Henry M J Tonks
@henrymjtonks.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for the Study of American Democracy, Kenyon College | Historian of Liberalism & U.S. since 1960s | PhD @bostonu.bsky.social | Politics, cinema, cities, food | All views my own
Reposted by Henry M J Tonks
Our last research article from 8.2: @henrymjtonks.bsky.social looks at Lowell, MA, as an example of how deindustrialization & urban decay in the 1970s forced policymakers to focus on public-private partnerships as mechanisms of economic regeneration
Read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
September 16, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Our last research article from 8.2: @henrymjtonks.bsky.social looks at Lowell, MA, as an example of how deindustrialization & urban decay in the 1970s forced policymakers to focus on public-private partnerships as mechanisms of economic regeneration
Read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Thank you! I’d be curious to hear more/what you cited it for, feel free to drop me a message.
August 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Thank you! I’d be curious to hear more/what you cited it for, feel free to drop me a message.
The Biden Administration strove to enact an ambitious reset of American economic policy. For @washingtonpost.com, I explored historical parallels in the rise – and demise – of the Atari Democrats and high-tech industrial policy in the Eighties. www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist...
Perspective | Biden is reviving a lost Democratic industrial policy playbook
Biden is deploying ideas developed to compete with Japan in the 1980s to stay ahead of China in 2022.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
The Biden Administration strove to enact an ambitious reset of American economic policy. For @washingtonpost.com, I explored historical parallels in the rise – and demise – of the Atari Democrats and high-tech industrial policy in the Eighties. www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist...
“The populace is unaroused.”
For @washingtonpost.com, I rewatched Warren Beatty’s underrated political satire “Bulworth” – a movie that predicted (or warned us about?) the rise of populism. www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist...
For @washingtonpost.com, I rewatched Warren Beatty’s underrated political satire “Bulworth” – a movie that predicted (or warned us about?) the rise of populism. www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist...
Perspective | 25 years later, ‘Bulworth’ proves prescient
The film is a trenchant political critique — one that explains much of what has happened since then.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
“The populace is unaroused.”
For @washingtonpost.com, I rewatched Warren Beatty’s underrated political satire “Bulworth” – a movie that predicted (or warned us about?) the rise of populism. www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist...
For @washingtonpost.com, I rewatched Warren Beatty’s underrated political satire “Bulworth” – a movie that predicted (or warned us about?) the rise of populism. www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-hist...
There’s more on the Nineties, as well! For @publicbooks.bsky.social, I reviewed two brilliant reassessments of the decade’s politics: @pastpunditry.bsky.social’s “Partisans” and Lily Geismer’s “Left Behind.” www.publicbooks.org/what-the-199...
What the 1990s Did to America
The 1990s are usually seen as a moment of tranquility. Cold War won, business booming, history at an end. Nothing could be further from the truth.
www.publicbooks.org
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
There’s more on the Nineties, as well! For @publicbooks.bsky.social, I reviewed two brilliant reassessments of the decade’s politics: @pastpunditry.bsky.social’s “Partisans” and Lily Geismer’s “Left Behind.” www.publicbooks.org/what-the-199...
For “Public Seminar,” I reviewed @brentcebul.bsky.social’s “Illusions of Progress” – an essential read for understanding modern American liberalism. Cebul’s book bears revisiting in the aftermath of “Bidenomics.” publicseminar.org/2023/06/can-...
Can American Liberalism Reinvent Itself? - Public Seminar
Illusions of Progress reinterprets neoliberalism as growing out of midcentury and postwar liberalism rather than emerging in opposition to it.
publicseminar.org
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
For “Public Seminar,” I reviewed @brentcebul.bsky.social’s “Illusions of Progress” – an essential read for understanding modern American liberalism. Cebul’s book bears revisiting in the aftermath of “Bidenomics.” publicseminar.org/2023/06/can-...
How much love, sex, fun, and friendship can a person take?
For @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I explored how “The Big Chill” explains modern American politics, what happened to the Sixties, and how the film makes sense of the passage of time. lareviewofbooks.org/article/you-...
For @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I explored how “The Big Chill” explains modern American politics, what happened to the Sixties, and how the film makes sense of the passage of time. lareviewofbooks.org/article/you-...
You Can Always Get What You Want: On “The Big Chill” and American Politics | Los Angeles Review of Books
Henry M. J. Tonks explains how Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Big Chill” gets generational politics all wrong—and why we still need to watch it.
lareviewofbooks.org
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
How much love, sex, fun, and friendship can a person take?
For @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I explored how “The Big Chill” explains modern American politics, what happened to the Sixties, and how the film makes sense of the passage of time. lareviewofbooks.org/article/you-...
For @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I explored how “The Big Chill” explains modern American politics, what happened to the Sixties, and how the film makes sense of the passage of time. lareviewofbooks.org/article/you-...
Perhaps relevant again after this year’s electoral earthquake, for @time-magazine.bsky.social I wrote about Jimmy Carter’s role in the rise of “anti-politics” and America’s crisis of faith in government. time.com/6328709/jimm...
How Political Outsiders Destroyed Trust in Government
By convincing Americans government was incompetent, their rhetoric made it impossible to deliver what voters want.
time.com
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Perhaps relevant again after this year’s electoral earthquake, for @time-magazine.bsky.social I wrote about Jimmy Carter’s role in the rise of “anti-politics” and America’s crisis of faith in government. time.com/6328709/jimm...
Marsha Barrett’s “Nelson Rockefeller’s Dilemma” is an ambitious new history of the triumph and tragedy of midcentury moderate Republicanism. I reviewed it for “Public Seminar.” publicseminar.org/2024/09/nels...
How Moderate Republicans Went Extinct - Public Seminar
Henry Tonks reviews Marsha E. Barrett’s new book on Nelson Rockefeller and the disappearance of moderate Republicans from American politics.
publicseminar.org
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Marsha Barrett’s “Nelson Rockefeller’s Dilemma” is an ambitious new history of the triumph and tragedy of midcentury moderate Republicanism. I reviewed it for “Public Seminar.” publicseminar.org/2024/09/nels...
Nostalgic for the Nineties? I reconsidered America’s “holiday from history” for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social, reviewing @lioneltrolling.bsky.social’s “When the Clock Broke” and @nelsonlichtenstein.bsky.social & Judith Stein’s “A Fabulous Failure.” www.phenomenalworld.org/reviews/back...
Back to the ‘90s | Henry Tonks
On Ganz’s “When the Clock Broke” and Lichtenstein and Stein’s “A Fabulous Failure”
www.phenomenalworld.org
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Nostalgic for the Nineties? I reconsidered America’s “holiday from history” for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social, reviewing @lioneltrolling.bsky.social’s “When the Clock Broke” and @nelsonlichtenstein.bsky.social & Judith Stein’s “A Fabulous Failure.” www.phenomenalworld.org/reviews/back...