From the Editors Archives - Page 54 of 172

Feature

Bush Without Tears

Never attempt to define a person’s legacy based on a few incidents

December 3, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The presidency of George H.W. Bush is enjoying a nostalgic portrayal following the death of “41” on November 30. His is being called “the most successful one term presidency in history,” and that description may well endure given the obvious fact that, by definition, one term presidencies have invariably ended ...

Education

The Possibilities for New Ways of Living

What students help their professors learn about teaching the Anthropocene

December 3, 2018 • by Stephanie Wakefield

1. The Anthropocene designates Earth’s departure from the stable climates of the Holocene and its entrance into a more volatile and unknown operating space as glaciers melt, seas rise, and climates change. As I see it we are living in not only the Anthropocene but more specifically, as I’ve written from ...

The Possibilities for New Ways of Living

Education

The City Shares Its New Early Childhood Education Vision

The plan proposal remains open for comments and questions

December 2, 2018 • by Kendra Hurley

On Monday, the Department of Education (DOE) released its long-anticipated white paper on the future of early education in New York City. It describes how the City envisions its merger of the City-contracted subsidized child care system, now overseen by the Administration for Children’s Services, with Pre-K-for-All and 3K-for-All under the aegis ...

The City Shares Its New Early Childhood Education Vision

Feature

Dope Peddlers at the Museum

What does a family of wealthy philanthropists have to do with a gang of drug traffickers?

December 2, 2018 • by Johan Matthew

What does a family of wealthy philanthropists have to do with a gang of drug traffickers? At first glance it seems absurd that the low-profile yet spectacularly generous Sackler family would have any connection to the egregiously violent drug gang MS-13. The Sacklers have contributed to just about every major museum in London ...

Feature

The Way We Shop Now

How American fiction has helped decode the history of capitalism

December 1, 2018 • by Sara Georgini

Consider the salesgirl. This holiday season, as we navigate the nation’s retail theatre in stores and online, let’s think about the ideas and ideologies of the diverse Americans at work behind the counter. Hero or villain, peddler or pauper, capitalist superhero or covert anarchist: the figure of the salesman has ...

Feature

Crossing Borders with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

A personal history of what HIAS really stands for

November 30, 2018 • by Martin O. Heisler

Shortly before his murderous rampage against Jews and migrants, Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh shooter, posted online: “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t stand by and watch my people get slaughtered.” Reading this, I was astonished and profoundly disturbed. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society -- ...

Crossing Borders with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

Feature

Why Should Data Determine Who We Are?

Steffen Mau’s “Quantified Self” explains how we can reclaim agency over our digital lives

November 30, 2018 • by Sarah Nassabieh

The Chinese government intends to create a social credit system by the year 2020. Data about the behaviour of each individual from all spheres of life shall be collected, evaluated, and transformed into a personal score. Consumption, traffic offences, activities on the internet, employment contracts, performance ratings both at school ...

Education

Hungary’s Attack on Gender Studies

A threatening online message and institutional inaction exposes the official illiberalism

November 29, 2018 • by Andrea Petö

Abby L. Ferber, in her 2017 presidential address at the meeting of Sociologists for Women in Society, analyzed the threats and harassment educators face in institutions of higher education in the United States -- quoted Malcom X: “If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out ...

Feature

What Will it Take to Save the Children of Yemen?

A march of backpacks against bombs

November 29, 2018 • by Jeremy Varon

I sifted through the children’s backpacks laid at the Isaiah Wall, across from the United Nations, looking for one labeled with the name of an 11 year-old boy. That’s the age of my son, and carrying it would help me feel closer to the lives we were mourning. I found ...

What Will it Take to Save the Children of Yemen?

Feature

How An Anti-LGBT Agenda Helped Secure Bolsonaro’s Election Victory

What does the election of a right-wing president mean for Brazilian democracy?

November 29, 2018 • by Gustavo Gomes da Costa Santos

This October, Brazilians went to the polls to choose a new president in the most polarized election since the end of military rule in 1985. In a highly fragmented election between 13 candidates, Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), a right-wing retired captain known for his homophobic, racist ...

How An Anti-LGBT Agenda Helped Secure Bolsonaro’s Election Victory

Feature

Nazis in Squirrel Hill and Slonim

On how remembering the past has taken on renewed relevance

November 28, 2018 • by Ezra Mehlman

Consistent with the aftermath of most national tragedies, the reductive takes have come fast and furious. Political narratives have focused on the emboldening of the alt right’s violent fringe; religious arguments have pointed to the omnipresence of anti-Semitism, even in areas where Jews feel most comfortable; regulatory discourse has predictably ...

Feature

European Union Strikes Back at Populism

By renouncing the Law and Justice party, Poland could return to the EU fold

November 28, 2018 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has finally taken steps to comply with a European Court of Justice (ECJ) decree ordering it to reverse some of the judicial “reforms” that took effect in July. Under the offending legislation, the PiS had tried to force out disfavored Supreme Court justices ...