Popularity of Unions on the Rise

The American Prospect, a liberal periodical, distributes a weekly e-newsletter, The Labor Prospect, highlighting the best reporting and latest developments in the labor movement.  The latest missive reports, among other stories, that “more and more Americans are recognizing that unions are a crucial component in the workplace, according to a new Gallup poll. Rising five percentage points…

Murder Is Our Peculiar Pastime: Fifty Notable American Crime Novels: 9-10

  Chandler, Raymond.  The Long Goodbye.  Boston: Houghton, 1954. In creating Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler followed the model that Dashiell Hammett provided in Sam Spade.  Both are hardboiled detectives who expect the worst of most people and are seldom proven to be overly pessimistic.  Both operate on the dangerous ground between the criminal underworld and…

The University of Akron Largely Reverses Its Decisions Related to the Future of the University of Akron Press

The following is from an article by Rick Armon for the Akron Beacon-Journal: “The University of Akron is rehiring UA Press workers that it let go last month and says its publishing arm will remain ‘a vibrant, active academic press.’ “’The University of Akron Press has been and will continue to be a vital part…

Another Thing That I Wish That I Had Said

Several weeks ago, I was at a meeting for the leaders of “We Are Ohio” member and allied groups in southwestern Ohio, and one of the featured speakers asked the following rhetorical question about the corporate-funded “right to work” campaigns: “When was the last time that you heard of corporations spending millions of dollars to…

Oppose Cuts to International Education and Foreign Language Programs

Today I received multiple email alerts from disciplinary associations participating in the National Humanities Alliance.   The issue is threatened cuts to international education programs, specifically Title VI and Fulbright-Hays. The proposed cut would slash $25 million (35%) from Title VI and Fulbright-Hays, and it has already been passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This…

Trigger Warnings Triggering Memories of Teaching From Long Ago

Guest blogger Steve Krause published this on August 18, 2015 on his blog stevendkrause.com: A different kind of Trigger… There are two articles making the rounds about trigger warnings of late. There’s “The Coddling of the American Mind” in The Atlantic by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. And there’s (at least one) response to it, “The…