History doesn’t end when we close the book.
I write about the past because it gives us another way to understand the questions we continue to wrestle with in the present— liberty, rights, government, citizenship, violence, education, and the ideas we use to make sense of the world around us.
Some of what you’ll find here comes directly from my work as a historian. Some comes from my interest in political thought. And some begin with something happening today that makes me wonder: How did we get here?
I don’t write because I believe history gives us an easy answer to every contemporary problem. Usually, it doesn’t.
I write because history gives us context. It complicates our assumptions, challenges convenient narratives, and reminds us that the world we inherited was made by people—and therefore could have been made differently.
This is where I explore those questions.
Explore My Writing
History & Borderlands
Texas, Mexico, the borderlands, American history, and the people and events that shaped them.
Political Thought
Liberty, authority, citizenship, democracy, sovereignty, political philosophy, and the ideas behind political life.
Politics & Society
Contemporary questions examined through history and political thought.
Education & Intellectual Life
Teaching, learning, reading, writing, and the value of serious intellectual inquiry.
Essays & Commentary
Ideas, observations, arguments, and questions that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.