Category Archives: history

Atlantic City is Weird, Possibly Doomed (and I really like it)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

In the beginning of this year I spent a lot of time in Atlantic City, just a short NJ Transit ride away from Philly. It’s a very bizarre little place, with a population of just under 40,000, an urban feel, … Continue reading →

Posted in economic justice, history, housing, journalism, labor, New Jersey, Philadelphia | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Montana is the Only State Where Your Boss Has To Have a Reason to Fire You…

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

…and the only way it got that way is because the business community was kind of into the idea. My story for AlterNet on the idiosyncratic history of America’s only “just cause” law: How did Montana become a socialist hellscape? … Continue reading →

Posted in economic justice, history, labor, worker rights | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What happened to left-wing domestic terrorism?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

My AlterNet article on the historical context for the left-wing terrorist attacks of the late-1960s-early 1980s was published right before the Boston bombings and I decided to refrain from advertising it widely in the immediate wake of those murders. The … Continue reading →

Posted in European history, history, terrorism | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

[Obligatory Bruce Springsteen reference to Atlantic City]

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

In one week Next City will be publishing my long form article on Atlantic City in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and ever-increasing competition from surrounding states, especially Pennsylvania. Here’s the teaser for the article (with excellent photography from Paul … Continue reading →

Posted in economic justice, history, housing, journalism, labor, New Jersey, Pennsylvania | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I’m in the latest issue of Dissent!

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

The Spring, 2013 issue of Dissent Magazine is here in all its glory and it contains my book review The Right and Labor in America Politics, Ideology, and Imagination, by Nelson Lichtenstein and Elizabeth Tandy Shermer. (It’s a loosely connected … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books, economic justice, history, labor, national politics, worker rights | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

You’d never catch a high level Democrat saying this now

Posted on January 26, 2013 by

I was flipping through William Saletan’s 2004 Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War and I found a very telling quote from a 2003 Vogue interview with John Kerry, who attested that the Democrats lost the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s … Continue reading →

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The left wing of the possible

Posted on January 3, 2013 by

In early December, I interviewed Bhaskar Sunkara, the founding editor of Jacobin magazine, about the Marxist magazine which he founded in 2010 at the age of 21.  (I meant to post this last month, but what with [insert holiday excuses … Continue reading →

Posted in economic justice, history, national politics, safety net | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

P.G. Wodehouse in India

Posted on December 26, 2012 by

I remember hearing, at some point, that P.G. Wodehouse is quite popular in India. So, it being Boxing Day and all, I Googled the appropriate terms and the right sort of article began popping up. First, a slight NPR piece … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books, British Literature, history | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

America the Segregated

Posted on November 2, 2012 by

Cross posted from Keystone Politics.  If you read one long form web article this week make it ProPublica’s authoritative piece, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, onsegregation in America and the unfulfilled promise of the Fair Housing Act. The article is packed with revealing facts … Continue reading →

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“It Has Always Been About Voting”

Posted on July 30, 2012 by

Check out these amazing photos of the 1966 march to Mississippi in solidarity with James Meredith (who had started walking on his own, but was ambushed by a gunman and wounded). Bob just released these photos a few weeks ago. And as he … Continue reading →

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