Seven-year-old Jesse W. Weik was in the crowd when Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train passed through Indianapolis on its way to Springfield. Weik’s father, an immigrant baker and grocer, lifted his […]
Category: biography
The King and Us
This week marks the anniversary of the death (?) of Elvis Presley, a transformative cultural figure of the twentieth or any other century. If you have memories of that afternoon in 1977, […]
Backlist Bop: Soviet conspiracy unveiled!
Comrades, The Press has asked me, The Bolshevik, to pause from my advice column to fill in with the popular Backlist Bop feature. And good timing it is, for today […]
Hirum Cronk Remembered
He fought for his country at a time when Native Americans still played a major role in New York’s military conflicts. He died when film could be taken of his funeral. On […]
200 Years of Illinois: The Artful Pose
Today marks the birthday of famed sculptor Lorado Taft, born in 1860 in Elmwood, Illinois. A graduate of the Illinois Industrial University—forerunner of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—Taft studied in […]
Happy Birthday, Muddy Waters
Longing for that down home music? Looking for a shot of brilliance? Tryin’ to forget that you asked for water and your woman/man gave you gasoline? Then you must be celebrating the 100th […]
200 Years of Illinois: Archaea, the third kind of life on earth
Today we turn over the 200 Years of Illinois feature to Steven Lenz and Nicholas Hopkins, authors of an essay (reprinted below) in the new UIP book The University of Illinois: Engine […]
Anatomy of a Peggy Seeger classic
Excerpted from Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics, by Jean Freedman Peggy had written some mildly feminist songs, such as “Darling Annie,” about an equal partnership between […]
Jose Angel N. on undocumented immigrants and negative growth
Today at The Point, José Ángel N. contributes an essay drawing on his experiences as an undocumented immigrant to ponder American progress, the idea of home, and today’s fraught immigration […]
Backlist Bop: Betrayal of the Spirit, by Nori J. Muster
Book Riot recently released a list of 100 must-read books on life in cults and oppressive religious sects. Author Elizabeth Allen moved across the tragic, weird, and terrible landscape of […]
Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and political words
Excerpted from Orwell: Life and Art, by Jeffrey Meyers. The chapter deals with George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The past is one of the dominant themes of the novel. The Party confidently […]
Release Party: May Irwin, by Sharon Ammen
May Irwin reigned as America’s queen of comedy and song from the 1880s through the 1920s. A genuine pop culture phenomenon, Irwin conquered the legitimate stage, composed song lyrics, and […]