Crooked Timber is a blog with a left-of-center political slant, primarily administered by academics from countries like[vague] the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of 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." Crooked Timber frequently hosts online book events and includes contributions from a variety of experts in fields such as philosophy, political science, and sociology.
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.[1]
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.[2] 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".[3]
The quotation "Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made" (Aus so krummem Holze, als woraus der Mensch gemacht ist, kann nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden) is from Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose. The liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin alluded to the quotation in The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas.
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.
| Name | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Chris Bertram | Political philosopher at the University of Bristol, UK |
| Harry Brighouse | Political philosopher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison |
| Daniel Davies | Financial industry analyst; former stockbroker and economist |
| Henry Farrell | Political scientist at George Washington University |
| Maria Farrell | Director of Information Coordination, ICANN |
| Eszter Hargittai | Sociologist at Northwestern University |
| Kieran Healy | Sociologist at Duke University |
| John Holbo | Philosopher at the National University of Singapore |
| Serene Khader | Philosopher and feminist theorist at Brooklyn College |
| Scott McLemee | Writer, Inside Higher Education |
| John Quiggin | Economist at the University of Queensland, Australia |
| Eric Rauchway | Professor of History at UC Davis |
| Ingrid Robeyns | Political Philosopher at the Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| Corey Robin | Political Theorist at Brooklyn College |
| Miriam Ronzoni | Political philosopher at the University of Manchester |
| Gina Schouten | Philosopher at the Harvard University |
| Astra Taylor | Documentary film maker and fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation |
| Belle Waring | Trained as a Classicist at Berkeley; living in Singapore |
| Brian Weatherson | A philosopher at The University of Michigan |
| Richard Yeselson | Contributing editor at Dissent (American magazine) |
| Name | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Tedra Osell | Freelance editor, California |
| Jon Mandle | Political philosopher at 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 |