Ancient Greece and Rome are venerated throughout our society — including by the far right. Is this a misappropriation and misuse of the ideals of Greco-Roman antiquity? Classical scholar Curtis Dozier argues that when white nationalists appeal to ancient thinkers to justify their reactionary ideas, there is surprisingly much to draw from.

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Entomologist Douglas Tallamy discusses what we can do to stem the extinction crisis — the loss of habitat and plant and animal species — by transforming the places where we live.

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Capitalism has transformed the world like no other force, which historian Sven Beckert calls a fundamental break in human history. Beckert traces the emergence and expansion of capitalism, arguing that we can best understand the present by coming to terms with its past.

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A year into Trump’s second term, the power and fortunes of the ultra-wealthy have only grown — following half a century of policies boosting the rich. Economist Rob Larson discusses Trump’s economic agenda, the pillars of his support in tech, and the ways the 1% exercises power, including through the media.

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Last autumn Italian workers shut down their country in opposition to the Gaza genocide. In the United States, in contrast, labor activists wanting to take a stand in solidarity with Palestinian workers are frequently chastised for trying to involve their unions in the affairs of other countries. Yet labor historian Jeff Schuhrke illustrates that U.S. unions have long been involved in Palestine — for almost a century supporting Zionism and then the state Israel. (Encore presentation.)

National Labor Network for Ceasefire

Jeff Schuhrke, No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine Haymarket Books, 2025

Photo by Nikolas Gannon on Unsplash

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Employers regularly check the background of potential workers for criminal records, even though claims that such checks predict their diligence or trustworthiness are dubious. Anthropologist Melissa Burch reflects on how criminal background checks became commonplace — and what vested interests maintain their ubiquity.

Afterlives of Conviction Project

Melissa Burch, The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America Princeton University Press, 2026

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Did Charles Darwin influence Karl Marx? Joel Wainwright argues that Darwin significantly shaped Marx’s understanding of historical change — with implications for how we meet the ecological crisis today. And he reflects on the potential role of strikes and boycotts in moving beyond capitalism.

Joel Wainwright, The End: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis Verso, 2025

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Was the populist far right a reaction to neoliberal free market fundamentalism? Or, as historian Quinn Slobodian argues, did such rightwing currents come out of the ideas of neoliberalism itself? Slobodian reflects on neoliberal thinkers’ preoccupation with racist and misogynistic ideas of human nature and intelligence, borders and gold — all in service to their war on the left. (Encore presentation.)

Quinn Slobodian, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right Zone Books, 2025

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The Trump administration uses antifascism as a term of abuse and has branded Antifa domestic terrorists. Yet antifascism has a long but often little known history in the U.S.  Journalist Christopher Mathias describes the efforts of radicals to unmask and dismantle the far right.

Christopher Mathias, To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right Atria Books, 2026

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The groundswell of opposition to Trump’s deportation agenda has been astounding. But there has been a long history of immigrants opposing the U.S. state’s efforts to terrorize and deport them. Historian Adam Goodman discusses the struggles mounted by immigrant workers in the 1970s, the 2006 immigrant workers general strike, and the necessity of organizing lasting movements for change.

Adam Goodman, The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants Princeton University Press, 2021

Adam Goodman, “Barring the Gates: A History of Political Exclusion and Family Separation in Cold War America,” Labor (2021) 18 (1): 54–66.

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