Author Archive

Tom Cutterham

Tom Cutterham is the Sir Christopher Cox Junior Fellow in History at New College, Oxford. Tom studied Ancient and Modern History at St Hugh's College, Oxford, where he stayed to do an MSt in US History, followed by his DPhil on social and political thought in revolutionary America.

The other day I was standing in the gift shop at the National Museum of American History staring at the display of donkey- and elephant-branded merchandise when a stocky white guy in his mid-thirties came over and grabbed an armful of red GOP t-shirts and a large metal “Republican and Proud” plaque. “Can’t resist,” he said to me. I suppose he thought I would be sympathetic because I was wearing a t-shirt that said “Sports!” in that curly American writing that Coca-Cola has probably trademarked. “I work in healthcare,” he told me, after I nodded and grinned mutely like the weak-kneed liberal I am at heart. “Everyone around me is a Democrat. And I own my own business, so…” So, …