Silly Novels by Lady Novelists

“The standing apology for women who become writers without any special qualification is that society shuts them out from other spheres of occupation. Society is a very culpable entity, and has to answer for the manufacture of many unwholesome commodities, from bad pickles to bad poetry."

How to Save America

This America takes on academic historians for abandoning liberalism in the 1960s, when scholars became enamored with globalism and stopped writing about the nation’s history.

Adventures in the Music Trade

For anyone interested in a glimpse of one of the greatest musical minds of the 20th century—and the divine spark that ignited his remarkable career—Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words is an excellent place to start.

How Subsistence Gave Way to Capitalism

Readers hoping for a focused case study of the rise and fall of the Appalachian way of life will be disappointed. Instead, Stoll moves frequently among a history of the global rise of capitalism, discussions of Appalachia, and comparisons with other subsistence communities destroyed by the rise of industrial business practices.

Tea as Cultural Commodity

A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World explores tea as a global commodity whose history has been shaped by the transformations of capitalism and the regimes of empire and nationalism—the very forces, we might say, that have given us Starbucks.

Travel’s Mixed Bag

Something begins to happen, when I travel, just short of three weeks into a trip. I used to think I began to wear out at that point because the travel itself was strenuous. I remember feeling an urge in Vietnam once to be home again, sitting on my own couch, drinking Diet Coke from my own glass. It sounds pathetic, but there is something important in it.

The New Who: Off to the Races

Doctor Who, “The Ghost Monument” Series 11, Episode 2 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Mark Tonderai Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Shaun Dooley, Susan Lynch, and Art Mali Original Broadcast 14 October 2018 (49 minutes)     The Ghost Monument awaits…

“Chrissy, Manhattan, New York”

I had the strange but wonderful pleasure of meeting Chrissy while taking a stroll on Manhattan’s Lower West Side.

The New Who: I’m In Love with Her and I Feel Fine

Editor’s note: This post inaugurates the first in a series of 11 reviews of the recent reboot of Doctor Who, cast with a female doctor.     Doctor Who, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” Series 11, Episode 1 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie…

All That We See or Seem

When Bashō, following Zen, implies again and again that life is a dream, something in me rebels. His entire practice was to capture concrete, sensory details of the physical world, so “dreamlike” seems like a contradiction. Yet even his final hokku, dictated as he was dying, and partial because his…

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