“While corporations and the state have certainly targeted activists as ‘eco-terrorists,’ too many other populations have also been targeted for repression to sufficiently pair the Red Scares and the Green Scare.” By Craig Hughes and Kevin Van Meter “McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled,” said Joe McCarthy to a public audience at the height [...]
Rob Nixon’s “Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor” (Harvard University Press 2011) explores the slow, steady, and often ignored violence of socio-environmental degradation around the globe, and the writer-activists trying to bring it to light. By Christine Shearer In “Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor” (Harvard University Press 2011), Rachel Carson Professor [...]
This up-close view of the end of a factory in Detroit is valuable for both policy makers and general readers. By Margie Burns “Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant” details the last months and ultimately the last days of a Detroit manufacturing plant. It is the second title by Paul Clemens, whose [...]
“Commodified and Criminalized” shows how black athletes’ success becomes evidence of American colorblindness, while their failure is made to remind us of the persistent power of race. By Paul Heideman It is almost an axiom of American culture today that sports and politics don’t mix. Despite the militarization of sporting spectacles, the intimate involvement of [...]
The portrait that emerges is of a courageous person who cared about the welfare of other people. By William J. Kelleher, Ph.D. “Troublemaker” is the memoir of Bill Zimmerman, a 60s-through-70s activist who then became a professional political consultant for progressive candidates and causes. In part, it is an excellent history of the times, written [...]
In “Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away,” first-time novelist Christie Watson lays bare the poverty stricken lives of traditional Nigerian villagers through the perspective of a young girl named Blessing. By Eva Wojcik “Eh! The politicians are controlled by the oil companies! This war would not be happening if the oil companies did not pay for the [...]
Theoharis makes the rather provocative case that George W. Bush was (at least in one respect) the fulfiller of FDR’s legacy, rather than its dim negation. By Scott McLemee Very rarely do I wish that a professor would write his or her memoirs. Even saying “very rarely” may overstate the frequency of the wish. But [...]
“Bad News”, edited by Anya Schiffrin, is useful and informative as far as it goes, and is a good overview of reportage on the subprime derivatives debacle. By Margie Burns “Bad News: How America’s Business Press Missed the Story of the Century” (The New Press, 2011), edited by Anya Schiffrin, is useful and informative as [...]
John McMillian’s “Smoking Typewriters“ is an in-depth look at the growth and collapse of the underground press that exploded across America as a part of the counter culture of the 1960s. By Paul Callaghan John McMillian’s “Smoking Typewriters“ is an in-depth look at the growth and collapse of the underground press that exploded across America [...]
Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway uncover the history of a small group of Cold War scientists and advisers who battled anything, including scientific research, that might threaten their vision of American free enterprise in Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Bloomsbury Press, [...]
Imperialist Canada undoes the evasion that particular imperialist actions are the exception to the rule in Canada, but it is hampered by its conventional political economy framework. Few features of the political culture here in Canada are more likely to set my teeth on edge than the devotion not only of the right and [...]
Kari Marie Norgaard helps us understand how and why societies fail to act on climate change in Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2011) By Christine Shearer Don’t be fooled by the title of Kari Marie Norgaard’s Living in Denial – this is not a book about people who reject the [...]
Mark Rifkin shows how the “romance plot” of “normal” heterosexuality and the nuclear family was used to justify destruction of the fabric of Indian life and set the stage for settler claims on Indian territory. Sallustius wrote of the myths of Attis that, “This never happened but it always is.” It’s appropriate for Mark Rifkin [...]
The Scientific is Political and Personal: NASA Scientist James Hansen Reaches Out in Storms of My Grandchildren In June 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate that global warming was underway and humans were a factor. As Hansen recounts in Storms of my Grandchildren, he thought U.S. politicians would do the logical [...]
Bad for Democracy: How the Presidency Undermines the Power of the People was written during the Bush administration, when author Dana Nelson, like so many somewhere on the left of the political spectrum, was alarmed by the expansion of executive power and its arbitrary exercise. Yet as a new preface written just after the election [...]
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