist regime of the 1960s, the roots of Myanmar’s military dictatorship were grown in the soil of radical leftism and their totalitarian ideology. To understand why the military refuses to leave the political stage today, it’s important to look at the politicians who taught the generals that they were the only ones capable of leading a revolution.

Britain and the United States are often described in the same breath: advanced economies that have moved beyond industry into services, finance, and knowledge work. On paper, the similarity looks strong. Services dominate employment and output in both countries, manufacturing has receded, and global cities anchor national growth. Yet the resemblance is superficial. The kinds of services each country produces, and the economic roles those services play, are profoundly different.

[The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy by Peter Winch (Routledge, 2008 [1958]; xxix  +136pp.)]

The Supreme Court has struck down the Trump tariffs that he has been setting in the past year, claiming emergency powers. The majority found that the Constitution “very clearly” gives Congress the power to impose taxes, which include tariffs.

“The economy is actually booming.”—Richard Bernstein, guest on CNBC, January 15, 2026

“The US economy just delivered a shock. Third-quarter gross domestic product grew at a 4.3% annualized pace, far exceeding expectations and marking the biggest expansion in two years.”—Nicole Goodkind, “The Economy Is Heating Up. Why the Experts Keep Getting It Wrong,” Barron’s, December 24, 2025

When moving away from superficial, cartoonish, and caricatured history, the importance of context and distinctions becomes obvious. Part of the task of responsible history is to show how things are often more complicated than first assumed. The Civil War is an important historical event in which this is evident. Zooming in on just one aspect of the US before the Civil War, it is key to understand the role of the federal legal protections of slavery.