200 Years of Illinois: The most dangerous root
Horseradish sparks opinions as strong as its taste. Most people, truth to tell, want nothing to do with the root in its fiery, ground-up form. Their relationship to horseradish rests mainly on […]
Author: rkcunningham
Posts by rkcunningham
Saluting an animation pioneer
Pioneer of animation Lotte Reiniger features in today’s Google doodle. In 1926, Reiniger made the first feature-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. But since Reiniger worked in silhouette […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Bar Exam
Every week seems to bring more stories of the waste, misuse, cruelty, and injustice of America’s increasingly for-profit prison system. For years, the University of Illinois Press has taken a […]
Release Party: The Street Is My Pulpit
Hip-hop artist Juliani, born Julius Owino, is one of contemporary Kenya’s major music figures. In the new University of Illinois Press release The Street Is My Pulpit, Mwenda Ntarangwi explores […]
Jane Bernstein on Rachel in the workplace
Jane Bernstein, author of the UIP books Loving Rachel and Rachel in the World, has a new essay on Vice about her daughter Rachel’s job. As in both her acclaimed memoirs, Bernstein pulls […]
200 Years of Illinois: Miles to East St. Louis
The world changed on May 26, 1926, for on that day Miles Davis entered the world in Alton. The Davises initially lived at 1112 Milnor Street. When Miles was two, […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Steel Away
The Stone Age had its cavepeople and thyroidal mammals, the Bronze Age its Hoplites and long poems, the Iron Age its hillforts and bog mummies. The Steel Age seldom gets […]
200 Years of Illinois: Final Flight
American Airlines Flight 191 crashed on May 25, 1979. All of the 271 people aboard died, as did two more on the ground. The cause: an improperly repaired engine mount […]
Release Party: Game Faces
Sports figures have a public profile once reserved for the likes of reigning monarchs and movie stars. In the new UIP book Game Faces, Sarah K. Fields looks at six people faced […]
Release Party: Cold War Games
Olympic advertising is in full swing. It is a good time to recall that, not long ago, an Olympic year meant far more than corporate tie-ins and moody video of winsome young […]
200 Years of Illinois: The Great Depression Is our dinner
May 20, 1935 proved that budget impasses have played a part in Illinois history for a long time. That day, the papers printed warnings that over a million state residents […]
An often overlooked observance
In 2015, the State of Illinois designated May 19 as Malcolm X Day. It doesn’t always show up on the list of official state holidays, interestingly enough, perhaps due to […]