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Academic Insights for the Thinking World
Presidents are the curse of American history. Or to be more precise, our interpretation of American history is bedeviled by the excessive focus on the role of the president, his character and personality. Not long ago, PBS’s “American Experience” repeated its major series on Ronald Reagan, which used a biography of Reagan as a means […]
Butler, Octavia (b. 22 June 1947 – d. 24 February 2006), science-fiction author. Butler was one of the most thoughtful and imaginative authors of her time. One of the few black writers in the science-fiction field, she took full advantage of the speculative freedom that the genre allows writers to explore her interest in sociology, […]
Goldberg, Whoopi (13 Nov. 1955 –), actress and comedian, was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in New York City, the second of two children of Emma Harris, a sometime teacher and nurse, and Robert Johnson, who left the family when Caryn was a toddler. Caryn attended St. Columbia School, a parochial school located several blocks from […]
After our brief Q&A session with Lizzie Collingham last week, I wanted to provide another taste of the delicious and fascinating recipes woven into her new book, Curry. Having already given out Collingham’s favorite recipe from the book, green coriander chutney, I’m strangely delighted to post the much more esoteric dish that she mentioned last […]
by Jill Quadagno Last year 46 million Americans were uninsured and health care costs continued their inexorable upward climb. These two problems, rising costs and increasing numbers of uninsured people, have bedeviled every president since Nixon, each of whom has sought solutions by regulating health care providers and insurance companies. In his State of the […]
“WASHINGTON’S CROSSING!” the stranger said with a bright smile of recognition. Then a dark frown passed across his face. “Was it like the painting?” he said. “Did it really happen that way?” The image that he had in mind is one of the folk-memories that most Americans share. It represents an event that happened on […]
Carson, Ben (18 Sept. 1951 –), pediatric neurosurgeon, was born Benjamin Solomon Carson in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Robert Carson, a minister of a small Seventh-Day Adventist church, and Sonya Carson. His mother had attended school only up to the third grade and married at the age of thirteen; she was fifteen years younger […]
This week, Tim Harford turned his eye towards various forms of love – and arrives, or nearly so, at some highly unconventional conclusions. Namely, getting married may or may not make you a happier person, but if you do decide to take the plunge, you could help make the rest of us happier by taking […]
Slaves retained their humanity thanks to the support of families and religion, which helped them resist oppression. Nonetheless, slavery was a dehumanizing institution. Assaults on the bodies and minds of the enslaved exposed them to trauma that was both physical and psychological.
What advice would you give to all of those ‘foodies’ out there searching for an authentic Indian meal? Don’t worry about the authenticity of the food. There is no such thing as an authentic Indian dish. The stories behind Indian dishes are far more fascinating and almost always reveal that the dish is an amalgamation […]
Jemison, Mae (17 Oct. 1956 –), astronaut and physician, was born Mae Carol Jemison in Decatur, Alabama, the daughter of Charlie Jemison, a carpenter and roofer, and Dorothy Jemison, a teacher whose maiden name is unknown. After living the first three and a half years of her life in Alabama near the Marshall Space Flight […]
by Philip Jenkins For observers of Washington politics who remember the 1970s, the sense of déjà vu becomes stronger daily. Liberals freely compare the Iraq conflict with the latter stages of the Vietnam War, while scandals involving corruption and illegal leaks threaten the highest ranks of the Republican Party. Domestic controversies focus on intelligence abuses […]
Professor Raymond Arsenault launched his book tour for Freedom Riders last evening at Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem. For the second leg tonight, beginning at 7:30 PM, Arsenault will be downtown at Barnes & Noble (6th Ave. & 8th St.). In addition to hearing Arsenault tell the Freedom Rides story, this might be a perfect opportunity […]
Hello everyone – I am very happy to be here today and to answer your questions, so, let’s get started! At a recent Harvard-sponsored debate between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, a major point of contention emerged concerning the nature of the concessions offered by Israel to Arafat. Dershowitz held up a map, claiming the […]
Shlomo Ben-Ami, the former Foreign Minister of Israel and author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace was in our office on Monday and he sat down with OUP Blog to take your questions on his book, which covers the Arab-Israeli conflict from its roots to the present day, including his eyewitness account of the […]
Jones, Quincy (14 Mar. 1933 –), jazz musician, composer, and record, television, and film producer, was born Quincy Delight Jones Jr. on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sarah (maiden name unknown) and Quincy Jones Sr., a carpenter who worked for a black gangster ring that ran the Chicago ghetto. When Quincy […]