Today marks the anniversary of the release of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. An excerpt about the book from Orwell: Life and Art, by Jeffrey Meyers. In Nineteen Eighty-Four the 1930s were […]
200 Years of Illinois: The Elwood Ordnance Plant explosion
On June 5, 1942, the Herald-News in Joliet reported on one of the deadliest industrial accidents in state history: the explosion at the Elwood Ordnance Plant. At 2:41 a.m., an explosion […]
200 Years of Illinois: Get your same-sex marriage license
We’re a day late with this bit of recognition, but here goes. On June 1, 2014, a same sex marriage law passed the previous fall went into effect across the […]
How we book expo at Book Expo
Today marks the open of Book Expo, also known as @BookExpoAmerica, the trade show at the center of the publishing world. Every year, industry types congregate in a selected city to […]
Ask the Bolshevik
Meet the UI Press is a recurring feature that delves into issues affecting academic publishing, writing, education, and related topics. Today, industry advice columnist The Bolshevik answers your questions. Dear Bolshevik, The […]
Volvariella bombycina, a silky-haired and stately mushroom
Volvariella bombycina (Schaeffer) Singer [The cap is] oval at first, becoming bell-shaped to broadly complex or nearly flat; whitish or tinged yellowing to brownish in age; the margin not lined; […]
Q & A with “Local Vino” Author James R. Pennell
James R. Pennell is a professor of sociology at the University of Indianapolis. He is also a lifelong musician and singer-songwriter who regularly performs in Central Indiana. He recently answered some questions […]
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 […]
Climbing Twin Peaks, plus David Lynch cooks quinoa
An excerpt from Justin Nieland‘s once-again-timely book David Lynch. Laura Palmer—passive, suffering, already victimized—is one kind of a melodramatic myth, and Twin Peaks, both the series and the fictional town, is Lynch’s […]
Backlist Bop: An earthmoving industry
Born in Vermont, made in America, John Deere helped humans move enough earth to impress even Ruaumoko, the Maori god of earthquakes. Deere’s death on May 17, 1886 marked the […]
Harry Edwards on fighting for black athletes and coaches, whether they like it or not
An excerpt from the new introduction to The Revolt of the Black Athlete: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Harry Edwards. I believe that over the last fifty years, the facts, the relationships, […]
200 Years of Illinois: Cal Coolidge, controversy, and Cairo
The 1927 Mississippi River flood disaster had a far-reaching social impact, inspired timeless music, influenced policy that includes what happened during Hurricane Katrina, and received its due in at least one […]