The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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The Common Man: Where's his Fanfare? II. Musicals, Cont. Fish is my Favorite Perfume.

By amike on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 6:05pm |
Welcome back.  One of the commentators to the last in this series reminded us of the realist school of literature, which had its own special sympathy for the working class.  I may get there eventually: If I do, I'll probably...
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The Common Man: Where's his Fanfare? I. Music and Musical Theatre

By amike on Tue, 03/10/2009 - 2:41pm |
This essay, which may turn out to be a series (the optimistic I. in the title), was stimulated by a several recent posts here at the Café.   One of them questioned why the news media never seem to picture "real...
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Quiz: Guess who wrote this?

By amike on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 11:29pm |
I'm too old for quickies...but this is just too good to resist.  Some folks have enjoyed my ventures into literature and history.  I've got something more substantial I'm working on-a multi-part look at popular media and the "common man," but...
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Spring Ahead-But "Looking Backward"

By amike on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 11:16pm |
Does anyone read Edward Bellamy anymore?  I hope so, and not just as a quaint Victorian utopian novelist.  The right generally hates him, which means he must be right about a lot.  Else why try to paint him as a...
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Fool me once, shame on you. No, I'm Not Quoting Dubya

By amike on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 4:08pm |
Among other things, one of the courses I teach is designed to introduce my kids to some seminal ideas about democracy, and especially the relationship between democracy and reason.  It's not a rigorous intellectual history course.  I'm not an especially...
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Some Questions for the Economists in the House.

By amike on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 4:53pm |
I tell my history students to ask questions.  I beg them and implore them to ask questions if something is confusing them.  Some do, some don't.  It just struck me I'm not practicing what I preach, and that I should...
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What would you rather do than Follow Obama to the Speaker's Podium?

By amike on Wed, 02/25/2009 - 1:24pm |
Anything!Well, nearly anything.  aMike, a.k.a anti-climax personified....
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The Law of Justice and the Law of Mercy

By amike on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 7:28pm |
I really have to stop reading TheraP's blog.  It gives me far too much to think about and whether or not my brain is up to the workout I don't know.  But I'm addicted, and perhaps the workout will keep...
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Confessions of a "Coward"

By amike on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 5:44pm |
I've been following the "controversy" over Attorney General Eric Holder's Black History Month speech haphazardly in the mainstream media for the past few days and yesterday I caught a piece on NPR where All Things Considered featured a "debate" between...
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Economics: A Lesson from the Puritans.

By amike on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 7:28pm |
A while back, I made a remark in response to someone's post something to the effect that President Obama's Economic Council suffers from a plethora of economists, and that other branches of the Academy could make valuable contributions, geographers, philosophers,...

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