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, […]
How ’bout a Nice Hawaiian Putsch?
For years, native Hawaiians had fought with a modest degree of success to maintain their autonomy. But in 1893, white businessmen—sugar magnates and the like—had taken control by tossing out […]
Release Party: Table Talk
Etiquette books insist that we never discuss politics during a meal. In Table Talk: Building Democracy One Meal at a Time, Janet A. Flammang offers a polite rebuttal, presenting vivid […]
Fixed That For You
In 1921, with Independence Day festivities out of the way, jury selection began on the biggest scandal to hit the sports world in years: the Black Sox case, with a […]
Oh Knowledge Obscura
A small plate o’ University of Illinois trivia to help you pass that long Friday before the holiday break: 1. A fictional genius named Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai created the HAL 9000 in […]