U.S. Intellectual History Blog

Welcome to Robin Marie Averbeck and Eran Zelnik!

Today is a big day for blog announcements. First, I’m delighted to welcome two new bloggers to our roster of regulars this week.   Starting tomorrow, Eran Zelnik will become – along with Kurt Newman – our second Tuesday blogger. Eran is a History PhD candidate at UC Davis, working on a dissertation tentatively entitled “The Comical Style in America: Humor and the Making of a White Man’s Democracy,” which traces the rise to dominance of a democratic comical style and the demise of a genteel style in the early years of the US. His work contends that vernacular humor stood at the center of the cultural project that established common white men as a ruling caste.

Our second addition is likely familiar to many readers of this blog. Robin Marie Averbeck has guest blogged for us on a number of occasions and is a frequent commenter on this blog. She will become our second Thursday blogger, joining Tim Lacy. Robin Marie has a PhD in American history from UC Davis and studies post-war liberalism. Her dissertation and future book – “‘Want in the Midst of Plenty’: Social Science, Poverty, and the Limits of Liberalism” — focuses on the contribution of liberals and some leftists to what is known as “the culture of poverty.” She argues that the post-war liberal discourse about poverty helped set the stage for the political culture of the New Right by shaping and contributing to many of its key assumptions and tendencies.

Please welcome them both to the USIH Blog!

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