Ben, Author at Common Reader

Sexism In Science

If more women are going to be found in hard sciences, more female role models are still needed.

"It may be important for historians to shift more attention to eastern Europe and to increase the Russian share of the collective responsibility for the war, but one cannot allow this to outweigh Germany’s primary guilt for converting a Balkan War into a “world war” rather than a regional war. McMeekin still disagrees: “Important as the German violation of Belgium was, it did not cause the First World War.” (The House of Commons would have been fascinated to learn this.)"

Uncategorized | Reviews

Notes From Underground

By Eleanor Sarasohn

Seven becomes the (un)lucky number of underground explorations.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

To Be Like Mike

By Noah Cohan

"Ultimately, Lazenby is content to define Jordan by his pathological competitiveness, as reified publicly in his 2009 Hall of Fame induction speech. In it, “Jordan chose to unburden himself and reveal his competitive heart, to address all of the things, real or imagined, that had driven him.” The result was a speech that seemed so bitter as to be “surprising, and even disappointing” to those who knew Jordan, and “shocking” to the public. For Lazenby, it merely affirms that “the things that had spurred Jordan on in his life were hugely negative,” that this man who brought billions of people joy was in fact defined by anger and hurt feelings."

Reviews

Doctored By Details

By Mary Laurita

"Pasternak remarked in late 1957, 'Everybody’s writing about it, but who in fact has read it?' This seems the crucial question never pursued. What would have happened if more people in power had actually read 'Doctor Zhivago'? Could much, if not all, of the persecution of Pasternak have been avoided? The question of whether or not the book, when read, stands up as a piece of anti-Soviet propaganda comes up a few times in the text, but never as anything more than a superficial thought."

Arts & Letters | Reviews

Do The Right Thing

By Gerald Early

"Most blacks, without question, would rather be successful capitalists, however “exploitative” of land and labor, than wards in an egalitarian socialist state because, in the end, even members of a persecuted group, the dream is to have power, not justice. Or put another way, the acquisition of power becomes its own form of justice. The problem with Riley’s book is not its conservative message, but that the message is not sufficiently framed to appeal to black folk’s sense of racial destiny and pride. In short, it is insufficiently chauvinistic, less chauvinistic than the title promises."

Reviews