Новости за 25.10.2018

Kurt Vonnegut, who died in 2007, was one of Americas most gifted writers, a marvelously innovative playwright and novelist who gave us the brilliant 1969 novel Slaughterhouse Five and other books and short stories that were wildly original, tragic humor at its very best. One of his stellar works was the 1970s play Happy Birthday, Wanda June. A revival of it opened last weekend at the Duke Theater on W. 42d Street, New York. It is daffy, absurd, eclectic, bawdy and just wonderful.

Forget the Presidents’ birthdays. This autumn is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s classic monster novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, the horror story that has scared the wits out of people all over the world as a book, play and film (55 of them)). To honor Shelley, and the big stitched together, flat-headed monster with the bolts in his neck, numerous organizations are staging one of the plays, showing one or more of the films and holding discussion groups... Читать дальше...

SorosClintonObamaBrennanHolderWatersBidenDe NiroHere's who the packages with possible explosives were sent to: https://t.co/zEAs4QYcr2 pic.twitter.com/DW26O4ykr2

Senator Charles Curtis (right) with President Coolidge and Grace Coolidge on their way to the Capitol building on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1925.

Myxolydia Tyler and Johnny Ramey

I remember the Detroit race riots in the summer of 1967 clearly. Newark, N.J., near where I live, was torn apart by racial disturbances that summer, too, as were 150 other American cities. Dominique Morisseau’s play Detroit ’67 is the story of a family caught in the middle of the Detroit riots trying to hold itself together as neighborhoods burn, tanks roll down the streets and young people are gunned down by the police, National Guard and U.S. Army. In the five days of rioting in Detroit that July... Читать дальше...

I was very excited to obtain a copy of this book from a good friend for three reasons. First, he had told me that the authors offered a different, sober take on Jefferson’s Notes. Second, Jefferson’s Notes, when read from cover to cover, tells us much about the mind of the man and I am always intrigued to read scholarly literature on it. Last, like Gish and Klinghard, I too believe that the Notes is greatly misapprehended by most scholars.

Selling encyclopedias in Chicago isn’t a job everyone can say they did as a kid. One of the closing lines salesmen were taught to say was: “If you were to purchase this set, which free gift would you like?” 

Benn Steil is the Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order, which won the 2013 Spears Book Award in Financial History. His latest book, The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, examines the planning, implementation, and impact of what is often considered the most effective foreign aid program in American history. 

The first demonstration unit of the 22-square-meter “tiny house” on view in the UN Plaza in New York City (summer 2018). 

Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest. –Ella Baker

Donald Trump announced “Islam hates us” and then went on to exclude citizens of five Muslim-majority countries from the United States, on the grounds that they are inherently violent and require “extreme vetting.” In the language of critical social theory, Trump “othered” Islam, declaring it intrinsically un-American. It was Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) who introduced a new perspective on the distinction between self and other, arguing that women in her era differentiated themselves with regard to men... Читать дальше...

The following is principally derived from D. M. Giangreco’s speech at the Frank Lloyd Wright Monona Terrace Convention Center, Madison, Wisconsin, sponsored by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and Department of Veterans Affairs, and other presentations.

“Western Women Wild With Joy Over Colorado’s Election,” journalist and suffragist Caroline Nichols Churchill exclaimed, following the victory for woman suffrage at the polls in Colorado on November 7, 1893. This success made Colorado the first state to enfranchise women through popular referendum, and it happened over a quarter of a century before the achievement of national women’s suffrage in 1920. 

Left to Right: Democrats Felix Frankfurter and Byron White. Republicans Earl Warren, William Brennan, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy , David Souter 

Eugenics.Wasn’t it immoral, a pseudoscience?

It is often dismissed now in terms like these. A century ago, most educated people thought of eugenics the way we think now of genetics, as a base of scientific knowledge that can make us healthier, more attractive, more efficient. It fell out of favor in the 1950s and 1960s, when the word came to be associated with Nazi forced sterilization campaigns. In fact, sterilization laws had their start in the United States, where they were pushed for a mix of Progressive and illiberal reasons. Читать дальше...

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

—George Eliot

Bradley Bagshaw is known as an outstanding Seattle trial lawyer and an expert in maritime law. He spent decades representing individuals and families against fishing corporations and also represented parties in cases involving civil rights, including same-sex couples who were pioneers in the quest for marriage equality.

Now he’s left litigation behind and he’s embarking on a new path as a writer with his rousing debut novel Georges Bank... Читать дальше...

For many years now one of the rituals of the baseball season, along with spring training the All Star Game and the World Series is journalists and pundits announcing that baseball is less popular than ever and is no longer America’s game. This has become as much part of baseball as rookie sensations, tension filled playoff games, the news that another top pitcher needs Tommy John surgery and a big trade at the deadline. However, some perspective is necessary here. Baseball is by many measures... Читать дальше...

Statue at the Emancipation Memorial in Washington DC.

Archer Alexander was an enslaved African who fought for freedom from bondage during the American Civil War. His story recently came to light when a 23andMe genetic test showed that Alexander was an ancestor of Muhammad Ali. He was Ali’s great-great-great grandfather, although Ali did not know of the relationship and probably did not know Alexander’s story.

Alexander’s biography was written and published in 1885 and is available... Читать дальше...

Writing in 1926 Albert Einstein made a discovery of another’s scientist’s work which he thought was equal to his own accomplishments. “The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us that the human race is poor in independent thinking and creative imagination. Even when the external and scientific requirements for the birth of an idea have long been there, it generally needs an external stimulus to make it happen” man has to stumble right up against the thing before the idea comes.”

The dreaded cookies.

James W. Loewen is a sociologist.  The New Press has just brought out new paperbacks of Loewen's bestseller, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and Sundown Towns, about places that were/are all-white on purpose. 

America has too many lawyers. Or at least, higher ed does.  

Consider Princeton. This week I spoke at its Department of History, co-sponsored by the Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding. But first I had to sign a contract. 

Princeton sent me a doozy. Читать дальше...

In an article published in HNN on October 8, 2018, Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi criticizes the Middle East Studies Association for the concerns it expressed regarding the partnering of theNew York Times with George Washington University (GWU)’s Program on Extremism (POE) to “produce a public archive of thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) documents the newspaper retrieved from northern Iraq.”He notes the importance of access to materials to write the history of this period, and reports that he himself... Читать дальше...

Throughout the The Prince and his other political works, Machiavelli cautions that internal subversion is the most dangerous consequence of a prince losing the trust of his subjects. To guard against this, a prince must never appear frivolous, unprincipled, fickle, or shallow. Instead, he must always appear to adhere to “certain values of virtu.” If he can do this, a prince will avoid the greatest danger of all: revolt from within. “Internal subversion is more perilous than external attacks,” Machiavelli cautions... Читать дальше...

The Midwest is the heartland of America, both in history in the past, and in the political present and future.

Like many people, I have watched over the past few weeks as women have been attacked from all sides. This is, unfortunately, nothing new. Yet, what has occurred over the course of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination process has been particularly painful for many women. As Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick have faced an all-out assault for daring to ask for accountability and justice, I watched as women I knew had their own pasts, their own trauma, brought to the surface. I watched... Читать дальше...