Mark Chambers is Professor of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University. This interview is based on his new book, Gray Gold: Lead Mining and Its Impact on the Natural and Cultural Environment, 1700–1840 (University of Tennessee Press, 2021). JF: What...
industrialization
Wendell Berry’s NEH Jefferson Lecture
Last night the Kentucky poet, fiction-writer, and activist Wendell Berry delivered the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson Lecture. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Berry delivered a “scathing critique of the industrial economy and its toll on...
Running a Civilization of Dunkin Donuts, TGIFs, and Leaf Blowers
Over at Front Porch Republic, Jason Peters has assembled a pretty powerful collection of quotes from his favorite authors. Here are a few of our favorites: We will extract everything we possibly can, even transforming the face of the earth...
Daylight Saving’s Time: One Man’s Noon is Another’s 11:50
Don’t forget to change the clocks this weekend. Perhaps Howard Mansfield’s op-ed in today’s New York Times will remind you. This is a nice historical piece on time zones and daylight savings time in American history. Here is a taste: […]
The Ruins of Detroit
These photos say it all....
Dr. Seuss and Modern America
I was lecturing in my U.S. survey class today on the social consequences of economic nationalism in the early American republic. I wanted the students to see that the United States’ attempt at developing a sense of nationalism in the...