Crooked Timber is a blog leaning left-of-center politically primarily administered by academics. 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". It includes contributions from a variety of experts in fields such as philosophy, political science, and sociology.

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 16 to 17 members.

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. 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; a sort of global philosophical thinktank conducted via blog.".

Crooked Timber has held several online book events, during which a subset of members (and often also invited guest bloggers) read a book and each write a blog post about it, either a review or a post inspired by the book.[non-primary source needed]

Current contributors

NameOccupation
Chris ArmstrongPolitical theorist[non-primary source needed]
Chris BertramPolitical philosopher at the University of Bristol, UK[non-primary source needed]
Harry BrighousePolitical philosopher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison[non-primary source needed]
Henry FarrellPolitical scientist at Johns Hopkins University SAIS
Maria FarrellDirector of Information Coordination, ICANN
Eszter HargittaiSociologist at Northwestern University
John HolboPhilosopher at the National University of Singapore[non-primary source needed]
Serene KhaderPhilosopher and feminist theorist at Brooklyn College[non-primary source needed]
John QuigginEconomist at the University of Queensland, Australia[non-primary source needed]
Ingrid RobeynsPolitical Philosopher at Erasmus University Rotterdam[non-primary source needed]
Miriam RonzoniPolitical philosopher at the University of Manchester[non-primary source needed]
Eric SchliesserPhilosopher[non-primary source needed]
Gina SchoutenPhilosopher at Harvard University[non-primary source needed]
Belle WaringTrained as a classicist at Berkeley; living in Singapore[non-primary source needed]

Former contributors

NameOccupation
Tedra OsellFreelance editor, California
Jon MandlePolitical philosopher at SUNY Albany
Niamh HardimanSenior Lecturer at University College Dublin
Michael BérubéProfessor of American literature and cultural studies at Pennsylvania State University
Ted BarlowEconomic consultant in Houston, TX
Tom RunnaclesSoftware developer in London, previously studied philosophy at Oxford University
Micah SchwartzmanProfessor at the University of Virginia School of Law
Daniel DaviesFinancial industry analyst; former stockbroker and economist
Kieran HealySociologist at Duke University
Scott McLemeeWriter, Inside Higher Education
Eric RauchwayProfessor of History at UC Davis
Corey RobinPolitical theorist at Brooklyn College
Astra TaylorDocumentary film maker and fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation
Brian WeathersonA philosopher at The University of Michigan
Richard YeselsonContributing editor at Dissent (American magazine)

External links