Whether it be in France or the world, I am concerned with the history of the Left. As a student of history, I don’t just investigate the “hows” and “whys” but the very words and symbols that have created the rich tapestry known collectively as the Left. In nineteenth and twentieth-century France I found the label’s contentious history. Now I am constantly discovering the various stories and myths of that most important holiday on the Left, International Workers’ Day – May Day.
An academic must publish; and only by doing so can I spread awareness of my historical interests: The First of May and the Third French Republic. Since the reader ought to know where I’m coming from, I provide complete access to everything I’ve published – whether in The Activist or in podcasts – as well as unpublished essays that I still stand by. If you click on Normal Thoughts, you will find the blog posts of myself and those of my friends and comrades. Thank you for coming to this blog.
The Activist – Young Democratic Socialists of America
Illinois State University and the University of Luxembourg
The Blog
Weeks Were Decades Happen
The era of Assad is over. Turkish-aligned Syrian rebels, first coming out of a small pocket in Idlib, captured Aleppo before driving south without being stopped. At the same time,…
Balli Kombëtar, Albanian Fascism, and the Death of Nineteenth-Century Nationalism
I’ve recently returned to my Albanian history ways. I became interested in the subject after my application to be a Peace Corps English teacher in Kosovo was accepted. I began…
On the (im)Proper Uses of Public Space
19 June. I have a free day in Paris. My thesis has been submitted, Léa (with whom I have been spending my time with since Andy returned to the States)…
Historical Joy, or Why I Wrote My Thesis
This blog will be brief. My master’s thesis is now complete and I wish to share it with the world. My supervisor will probably emphasize the unscientific nature of my…
Petits miracles
Andrew (Weeks) has commented on the miracle of walking since he arrived in Paris. I can sympathize and I want to argue in favor of a second miracle that we…
May Day in Paris
No amount of romanticism can prepare you for a Paris May Day. After a brief speech by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the march began. The man had said little but he was…
The Political and the Apolitical Historian
I was recently introduced to Reinhart Koselleck by an article in aeon (an excellent magazine, by the way) about his historical theories. The article juxtaposes Koselleck with the communist Eric…
It’s Politics, Stupid!
At a one-day conference about public ceremonies in the Fifth Republic that I recently attended, Xavier Darcos gave a short presentation about France Mémoire, the organization that he is the…
Normal Thoughts 