In her song “Bitter Ender” Mary Chapin-Carpenter claims that, “Nothing changes—it’s the same old shit.” But Cory Doctorow would beg to differ. Doctorow, a science fiction author and special advisor [...] Continue Reading
Books
“Hemorrhaging Supporters”: The Democrats’ Dilemma
BY STEVEN ROESCH What helped Donald Trump to achieve victory in two presidential elections? According to Norman Solomon, prolific author and co-founder of RootsAction.org, the warped nature of [...] Continue Reading
EdTech’s Inexorable Limits
Recently, the Fresno Unified School District announced a major AI initiative. Trained teachers are now on hand at sites across the district to assist in implementing the program. But could it be [...] Continue Reading
Heroes and Stories: Building a Better System
The system is rigged. It’s a sentiment that’s been bandied about a lot in recent years. But what exactly is this system? How did it emerge, and can something be done to reform it? Robert [...] Continue Reading
Moving Fast and Breaking Lots of Things
The journey that Sarah Wynn-Williams traces in Careless People began when she came down with a severe fever—Facebook fever. In 2006, she noticed that politicians were starting to use the [...] Continue Reading
Theft from the People
A House of Dynamite, the latest film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, expertly dramatizes a nuclear attack. The well-researched script depicts just how quickly Armageddon could break out. Early on, [...] Continue Reading
Telling People What They Want to Believe
The military-industrial-media complex. That’s the terminology Norman Solomon uses in his 2023 book War Made Invisible. According to Solomon’s meticulously documented analysis, “[t]he business of [...] Continue Reading
“A Mine Awaiting Extraction”
Books about the business world usually aren’t compelling page-turners. And yet Megan Greenwell accomplishes exactly this in Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, her deep [...] Continue Reading
Inconvenient Truths About Homelessness
In There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America, Brian Goldstone follows the struggles of five Atlanta families who are trying to keep a roof over their heads. Their stories are gripping [...] Continue Reading
Not a Movement, More Like a Coup
If you’re probing a controversial issue, it’s heartening to find someone with wide-ranging experience and expertise in the field. And, when it comes to school vouchers, Josh Cowen—author of The [...] Continue Reading
Trump vs. the Universities
In Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future (One Signal Publishers/Atria Books, 2024), author Jason Stanley examines fascism and education. Stanley is a professor of [...] Continue Reading
How Social Media Is Changing Our Lives
Several recent books and articles that probe the troubling aspects of social media have something in common: They focus on the dangers that social media platforms pose for the young. Less explored, [...] Continue Reading