Patrick Smith— What will come of the mid-June murders in Charleston is still to be determined. We have already seen an extraordinary display of solidarity and restraint as forms of power among South Carolina blacks close to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And the news from Columbia, South Carolina’s capital,
Monique Laney— In recent years, high-tech industry CEOs have become increasingly vocal about their desire for immigration reform. Most of them argue that they cannot find enough native workers with the right skill set for the jobs their companies have to offer, so they want to see changes in immigration policies
Lorri Glover— This Father’s Day, Vice President Joe Biden will doubtless endure the fresh pain of having so recently buried his son, Beau Biden. The nation mourned with him, all the more so when reminded that this was not the first time he faced the grievous burden of attending a
Many of us here at Yale University Press are avid cyclists. In honor of May being National Bike Month, historian and bicycle expert David V. Herlihy takes a look at America’s first cycling champion. David V. Herlihy— Florentines are immensely proud of the fact that their fabled city staged Italy’s first
Michael Coogan— In 2001, Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, installed a massive monument featuring the Ten Commandments in the courthouse rotunda. When ordered by a federal judge to have it taken away because it violated the establishment clause of the U. S. Constitution, Moore refused, and
Karen M. Paget— While writing Patriotic Betrayal, which chronicles a major Cold War covert operation with the U.S. National Student Association, I began a file in which I collected evidence of renewed covert activities in the late 1990s. The newspaper clips came from different parts of the globe in little
Michael J. Graetz— Our nation’s tax system is badly broken. Everyone knows that. The income tax law inflicts huge distortions on our economy. The only area of the economy where the tax system creates jobs is in tax planning, tax controversies, and tax compliance. Daunting income tax complexities confront taxpayers
Today we’re talking revolutions. We recently spoke with historian Janet Polasky, whose latest book Revolutions without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World discusses the eighteenth‑century travelers who spread new notions of liberty and equality during the time of the American Revolution. What emerges is that the dream of liberty among America’s
Mil Duncan— Poverty alleviation has always been politically charged in the United States. Are the poor trapped by their own bad choices—dropping out of school, having children young and out of wedlock, getting in trouble with the law? “Cultural” failings? Or is it the paucity of good jobs and good
On the morning of November 14, 1830, the American crew of the Antarctic had just stopped a flotilla of war canoes from a small island off the coast of New Guinea. In the aftermath of this bloody battle, the crew took one of the islanders captive, an event that would be the catalyst for an odyssey that would change