Editing Crooked Timber

{{Short description|Political blog}}
{{for|the album by Therapy?|Crooked Timber (album)}}'''Crooked Timber''' is a blog with a left-of-center political slant, primarily administered by academics from countries like{{vague|date=December 2023}} the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The blog's name is inspired by a quotation from philosopher [[Immanuel Kant]]: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made," from his 1784 essay "[[Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose]]". The liberal philosopher [[Isaiah Berlin]] alluded to the quotation in his 1990 book ''The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas.'' Crooked Timber frequently hosts online book events and includes contributions from a variety of experts in fields such as philosophy, political science, and sociology.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

== History ==

Crooked Timber was founded in July 2003 as a merger of several individual blogs, including Junius and Gallowglass, along with some new contributors. Additional members were added over subsequent months until the group reached an agreed optimum of 15 members.<ref>{{cite web|author=Kieran Healy |url=http://crookedtimber.org/2004/03/30/the-full-lineout/ |title=The Full Lineout — Crooked Timber |publisher=Crookedtimber.org |date= 30 March 2004|accessdate=2009-09-30}}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=April 2024}}

Crooked Timber ranked in [[Technorati]]'s Top 100 blogs between 2003 and 2005 and is still widely linked to in the academic [[blogosphere]]. On March 9, 2008, it was listed as number 33 in [[The Guardian]]'s list of the world's 50 most important blogs.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs |title=The world's 50 most powerful blogs &#124; UK news &#124; The Observer |publisher=Guardian |date= 2008-03-09|accessdate=2009-09-30 | location=London | first=Jessica | last=Aldred}}</ref> On April 15, 2011, an article on academic blogs in [[The New York Times]] listed Crooked Timber as one of seven influential examples of the type, describing it as having "built a reputation as an intellectual global powerhouse".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17blog-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all |title=Big Blog on Campus |work=New York Times |date= 2011-04-15|accessdate=2011-04-17 | location=New York | first=Pamela | last=Paul}}</ref>

Crooked Timber has held several online book events, during which a subset of members (and often also invited guestbloggers) read a book and each write a blog post about it, either a review or a post inspired by the book.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

== Current contributors ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2024}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Occupation
|-
| Chris Bertram
| Political philosopher at the [[University of Bristol]], UK
|-
| [[Harry Brighouse]]
| Political philosopher at the [[University of Wisconsin, Madison]]
|-
| [[Henry Farrell (political scientist)|Henry Farrell]]
| Political scientist at [[Johns Hopkins University SAIS]]
|-
| Maria Farrell
| Director of Information Coordination, [[ICANN]]
|-
| [[Eszter Hargittai]]
| Sociologist at [[Northwestern University]]
|-
| John Holbo
| Philosopher at the [[National University of Singapore]]
|-
| [[Serene Khader]]
| Philosopher and feminist theorist at [[Brooklyn College]]
|-
| [[John Quiggin]]
| Economist at the [[University of Queensland]], [[Australia]]
|-
| [[Ingrid Robeyns]]
| Political Philosopher at the [[Erasmus University Rotterdam]]
|-
| Miriam Ronzoni
| Political philosopher at the [[University of Manchester]]
|-
| Gina Schouten
| Philosopher at the [[Harvard University]]
|-
| Belle Waring
| Trained as a Classicist at Berkeley; living in [[Singapore]]
|}

== Former contributors ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2024}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Occupation
|-
| Tedra Osell
| Freelance editor, California
|-
| [[Jon Mandle]]
| Political philosopher at [[University at Albany, The State University of New York|SUNY Albany]]
|-
| Niamh Hardiman
| Senior Lecturer at [[University College Dublin]]
|-
| [[Michael Bérubé]]
| Professor of American literature and cultural studies at [[Pennsylvania State University]]
|-
| Ted Barlow
| Economic consultant in [[Houston]], TX
|-
| Tom Runnacles
| [[Software developer]] in the city of London, previously studied philosophy at [[Oxford University]]
|-
| [[Micah Schwartzman]]
| Professor at the [[University of Virginia School of Law]]
|-
|Daniel Davies
|Financial industry analyst; former stockbroker and economist
|-
|[[Kieran Healy]]
|Sociologist at [[Duke University]]
|-
|Scott McLemee
|Writer, [[Inside Higher Education]]
|-
|[[Eric Rauchway]]
|Professor of History at [[UC Davis]]
|-
|[[Corey Robin]]
|Political Theorist at [[Brooklyn College]]
|-
|[[Astra Taylor]]
|Documentary film maker and fellow of the [[Shuttleworth Foundation]]
|-
|[[Brian Weatherson]]
|A philosopher at [[The University of Michigan]]
|-
|Richard Yeselson
|Contributing editor at [[Dissent (American magazine)]]
|}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Official site|http://www.crookedtimber.org/}}

[[Category:Philosophy websites]]
[[Category:Political blogs]]
[[Category:Economics websites]]


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