Suzanne Mettler, “Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream” (Basic Books, 2014)
From 1945 to the mid-1970s, the rate at which Americans went to and graduate from college rose steadily. Then, however, the rate of college going and completion stagnated. In 1980, a quarter of adult ...
9 Jul 201456min
Nick Smith, “Justice through Apologies: Remorse, Reform, and Punishment” (Cambridge UP, 2014)
Most people say “I’m sorry” a lot. After all, we make a lot of mistakes, most of them minor, so we don’t mind apologizing and expect our apologies to be accepted or at least acknowledged. But how many...
2 Jul 20141h 14min
Patrick Burkart, “Pirate Politics: The New Information Policy Contests” (MIT Press, 2014)
The mid-’00s saw the rise of a political movement in Europe concerned with technocratic impositions on the ideals of free culture, privacy, government transparency and other technology policy issues. ...
26 Jun 201442min
David C. Berliner, Gene V. Glass et al., “50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools” (Teachers College Press, 2014)
David C. Berliner, Gene V. Glass, and associates are the authors of 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools: The Real Crisis in Education (Teachers College Press, 2014). Dr. Berliner ...
18 Jun 201452min
Austin Sarat, “Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty” (Stanford UP, 2014)
When we discuss the death penalty we usually ask two questions: 1) should the state be in the business of killing criminals?; and 2) if so, how should the state put their lives to an end? As Austin Sa...
18 Jun 201456min
Douglas M. Thompson, “The Quest for the Golden Trout: Environmental Loss and America’s Iconic Fish” (University Press of New England, 2013)
Earlier this spring, I drove to a small beaver pond near my home in Colorado, snapped together my fishing rod, and cast a silver lure into the pond’s crystalline waters. Within twenty minutes, I’d cau...
17 Jun 201442min
Olivier Zunz, “Philanthropy in America: A History” (Princeton UP, 2014)
Olivier Zunz is the author of Philanthropy in America: A History (Princeton University Press 2014). The paperback addition of the book has recently been published with a new preface from the author. Z...
16 Jun 201432min
Jane Maienschein, “Embryos Under the Microscope: The Diverging Meanings of Life” (Harvard UP, 2014)
Why do we study the history of science? Historians of science don’t just teach us about the past: along with philosophers of science, they also help us to understand the foundations and assumptions o...
12 Jun 20141h 14min
