After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s
I was just graduating high school as the book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s was published. There was, obviously, a lot going on in my world, so I can’t say that the perspectives in America about homo...
America’s Generations: In the Workplace, Marketplace and Living Room
It’s January 28th 1986 and I’ve stayed home from school. I’m sitting in the basement of the tri-level home that my parents owned, when my mom called and told me that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded. I turned the TV channel I was watching to a m...
America's Gun Wars: A Cultural History of Gun Control in the United States
Some of my earliest memories are watching The Lone Ranger . I remember cowboys in white hats and bandits in black hats. When I picked up America’s Gun Wars: A Cultural History of Gun Control in the United States , I never expected to find a reference to ...
Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America
One of the most frustrating and hurtful things that can tell someone who is suffering is that it's their fault. Bad things happen to good people, and it has nothing to do with their faith, their character, or anything other than the randomness of life....
The Coddling of the American Mind
I use pink to highlight those passages of text that I disagree with. My notes from The Coddling of the American Mind were a sea of pink highlights. Normally, this means that I struggle with what the authors are saying. When I look back at The Marketing...
The Greatest Generation
I’ve heard the stories – or rather I’ve heard the sensationalized stories – about how World War II came to be and how it ended. However, somewhere in the reduction done for history books, I missed the importance of the event. I don’t mean the importanc...
Gun Control Myths: How Politicians, The Media, and Botched “Studies” Have Twisted the Facts on Gun Control
Columbo’s catch phrase, “Just the facts, ma’am,” is strangely appropriate when it comes to understanding the facts around gun rights and gun control. Gun Control Myths: How Politicians, The Media, and Botched “Studies” Have Twisted the Facts on Gun Contr...
Guns in America: Examining the Facts
It’s complicated. That’s the best way to describe the answers that Guns in America: Examining the Facts seeks to give. Like all wicked problems , if you define them one way the answers are simple; defined another, still legitimate, way, the answe...
Happier?: The History of a Cultural Movement That Aspired to Transform America
One of the things that I deeply respect is people who are willing to do the reading and research necessary to have a complete and balanced view of a topic. That's what I found in Daniel Horowitz' Happier?: The History of a Cultural Movement That Aspired...
The History of Iceland
I’m by no means a history buff, but there’s something about Iceland that drew me in and made me want to understand the story behind the island nation in the North Atlantic. The History of Iceland is a tome about the Icelandic people and how this amazi...
No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School
It has been identified as the sentinel event. The book No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School is an exposition and review of the events leading up to the Columbine Massacre as well as the aftermath of the event. I started r...
The Public Library: A Photographic Essay
I’ve always had a special place in my heart for libraries. They’re safe places where you can get lost and eventually become found. That’s why when a deal for purchasing The Public Library: A Photographic Essay crossed my path, I decided to pick it up a...
Unsafe at Any Speed
I don’t have a particular passion for automobiles. That’s not why I picked up Unsafe at Any Speed . Ralph Nader may not have been successful in his presidential bids, but what he did do is disrupt industries that were harming consumers. He’s lauded f...