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Steve Hochstadt

Steve Hochstadt is a writer and an emeritus professor of history at Illinois College.

  • Mar 27, 2018

    We Are Killing Ourselves

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Since Europeans arrived in America, about one-third of plant and animal species in the Western hemisphere have become extinct. Another quarter are at risk of extinction.

  • Mar 20, 2018

    Who Are The People?

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Under the guise of “populism”, conservatives seem to attack “elites” from below, but actually focus on attacking social groups regarded as different from above. In Trump’s America and in many European countries, right-wing political formations of white Christians attack immigrants, those with darker skin, Muslims and sometimes Jews as not belonging to “the people”.

  • Mar 13, 2018

    Promise and Flaw in Organized Religion

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Last year was the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 1517 proclamation of objections to Catholic Church practices. Luther masterfully used the new technology of printing to spread his ideas. But the religious community he wished to create was welcoming only for those who followed his lead. Luther condemned in the strongest terms anyone who refused to give up their religion for his.

  • Feb 27, 2018

    Kids Versus Guns

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Right now, the political engagement of young Americans for gun control is very high. Can the kids accomplish politically what generations of adults have not be able to do – prevent further school massacres?

  • Feb 20, 2018

    President Trump Versus Trump Voters

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Will Trump’s so-called “base” ever wake up? Does he have to shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue before his supporters recognize who he is? Or was he right that even that won’t hurt him?

  • Feb 2, 2018

    Justice: Late, But Not Too Late

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Some Americans apparently feel that men are under attack. I disagree – men who abuse women are under attack and it’s about time
  • Jan 23, 2018

    The Greatest Show on Earth

    by Steve Hochstadt

    I didn’t expect much more than a bit of diversion from the new film about P.T. Barnum, “The Greatest Showman”. A musical biopic from Hollywood is rarely a source of thoughtful history or powerful emotion. But “Greatest Showman” delivered something unexpected: a morality tale appropriate to 21st-century America.
  • Jan 16, 2018

    Dangerous Words in the White House

    by Steve Hochstadt

    It is difficult to find a clearer expression of white supremacy than Trump’s words to a gathering of Senators in the Oval Office.
  • Jan 9, 2018

    The Biggest Personality of the Year

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Trump is blowing up our relationships with all our most important foreign friends. He is not the biggest peacemaker, as we have long hoped our Presidents could be. He is not the biggest promoter of democracy, which we have long claimed is our national interest. He is not the best advertisement for America, not the face we wish to show the world. His work is a world-wide disaster.

  • Dec 30, 2017

    Arcing Toward Equality in 2017

    by Steve Hochstadt

    American liberals have been thrown into despair in 2017 by the new nastiness of American politics. But behind the headlines, our country has been evolving in directions that liberals could find encouraging.

  • Dec 12, 2017

    Keeping the Blacks Far Away

    by Steve Hochstadt

    American cities used zoning laws to direct new construction and to control where people lived. Black people were harmed in the process.
  • Dec 6, 2017

    Santa’s On His Way

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The Republicans say that the best way to help the rest of us is to give billions now to the wealthy and to corporations. They will be so happy that they’ll raise everybody’s wages and create new jobs.
  • Nov 28, 2017

    Political Humor, Then and Now

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Tom Lehrer poked fun at serious subjects, such as racism, fascism, pollution and nuclear war. Listening to him skewer racist hypocrites, imagine World War III, and exaggerate the effects of poisons in our air and water certainly contributed to the development of my political views.
  • Nov 22, 2017

    This Tax Cut Is Not For You

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The Republican tax cut is not about economic policy and is certainly not for the middle class. It is political legislation about economic issues: cut corporate taxes to satisfy Republican donors and try again to kill Obamacare.
  • Nov 14, 2017

    Election 2017: Repudiation of Republicans

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The Washington Post wondered whether “the Trump era will one day be remembered as the last gasp of white male privilege.” That will only happen if Trump continues his descent into national disapproval and the energy of liberal voters can be sustained through more election cycles.

  • Sep 26, 2017

    The Health of the Senate

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Republican politicians are worried about money they could raise for the 2018 elections, not about depriving millions of their health care. Their donors want to slash Medicaid, so that’s what they’ll vote for. Republican senators apparently don’t even know in detail what their bill contains.

  • Sep 5, 2017

    Payng for Big Storms

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Only an ideologically immovable force like the current Republican Party could ignore the mounting crises caused by our changing weather systems. In their refusal to acknowledge the basic facts of climate change, Republicans in Congress and the White House put Americans at risk of losing everything.

  • Aug 29, 2017

    The Character Test Is Dead

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The character test may have been turned on its head. Trump appeals to a surprisingly large segment of Americans who like nastiness, who applaud insults, who cheer bloodshed, and who hate liberals and liberal ideas. When he grabs women and laughs about it, when he tells lies about good people, when he calls journalists “sick”, when he mocks the handicapped, and when he winks at white supremacists, his supporters are happy.
  • Aug 23, 2017

    I Am An Antifa

    by Steve Hochstadt

    It was dangerous when my father and father-in-law and their whole generation went off to fight fascism on opposite sides of the globe. It was dangerous when young Americans volunteered to fight Jim Crow in the South in the 1960s. The defenders of American fascism and their fellow travelers want to make that dangerous now.