I'm dissatisfied with this blog. Come join me at my new one.
My new site, The Garden of Memory, is a purer reflection of who I am and what I want to say.
I’m going to be leaving Substack. The bottom line is this: if you want to keep up with me, my thoughts and my writing, here is where you’ll find me. It’s my new site, called the Garden of Memory. Here is its purpose as plainly stated as possible. I’d be delighted if you subscribed. If you’re interested in why, and what you might find there, read on.
I’m a literary creature. I’m surrounded by books all day long. Words are my stock in trade, and how I earn my living—speaking them to students or other clients, writing them for readers in books and on blogs, and attempting to build from them some basis of understanding the strange and puzzling world that we live in. Substack is my fourth stop along what’s proven to be a lengthy road of trying to find a home for my words on the web. You can read about the broader story of this journey here, if you’re interested. Of my various encounters on this road, Substack has been, quite frankly, one of my least favorite stops, with the possible exception of Medium. I never liked the interface. Its functionality is limited. And there’s the rather troubling matter of how Substack has been courting and weaponizing antivaxx nuttery and transphobia for clicks. I have trans students in my classes; one of my best friends is nonbinary. It’s getting harder every day to find tech companies with ethical practices, but Substack makes me more uncomfortable than most.
When Substack was heating up, circa 2019-20, one of its major pitches to writers was that it was an easy way to build a newsletter—not just a blog—and monetize it (if you were okay with the site taking a 10% cut). Invariably the “look what you could be” examples were journalists and pundits, most of whom already had their own portable audiences built elsewhere who were willing to follow them here. I’ve discovered Substack is not really that good at building an audience from scratch, that is, if you aren’t already famous from writing columns on Slate or Buzzfeed. It’s also not as well suited for writers who don’t fit into the paradigm of journalists, pundits, or aggregators/curators of information—”today’s stock tips” or “five hot links for Friday’s tech news.” In short, Substack is not very imaginative, much less flexible.
Most of what I’ve written here, or at least most of what’s gotten the most eyeballs, are articles I felt compelled to write. I feel strongly that climate change is an event of immense upheaval that very few people are prepared to think about, much less deal with. I also feel that American political society is on the verge of a very dark crossroads, and most Americans are burying their heads in the sand as to what this means and what it’s likely to lead to. I come to these opinions mainly from my study of history, which is my primary identity. But there’s only so many times you can ring the warning bell—especially if the world isn’t listening—without getting burnt out and sinking into despair. Substack’s natural paradigm of journalistic-like writing makes it less of a natural fit for the kind of articles I really wanted to do here, like this one (which I think is the best I’ve ever done on this blog), and which consistently achieved considerably less opens and reads than my articles on climate change or creeping fascism.
So, I’m rebooting. The Garden of Memory is a site that’s going to be focused mainly on history, a little bit on culture, and with a slightly more philosophical and humanistic bent than I’ve usually taken here. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won’t, and in a few months I’ll have to decamp for yet another digital home. (Incidentally, it’s built on Ghost, which is a non-profit competitor to Substack). But I don’t like the way this blog has progressed, I don’t like what it makes me think about, and it’s time for a change.
The Garden of Memory is going to have three tiers of content. You can read about what they are here. There will be articles for free, that anybody can read with or without a subscription. There is a tier of members-only content, more in-depth analyses that won’t be publicly available. And, if all goes well, beginning in March (assuming my sprouts in the Garden are coming up all right), there will be a tier of paid content, which will include glimpses of my works-in-progress such as books and videos, and more research-intensive, truly nuts and bolts historical stuff. I may recycle some of my “greatest hits” from Substack, but the Garden will not be a strict rerun.
I’ve established the Garden of Memory with a specific purpose in mind. Here it is, on the page I’ve decided I will link on every single post on the site:
The value of history is that it is the carrier of civilization. Everything we are as a people, as a common humanity, is the sum total of our history. By contributing to history, remembering it, documenting it, analyzing it and understanding it, we're carrying on civilization. So that's the basic value proposition here: to carry on civilization. That's what historians do, but it's not a calling exclusive to us. If it was, this publication would be aimed at professionals in their ivory towers. It isn't.
Civilization is, at the moment, under threat. Global warming and its attendant disasters are already causing immense upheaval in human society. The rise of fascism, in the United States, Europe and around the world, threatens us with a new dark age. It's no accident that authoritarians in many countries are targeting history, and the teaching and dissemination of it, as a primary goal of their political agendas. One of the purposes of this publication is to resist, defy, mock, and thwart the anti-historical (and ahistorical) plans of would-be authoritarians.
I hate to ask you to sign up for something else. I’m as tired of usernames and passwords as you probably are, but unfortunately that’s how the internet works. I’d change it if I could. If you’d like to join me in my Garden, you’ll be welcome there. If this is where we ultimately part ways, I want to thank you for reading and subscribing up until now. Take care of yourself in this chaotic, unraveling world we live in. We are all a part of history. Try to make your corner of it worthy of remembering.
☕ If you enjoy what I do, buy me a virtual coffee from time-to-time to support my work. I know it seems small, but it truly helps.
🎓 Like learning? Find out what courses I’m currently offering at my website.
📽 More the visual type? Here is my YouTube channel with tons of free history videos.