On July 17, 1972, disaster struck in Oquawka, for on that day a bolt from dark skies struck down a 6,500-lb. elephant named Norma Jean. The star of the Clark & […]
Not Safe for Democracy
Some background on this weekend’s events from the new University of Illinois book Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State, by Bilge Yesil. While the Turkish […]
Release Party: Immigrant Identity and the Politics of Citizenship
The latest e-book in our trendsetting Common Threads series, Immigrant Identity and the Politics of Citizenship draws on decades of scholarship to provide the context for current discussions about immigration, a topic of national […]
The Socialist Mayor and the Industrialist
Frank Zeidler transformed Milwaukee during his three terms as mayor of the Wisconsin city. However, the kind of change that Zeidler, a member of the Socialist Party of America, brought […]
Oh Knowledge Obscura
Answers below. 1. The 1994 Illini defense boasted one of the most talented linebacker corps in Big Ten history. Dana Howard won the Butkus Award, teammate Kevin Hardy would earn […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: The Bastille Library
To commemorate Bastille Day, the University of Illinois Press celebrates its backlist of books on France and the French. Le Jazz: Jazz and French Cultural Identity, by Matthew F. Jordan […]
200 Years of Illinois: Follow that Bison
On July 15, 1805, William Rector undertook an important, if arduous, task. By government order, he was to survey the Buffalo Trace, also known as the Vincennes Trace, a makeshift […]
Q&A with Spider Web author Nick Fischer
Nick Fischer is Adjunct Research Fellow of the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. He answered some questions about his book Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism. […]
200 Years of Illinois: Triple Digits
Anyone who lived through the 1995 heat wave in Chicago remembers it, and the memories may be slightly more vivid for those who coped without air conditioning (hand up). It unfolded […]
Release Party: Free Spirits
Often dismissed as a nineteenth-century curiosity, spiritualism in fact influenced the radical social and political movements of its time. Believers filled the ranks of the Free Democrats, agitated for land […]
You the Mancini
Successful beyond belief in his chosen trade of making soundtrack music, Henry Mancini also enjoyed good fortune (made one, too) with forays into the pop charts. When he hit, he […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Goils Were Goils and Men Were Men
Generally considered a bummer of epic proportions, the Great Depression nonetheless inspired a measure of nostalgia. Americans looked back to a simpler time, of lives unencumbered by food, employment, homes, […]