Review Essays
It now seems indecent, given the almost total amnesia enveloping this celebrated enterprise, to pose any tart questions about what actually happened at Second City; something that might stumble beyond the booster reviews, cozy nostalgia, and promo brochures. When amnesia corrodes to official memory it seems downright unpatriotic to suggest that the place now reeks…
Read Full Article...John Ehrenberg, J. Patrice McSherry, Jose Ramon Sanchez and Caroleen Marji Sayej, eds. The Iraq Papers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Thomas Ricks, The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. When future generations analyze the Iraq War I hope they concentrate on the tactics…
Read Full Article...Books reviewed in this essay: Jack McLean, Loon: A Marine Story (Ballantine Books, 2009) Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011) Karl Marlantes, What It Is Like to Go to War (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012) Mourn for the Marines. Had our country only learned from “Mad Jack” Percival’s…
Read Full Article...Books reviewed in this essay: Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press (Voices From the Underground), edited by Ken Wachsberger Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media In America, by John McMillian. On the Ground: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S., edited by…
Read Full Article...This timely and important collection brings together a group of prominent geneticists, biologists, medical researchers, psychologists, philosophers, and historians to engage in what Stephen Jay Gould in The Mismeasure of Man referred to as “debunking as positive science”: “sound debunking must do more than replace one prejudice with another. It must use more adequate biology…
Read Full Article...Books reviewed: Power to the People: The Graphic Design of the Radical Press and the Rise of the Counter-Culture, 1964-1974, edited by Geoff Kaplan. Full Circle: The Life & Works of Karl-Heinz Meschbach, written by Karen Black. BUSTED! It was late 1968, after the protests and repression around the Democratic Convention. KOed by asthma,…
Read Full Article...Chris Hedges is nothing if not a prolific and thoughtful writer. His latest book presents what he sees as the best method for achieving the goal of a more prosperous future for the American working class, and anticipates what kind of response those who rebel against the current order might expect from the corporate state.…
Read Full Article...Books Reviewed in this Essay: Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race. London and New York: Verso, 2012. Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, 2014. Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.…
Read Full Article...Books Reviewed in this Essay: Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New York, NY: The New Press, 2016. Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. New York, NY: Viking Press, 2016. J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and…
Read Full Article...Laura Iannelli. Hybrid Politics. Media and Participation. London: Sage, 2016. Dan Mercea. Civic Participation in Contentious Politics: The Digital Foreshadowing of Protest. London: Macmillan, 2016 Laura Iannelli’s review of research literature on media and democratic participation is a worthy reference book, yet one offering sophisticated analysis and asking important questions. She argues that “newer” media…
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Latest Issue
2024: Vol. 23, No. 3
Latest Issue
2024: Vol. 23, No. 3
Between The Issues
