Tim Shenk

The left is struggling, rightwing populists are on the march, and democracy is under threat. This is a story about a global political revolution that I don't think either the left or right has truly reckoned with. And it’s the story you can read here. globalreports.columbia.edu/books/left-adr…

I'm heartbroken by the Post's decision to eliminate its books coverage. The actual fact of my job aside, the existence of a standalone books section felt like a real celebration of a culture of literacy, dialogue, and even debate. It was a place to discover and celebrate.

Check out the the oh-so-many other responses here. bostonreview.net/forum/how-not-…

I'm part of @BostonReview's symposium of everyone on what Democrats should do next. My case: if you want to save democracy, try believing in it. bostonreview.net/forum/how-not-…

really incisive point by timothy shenk here. if you really don't think voters have policy preferences and vote accordingly, it's hard to actually justify democracy

@souljagoyteller @DavidAstinWalsh In a class that included @ngperkins, who went on to write this brilliant discussion of the piece jacobin.com/2025/12/waitin…

@DavidAstinWalsh For future reference, I got this from @Tim_Shenk

Does anyone have a copy handy of that Walter Lippmann essay on the challenges of municipal socialism? (@souljagoyteller I think I've seen you tweet about it before?)

Le livre s’intitule "Left Adrift: What Happened to Liberal Politics". Il est paru en 2024. Son auteur, Timothy Shenk @Tim_Shenk , est un historien et essayiste américain, aujourd’hui rédacteur en chef de la revue Dissent – l’une des grandes revues intellectuelles de la gauche américaine.

Always grateful to The Nation for letting me doing an interview series. Here’s the interviews I did for 2025: 1. Peter Gordon: thenation.com/article/cultur…

For those surprised by the Carville op-ed, will take the opportunity to plug "Left Adrift," by @Tim_Shenk, and its account of the economic populism of Clinton '92.

Excited to share some advance reviews for The United States and the Ends of Empire from @BloomsburyAcad . Huge thanks to @samuelmoyn and @Tim_Shenk for their generous comments. Check them out below or via the link! bloomsbury.com/us/united-stat…

Latest @EquisResearch poll & memo— on the state of play after ‘25 elections— are out today, as featured by @daveweigel

The always great @ngperkins on the forgotten history of Schenectady socialism and its lessons for Mamdani, with an extended cameo from a young/brilliant/radical Walter Lippmann jacobin.com/2025/11/lunn-s…

Bonus - What Happened to Liberal Politics? w/ @Tim_Shenk Historian Tim Shenk is on the program to help us make sense of what happened to liberalism in the past century, and how we got to the place we are now. Link below 🔽

Excellent, on-the-ground look at the challenges facing Democrats in rural America from Nick Perkins, one of Jon Tester's former interns (and one of my very best students) thenation.com/article/politi…

This piece makes a smart argument, no?

YES. Dan @osbornforne running for the U.S. Senate in my home-state (Nebraska) and @ZohranKMamdani running for mayor of my city ( ew York) are both the sort of Democrats we need now. Honest likable outsiders focused on populist economics. Gift link below.

The piece is also, sotto voce, a belated intervention in the for/against polling debate of a few weeks back. Public opinion is a real force that has to be reckoned with, but there’s still a place for leadership in molding coalitions—and major opportunities for the left

Wrote about how Dan Osborn and Zohran Mamdani represent two halves of a strategy that could bring together liberals and populists in a new progressive majority to fight for working people who have been stuck playing a rigged game

This is an updated version of the most reliable strategy for building Democratic majorities since the New Deal, and the secret to Bernie’s success over the last decade

Free link here: nytimes.com/2025/09/29/opi…

@asymmetricinfo @mattyglesias I think it’s fairer to say that even though the piece mentions immigration/guns (and climate), it focuses on making the case *for* a lib-populist coalition rather than explaining how to get there—which is obviously important, but also a different piece

@mattyglesias @Tim_Shenk It’s worse than that! He mentions that Osborn is well to the right of Dems on guns and immigration, then proceeds to resolutely ignore the implications of that