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JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

If you prefer your articles in podcast interview form, I'm on the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast chatting about it here reutherlib.blubrry.net/2025/10/09/u...

October 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

My guys

September 2, 2025 at 4:27 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

Great piece about the linked fates of nonprofit and public sector workforces in this moment nonprofitquarterly.org/the-case-for...

April 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

Mahmoud Khalil needs to be free immediately

Mahmoud Khalil Is Moved to Immigration Detention in Louisiana

Mahmoud Khalil is a permanent resident of the United States. His arrest sets up a fight over free speech and immigrant rights.

www.nytimes.com

March 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM

Reposted by JB

Modern American History

@modamhist.bsky.social

We're excited about this new article by John Branch on first view! Check it out!

JB @jbranch.bsky.social · Mar 6

From 1951-1976, the NLRB exempted most nonprofit organizations from union recognition. What does this trajectory tell us about changing notions of the nonprofit economy and its role in American society?

New article from me, open access @modamhist.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1017/mah....

Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976 | Modern American History | Cambridge Core

Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976

doi.org

March 6, 2025 at 4:24 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

From 1951-1976, the NLRB exempted most nonprofit organizations from union recognition. What does this trajectory tell us about changing notions of the nonprofit economy and its role in American society?

New article from me, open access @modamhist.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1017/mah....

Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976 | Modern American History | Cambridge Core

Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976

doi.org

March 6, 2025 at 2:32 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

It does seem like what gets most left-of-center Americans out in the streets is social inequality and violence enacted upon those on the wrong end of it—and if mass protests are a part of your plan to fight corruption, defend the constitutional order, etc. that’s probably the necessary entry point

Erin Vanderhoof @vanderhoofy.bsky.social · Mar 4

funny to see the lawfare guy complaining that no one is out on the streets protesting ~all this~ because iirc he was very, very dismissive about protests in the summer of 2020

March 4, 2025 at 9:42 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

"NYU Langone management may think they’d better stay on their biggest donor’s good side. They should think twice, though, because Ken Langone isn’t the biggest donor to NYU. That title goes to the taxpayers of New York City."

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Feb 21

NYU Langone and other wealthy hospitals are capitulating to Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ and immigrant New Yorkers — while enjoying hundreds of millions of dollars in local tax breaks every year.

I wrote about their publicly-subsidized cowardice at @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social.

Zohran Mamdani: How Much Does NYU Langone Owe New York City?

A wealthy hospital system is caving to Donald Trump on LGBTQ and immigrant rights, writes socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — while receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in ...

jacobin.com

February 21, 2025 at 6:25 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

Here's what I see as the upshot. To put a finer point on it: Trump, Musk, and the rest of the American right are leaving the contradictions of "Cornuellism" behind. Those committed to democracy and economic justice should too—by fighting for a robust public sector

After Nixon, Cornuelle abandoned direct engagement with politics, but subsequent Republican efforts to encourage the supplanting of government programs with private voluntary ones—from the Reagan administration’s President’s Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives to George H.W. Bush’s “Thousand Points of Light”—reflected his ideas. So, too, did efforts in the 1970s of other self-appointed sector advocates from the center-right to the center-left of the political spectrum—including John D. Rockefeller 3rd, John Gardner, Waldemar Nielsen, and the collective voice of the Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. In the language of Cold War liberalism, these figures framed civil society organizations as a bulwark against authoritarianism, and they often echoed Cornuelle’s diagnosis of a private voluntary sector under threat from an ever-growing administrative state. That the name of the organization that emerged from this decade of efforts at self-definition was Independent Sector was likely no coincidence.

Advocates for the sector’s well-being may respond by doubling down on well-worn rhetorical grooves, emphasizing nonprofits’ distance from the state and the importance of their autonomy and independence. Yet such an approach carries risks: the constituency for this narrative, forged in the political environment of the Cold War and the reaction to the growth of the administrative state, seems to be disempowered and shrinking. In its place is a movement that, in Rothbardian fashion, prioritizes personal enrichment and unchecked private power over the very notion of shared social obligations. In this political moment, the fates of the private nonprofit sector and the welfare state are profoundly linked, both ideologically and materially. Perhaps this presents an opportunity for a new vision—one that unapologetically embraces the central role of the public sector in creating and maintaining a democratic and egalitarian society.

February 18, 2025 at 7:06 PM

JB

@jbranch.bsky.social

Wrote a piece for one of my favorite websites, HistPhil, about the historical roots of the vibe shift on the American right when it comes to the nonprofit sector histphil.org/2025/02/17/r...