Jonathon Catlin
@joncatlin.bsky.social
Intellectual history, German & Jewish studies, climate catastrophe | Postdoc at the University of Rochester Humanities Center | PhD from Princeton | Edits @jhideas.bsky.social | Rochester • NYC • Berlin 🏳️🌈
https://rochester.academia.edu/JonathonCatlin
https://rochester.academia.edu/JonathonCatlin
Pinned
Jonathon Catlin
@joncatlin.bsky.social
· Nov 25
The special issue of New German Critique on "German Memory Politics at a Crossroads," which I co-edited with Andreas Huyssen and the late Anson Rabinbach, is finally starting to look real! It will be out in February 2026.
ngc.arts.cornell.edu/forthcoming....
ngc.arts.cornell.edu/forthcoming....
Cautionary tales
February 11, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Cautionary tales
As I am always saying…
February 5, 2026 at 2:32 AM
As I am always saying…
This Holocaust Remembrance Day, what is it that must we remember? "The fact that the culture of remembrance has succeeded in placing the supposed concern for Jewish life in the service of an anti-immigrant agenda completes the logic of German rehabilitation initiated in the early 1980s."
Deutschlands staatliche Erinnerungskultur entstand nicht aus moralischen, sondern aus geopolitischen Erwägungen. Was bis heute fehlt, ist eine ehrliche historische Aufarbeitung, die sich den Opfern des Nationalsozialismus und nicht dem deutschen Eigeninteresse verpflichtet fühlt.
Die deutsche Erinnerungskultur ist eine Kultur des Vergessens
Deutschlands staatliche Erinnerungskultur entstand nicht aus moralischen, sondern aus geopolitischen Erwägungen. Was bis heute fehlt, ist eine ehrliche historische Aufarbeitung, die sich den Opfern des Nationalsozialismus und nicht dem deutschen Eigeninteresse verpflichtet fühlt.
jacobin.de
January 27, 2026 at 4:11 PM
This Holocaust Remembrance Day, what is it that must we remember? "The fact that the culture of remembrance has succeeded in placing the supposed concern for Jewish life in the service of an anti-immigrant agenda completes the logic of German rehabilitation initiated in the early 1980s."
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
Today on the podcast, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Quinn Slobodian on his latest book, “Hayek's Bastards." From Murray Rothbard to Javier Milei, Slobodian looks to "Hayek's bastards" to show the ties between neoliberalism and today's Far Right. @quinnslobodian.com
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
Hayek’s Bastards: Disha Karnad Jani Interviews Quinn Slobodian
by Disha Karnad Jani On this episode of In Theory, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Quinn Slobodian about his latest book, Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right (Zone Bo...
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 21, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Today on the podcast, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Quinn Slobodian on his latest book, “Hayek's Bastards." From Murray Rothbard to Javier Milei, Slobodian looks to "Hayek's bastards" to show the ties between neoliberalism and today's Far Right. @quinnslobodian.com
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
In this latest addition to the JHI Blog’s Forum on political economy, Arielle Xena Alterwaite turns to C.L.R. James’s classic reading of Moby-Dick to reflect not solely on the substance of intellectual history and political economy, but also on the various styles in which this history can be told.
“Spread a Rainbow Over His Disastrous Set of Sun”: The Comedy of Colonial Enlightenment
by Arielle Xena Alterwaite
This essay is part of a JHI Blog forum, "The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History."
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 26, 2026 at 3:17 PM
In this latest addition to the JHI Blog’s Forum on political economy, Arielle Xena Alterwaite turns to C.L.R. James’s classic reading of Moby-Dick to reflect not solely on the substance of intellectual history and political economy, but also on the various styles in which this history can be told.
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
M. Gessen, gift link: The soviet secret police too "were ruled by quotas... Fundamentally, the terror was random. That is, in fact, how state terror works. The randomness is the difference between a regime based on terror and a regime that is plainly repressive"
Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 1:55 PM
M. Gessen, gift link: The soviet secret police too "were ruled by quotas... Fundamentally, the terror was random. That is, in fact, how state terror works. The randomness is the difference between a regime based on terror and a regime that is plainly repressive"
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
Save the date for this webinar event next week including our @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social colleague Jannis Grimm alongside esteemed colleagues Dirk Moses Matthias Goldmann, Christine Binzel, Amos Goldberg, Raz Segal, and Aurelia Kalisky.
www.deutsche-juristinnen-voelkerrecht.org/seminar-nie-...
www.deutsche-juristinnen-voelkerrecht.org/seminar-nie-...
January 21, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Save the date for this webinar event next week including our @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social colleague Jannis Grimm alongside esteemed colleagues Dirk Moses Matthias Goldmann, Christine Binzel, Amos Goldberg, Raz Segal, and Aurelia Kalisky.
www.deutsche-juristinnen-voelkerrecht.org/seminar-nie-...
www.deutsche-juristinnen-voelkerrecht.org/seminar-nie-...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
Latest episode of Nullpunkt is out now - on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
This week’s guest: @dirkmoses.bsky.social
This week’s guest: @dirkmoses.bsky.social
January 26, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Latest episode of Nullpunkt is out now - on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
This week’s guest: @dirkmoses.bsky.social
This week’s guest: @dirkmoses.bsky.social
For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, Barry Trachtenberg criticizizes the moral abdication of @historians.org re. Palestine. Its leaders' decision to twice veto resolutions condemning scholasticide in Gaza "is not merely disappointing. It is antidemocratic and morally evasive."
jacobin.com/2026/01/hist...
jacobin.com/2026/01/hist...
Historians Have a Duty to Condemn Scholasticide in Gaza
An overwhelming majority of American Historical Association members voted earlier this month to condemn scholasticide in Gaza. AHA leaders overruled members to block the measure, opting for cowardice ...
jacobin.com
January 20, 2026 at 10:20 PM
For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, Barry Trachtenberg criticizizes the moral abdication of @historians.org re. Palestine. Its leaders' decision to twice veto resolutions condemning scholasticide in Gaza "is not merely disappointing. It is antidemocratic and morally evasive."
jacobin.com/2026/01/hist...
jacobin.com/2026/01/hist...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
I hope all Jews and anyone who cares about us will read this excellent article by Jewish historian Barry Trachtenberg on "The End of Antisemitism: How the Fight Against Hate Became a Weapon of Repression"
contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-curre...
I'm going to thread some of my highlights.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-curre...
I'm going to thread some of my highlights.
The End of Antisemitism: How the Fight Against Hate Became a Weapon of Repression | Contending Modernities
By insisting that Israel deserved special treatment because of Jewish suffering the Israeli state and its supporters reinforced and exploited the very logic of antisemitism they claimed to oppose.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
December 19, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I hope all Jews and anyone who cares about us will read this excellent article by Jewish historian Barry Trachtenberg on "The End of Antisemitism: How the Fight Against Hate Became a Weapon of Repression"
contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-curre...
I'm going to thread some of my highlights.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-curre...
I'm going to thread some of my highlights.
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
After the segment was pulled last month, its correspondent told colleagues in an internal email that this decision by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was a “political one”.
CBS Airs ‘60 Minutes’ Segment On Deported Migrants That Was ‘Spiked’ Last Month
After the segment was pulled last month, its correspondent told colleagues in an internal email that this decision by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was a “political one”.
www.forbes.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:35 AM
After the segment was pulled last month, its correspondent told colleagues in an internal email that this decision by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was a “political one”.
“It is sometimes said that Schmitt’s Großraum inspired Hitler, but in fact Hitler had called for a ‘German Monroe doctrine’ as far back as 1923, more than 15 years earlier.” Also: “Trump is not a fascist but a narcissist.” - Brendan Simms for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Has a Nazi theorist’s vision of a world divided into 'great spaces' found a new advocate in Trump? | Brendan Simms
Carl Schmitt wanted empires that dominated the small countries in their orbits. But the US president’s chaotic actions are not that strategic, says Brendan Simms, director of the Centre for Geopolitic...
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2026 at 4:27 AM
“It is sometimes said that Schmitt’s Großraum inspired Hitler, but in fact Hitler had called for a ‘German Monroe doctrine’ as far back as 1923, more than 15 years earlier.” Also: “Trump is not a fascist but a narcissist.” - Brendan Simms for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
While the US was defunding universities, China was synthesizing food from the air! Zhejiang University, which now tops Harvard in research output, only broke into the top 100 universities in 2017. Truly a meteoric rise. The 21st century does not belong to the U.S.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
January 15, 2026 at 3:25 PM
While the US was defunding universities, China was synthesizing food from the air! Zhejiang University, which now tops Harvard in research output, only broke into the top 100 universities in 2017. Truly a meteoric rise. The 21st century does not belong to the U.S.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Facundo Rocca discusses the relationship between modern rationalizations of unjust labor, ecological destruction, and the rise of the Caribbean slave trade.
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
How Reason Cultivated Abstraction: The Plantation Roots of Economic Modernity
by Facundo Rocca
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum: “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 12, 2026 at 2:49 PM
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Facundo Rocca discusses the relationship between modern rationalizations of unjust labor, ecological destruction, and the rise of the Caribbean slave trade.
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
Mississippi’s largest synagogue was set on fire before dawn Saturday. Fire department ruled it arson, and a suspect has been arrested.
It is the same synagogue that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights. mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...
It is the same synagogue that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights. mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...
Predawn fire reduces parts of Mississippi's largest synagogue to charred ruins - Mississippi Today
A fire heavily damaged Jackson’s only synagogue before dawn Saturday – the same house of worship that was firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 because the rabbi had been an advocate for civil rights...
mississippitoday.org
January 11, 2026 at 12:31 PM
Mississippi’s largest synagogue was set on fire before dawn Saturday. Fire department ruled it arson, and a suspect has been arrested.
It is the same synagogue that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights. mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...
It is the same synagogue that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights. mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
“We could take the oil facilities, you know, put troops in there. We could kill leaders of the regime. Presumably, you could do another raid or you could use drone strikes and you could kill some of them. There’s a lot more things we could do.”
– regular conversation in the New York Times.
– regular conversation in the New York Times.
January 7, 2026 at 12:04 PM
“We could take the oil facilities, you know, put troops in there. We could kill leaders of the regime. Presumably, you could do another raid or you could use drone strikes and you could kill some of them. There’s a lot more things we could do.”
– regular conversation in the New York Times.
– regular conversation in the New York Times.
These photos from New Year's Eve 1989 in Berlin, two months after the wall came down, capture the fashion of wearing Palestinian keffiyehs on parts of the German left in the '70s and '80s. A forgotten history, and perhaps also the origins of the Antideutsch critique? Source: The Berliner Magazine
December 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
These photos from New Year's Eve 1989 in Berlin, two months after the wall came down, capture the fashion of wearing Palestinian keffiyehs on parts of the German left in the '70s and '80s. A forgotten history, and perhaps also the origins of the Antideutsch critique? Source: The Berliner Magazine
Elad Lapidot in @blnreview.bsky.social: If "war is collective deconstruction" of conflictual worldviews, the moral catastrophe in Gaza marks a breakdown of conceptual foundations akin to other turning points in intellectual history.
blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...
blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...
December 30, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Elad Lapidot in @blnreview.bsky.social: If "war is collective deconstruction" of conflictual worldviews, the moral catastrophe in Gaza marks a breakdown of conceptual foundations akin to other turning points in intellectual history.
blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...
blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Nate Holdren elaborates three levels of analytical abstraction at which intellectual historians invoke the term "political economy," turning our attention to the way that capitalism structurally conditions ignorance of the social totality.
Three Meanings of Political Economy: Reflections on Intellectual History, Marxism, and Capitalism’s Unthought
by Nate Holdren
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Nate Holdren elaborates three levels of analytical abstraction at which intellectual historians invoke the term "political economy," turning our attention to the way that capitalism structurally conditions ignorance of the social totality.
Reposted by Jonathon Catlin
From the NYT today, 2 charts on the brokenness of American politics:
December 27, 2025 at 3:11 PM
From the NYT today, 2 charts on the brokenness of American politics:
Thrilled to see this out!
December 27, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Thrilled to see this out!
In which Habermas "regards the Frankfurt School tradition as 'more alive' in the US than in Germany."
My Habermas review for the FT www.ft.com/content/9f89... Jürgen Habermas: Germany’s political and cultural phenomenon
Jürgen Habermas: Germany’s political and cultural phenomenon
Two new books bring fresh insights into the philosopher who has towered over seven decades of German public life
www.ft.com
December 24, 2025 at 6:26 PM
In which Habermas "regards the Frankfurt School tradition as 'more alive' in the US than in Germany."
Do I start my nephew’s teen existential crisis off early by giving him this for Christmas?
December 23, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Do I start my nephew’s teen existential crisis off early by giving him this for Christmas?
In @thediasporist.bsky.social, @dirkmoses.bsky.social asks whether Holocaust memory has run its course: "If anyone has killed belief in Holocaust memory, it is Western political classes whose misuse of it to justify an undeniable evil have destroyed its currency."
thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...
thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...
Is Holocaust Memory Over? – the Diasporist
How the German political and media classes have hollowed out the lessons of history
thediasporist.de
December 23, 2025 at 4:22 PM
In @thediasporist.bsky.social, @dirkmoses.bsky.social asks whether Holocaust memory has run its course: "If anyone has killed belief in Holocaust memory, it is Western political classes whose misuse of it to justify an undeniable evil have destroyed its currency."
thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...
thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...