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Academic Insights for the Thinking World
Roberto González Echevarría, the author of The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball wrote in the NYTimes editorial page yesterday on the US refusal to allow the Cuban national team to travel to the US for the World Baseball Classic in March. Echevarría supports the ban and says that protesting it is akin […]
According to Joseph Stiglitz, the Iraq War will cost the U.S. $2 trillion, 10 times more than the original estimate of $200 billion given before the war started. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, an economist from Harvard, whose joint paper “The Economic Costs of the Iraq War” was released last week, arrive at the larger figure […]
The New York Times carried a Q&A entitled “Conversation with Kerry Emanuel” yesterday. The lead was Emanuel’s apparent shift on the connection between warmer oceans and the intensity of hurricane winds. Still, Emanuel says “not so fast” to those who see Katrina as evidence of global warming. But conservatives should take note that America’s inability […]
Over most of the first half of the twentieth century, America’s public colleges and universities functioned quite autonomously. They were mostly small, enrolling less than ten percent of the nation’s eighteen to twenty-one year olds, and, for the most part, financially self-sufficient. None of the public institutions were competitive with the best international universities.
The barren setting in this picture of the Purdue University campus in 1900 reflects the modest beginnings of the public institutions. Now, Purdue is an internationally renowned institution, especially for scientific research.
Black students seeking higher education during this period were most likely to find it in a segregated institution. Among the best of the segregated institutions was Tuskegee where these young women learned mattress making early in the twentieth century as part of their “higher education.”
Some items of note from the weekend… Tim Harford, aka The Undercover Economist, gave Slate.com readers a peek behind the Starbucks curtain on Friday. Careful OUP Blog readers may recognize Harford’s economizing tip (we gave you a link to it back in November): Ask for a “short” at the counter and you’ll save money. Harford […]
by Steve Rivkin A good brand name is golden. As a Kraft Foods executive says, “Kraft has thousands of trademarks and they are among our most treasured assets. To the outside world, they represent who we are and what we do.” But over the years, lots of false notions and fuzzy thinking have crept into […]
by Andrew Jack Much hot air has been generated in recent days by the New Year’s dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices. The saga has highlighted, to misquote Winston Churchill, commercial interests wrapped up in economics, and justified by politics. On the surface, the squabble looks ugly and one-sided: the great Russian bear […]
by Ben Keene Looking back at the last twelve months, the publisher’s mind reels trying to keep up with changes to borders, placenames, and shifting populations. Inspired by the multitude of year-end round ups, I decided to collect some of the most noteworthy geographical developments in a short—but incomplete—list of my own. Just to emphasize […]
by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers Tracing the footsteps of another person becomes, in many ways, a treasure hunt: an effort to recreate, by selection, the texture of a life. When I set out to write Mencken: The American Iconoclast, I moved back to Baltimore to be in the city that Mencken loved, and walk the streets […]
by Steve Rivkin Naming something may be the most universal aspect of business. Whether it’s a business or a product or a service, you’ve got to call the baby something. Here are the six deadly sins of naming that every company should avoid at all costs. 1. Thou shalt not commit me-tooism. Ameriprise, Ameriquest, Americast, […]
As promised, here is part 2 of the dialogue between Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather, colleagues at Oxford University and the authors of two recent books on the collapse of the Roman Empire; ‘The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization’ and ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians’, respectively. Today they discuss the consequences of ‘the fall’ on western Europe and why they both decided to write about the fall of Rome at the same time.
by Gale E. Christianson In the weeks following Isaac Newton’s death, in March of 1727, Dr. Thomas Pellet, a member of the Royal Society, was contracted by Newton’s heirs to inventory the voluminous papers left behind by the great man. Nothwithstanding his respected credentials, the good doctor was in well over his head. Across sheaf […]
Today we present a dialogue between Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather. Ward-Perkins and Heather are colleagues at Oxford University and the authors of ‘The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization’ and ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians’, respectively. Both books were published this fall and offer new explanations for the fall of the Roman Empire.
Now Moscow is debating another dangerous proposal: a law that would regulate the operations of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and require them to register with the government. This proposal threatens to impede groups fighting for human rights, democracy and to foster the development of a stronger civil society in Russia. Foreign NGOs are particularly under threat.
The first rule for Russia watchers is to be suspicious of first drafts of parliamentary laws. These proposals may be unsolicited “initiatives from below” put forth by politicians eager to prove their loyalty to the Kremlin, even if the result may be embarrassing for their masters. At other times, they are clearly orchestrated “from above” to test the waters for change – often in an anti-democratic direction.
After World War II, the United States felt secure as a world power and despite the vitriolic critics of the 1950s who complained that “Johnny can’t read,” the pressure upon educators was to provide special programs for special needs. The ordinary student was largely ignored and left to the temptations of tv, adolescent culture, and, occasionally, sports. Academic study did not occupy much of their energy.
The creation of a US Department of Education in 1979 was highly controversial. “Too much federal control, and we don’t need it,” Republicans claimed. However, the newly-elected Republican president, Ronald Reagan, did have to appoint a secretary and his appointee, Terrel Bell, attempting to save his department and his own job, asked his Utah neighbor, David Gardner, to chair a commission to look at the state of American education. Most improbably, this group’s 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, startled the country. Exposing the academic deficiencies of American youth, the report forced the country to pay attention to its schools. Few federal reports have had such a profound effect on the general population.
Mencken: The American Iconoclast Reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle who called it “memorable and engaging”. Picked for the “Top Biographies” list compiled by The Denver Post. Also on that list, Cushing: A Life in Surgery Stephen Goddard at Historywire.com says that Mencken “may become the definitive work on the life of this luminous personality” […]