Slave states, anticipatory obedience, here come the floods: Weekend reads for October 5, 2024

What we've been reading this week

As we do each weekend, we’ve collected the most intriguing things we’ve read that have gotten us thinking throughout the week — so we can share some of the best writing and most interesting ideas we’ve found online with you.

But before you venture out onto the internet, we wanted to make sure everyone who might have missed it got a chance to read this interview with philosopher Jason Stanley on why American education has come under attack from the far right, and what that has to do with our reluctance to call out fascism for what it is, right here at The Ink.

---

A request for those who haven’t yet joined us: The interviews and essays that we share here take research and editing and much more. We work hard, and we are eager to bring on more writers, more voices. But we need your help to keep this going. Join us today to support the kind of independent media you want to exist.

---

Readings

New York, slave state

By January 1861, when South Carolina had formally seceded, Wood’s message grew bolder. He recommended that New York secede as well, so that, “as a free city, [it] may shed the only light and hope of a future reconstruction of our once blessed Confederacy.” In language eerily similar to that used by right-wing policy architects in 2024, Wood warned, “We are in the midst of a revolution bloodless as yet.” That November, Wood spoke before constituents at the Volks Garten, a German beer hall on the Bowery. A huge bonfire raged outside the building, clogging the air with thick smoke. Inside, members of the German Democratic Club made sure that the press table was well stocked with frothy mugs of lager and wine by the bottle, and a band played “I Wish I Was in Dixie.” Wood whipped up the crowd with a speech in which he claimed that the Union government had far exceeded its authority, interfering with daily liberties and subsuming citizens under tyranny. [The Atavist]