One of my English 1 students recently said, “I hate myself when I write essays.” Another student turned to her and said, “I thought I was the only one who did that.” Negative self-talk is very common among my students, so I’ve been looking for research on alternative strategies. I’m … Read More
Category: non-fiction
“In reality, Stoicism is not about suppressing or hiding emotion – rather, it is about . . . keeping in mind what is and what is not under our control, focusing our efforts on the former and not wasting them on the later.”
“Caste is the powerful infrastructure that holds each group in its place.”
Ever since I started reading a history of the United States, I’ve been thinking long and hard about how our past has led to our present. I am reassessing many of my assumptions about our core values. This provocative book is challenging me even further. Wilkerson argues that “Just … Read More
“Nearly five in ten white families and nine in ten black families endured poverty at some point during the Depression.”
Why was the rate of poverty so high for black families in the 1930s? The version of American history that I learned in high school decades ago never explored this question. In fact, I don’t recall learning much at all about laws in the last century that made things worse … Read More
Best 2020 Book Prescriptions
If 2020 was a great year for you, stop reading. This blog post is not for you. If, however, 2020 presented you with some real challenges, and you are looking for some prescriptions in the form of book recommendations, here we go:
Worst year ever? If you are wondering if … Read More
“Antiracist ideas argue that racist policies are the cause of racial inequities.”
It is easier to blame people for making mistakes than it is to consider the role that policies play in determining outcomes. Ibram X. Kendi writes, “Americans have long been trained to see the deficiencies of people rather than policy” (28). For example, when my book club discussed of … Read More
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if fails, at least fails while daring greatly…”
After reading two biographies of Theodore Roosevelt this summer, I was interested in the author of a book that pays homage to him by drawing on his famous 1910 speech for its title and opening chapter. I’ve come to the conclusion that if he were alive today, Teddy Roosevelt and … Read More
“The course of history is unpredictable, as irregular as the weather, as errant as affection, nations rising and falling by whim and chance, battered by violence, corrupted by greed . . .”
“. . . seized by tyrants, raided by rogues, addled by demagogues.” What a wonderful opening sentence! I’m eager to make my way through this 900+ page history of America. At this moment – in the first hours of autumn, in the heat of a presidential election, in a torrent … Read More
“It’s one thing to know a lot and to have experienced a lot, but it’s quite another to know how you feel about what you’ve observed and lived.”
We can’t assume that all novelists who create likable characters are likable themselves, but I imagine that Richard Russo is. In this collection of essays, he is warm, funny, and self-deprecating – traits that characterize many of the people in his novels. For example, he tells us about the classmate … Read More
“You have been cast into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at your heels.”
When this book was published five years ago, Toni Morrison famously predicted that Coates will fill the intellectual void created when James Baldwin died. Now, seeing this book back on bestseller lists made me wonder what Coates thinks of Baldwin’s legacy. In a May 2020 interview, he said that … Read More
“Beware the danger of what I call Feminism Lite.”
“Feminism Lite” is the idea of conditional female equality, where men believe they are superior but should be expected to “treat women well.” It can be disguised as real feminism when men behave in an equitable way – but believe it’s optional and provisional. You hear it in phrases … Read More
“And I know that I must go on doing this dance on hot bricks till I die.”
The brilliant novelist Virginia Woolf used this metaphor to describe her ongoing struggle with mental health in her diary on March 1, 1937, which was 42 years after her first nervous breakdown and four years before she drowned herself. What is most astonishing to me is how she was able … Read More
“The power of the mighty industrial overlords of the country had increased with giant strides, while the method of controlling them . . . remained archaic . . .”
Presidents Roosevelt and Taft – both Republicans – worked “as stewards of the public welfare” to check the power of huge corporations by supporting anti-trust legislation. These two men were both willing to argue with members of their own party about the role of government in controlling companies that abused … Read More
“A survey by Hulton in 1946 produced the stunning figure of an average of fourteen readers per copy, or over 1 million per month.”
When times are sad and difficult, what do people do for fun? According to Julie Summers’ new book Dressed for War, during WWII, many people turned to Vogue for relief. Of course, critics, such as Welsh Labour MP Jim Griffiths said that publishing luxury magazines was “pernicious and damaging” … Read More
“Born to wealth, with an inherited sense that it must be repaid with public service, he found himself increasingly repelled by those who went after money for money’s sake, or used it to buy power.”
Before Theodore Roosevelt became president at age 42, he had been a military hero, an author of 16 books, a governor of New York, and a cowboy. This wild mix of experiences and interests made him unpredictable. Was he progressive? Conservative? Sympathetic to workers? Or to the rich? He was … Read More