On May 8, 1985, the National Register of Historic Places anointed the famous Starved Rock Lodge and its nearby cabins. Once known as a vacation hotspot with a hotel and […]
Graduation Book Giveaway!
Starting from May 8th, 2017 at 10 A.M. until May 11th, 2017 5 P.M., University of Illinois Press is sponsoring a graduation book giveaway across all of our social media accounts! […]
200 Years of Illinois: Dutch windmill
On May 5, 2001, the village of Fulton officially opened the majestic De Immigrant, the 100-foot tall Dutch windmill overlooking the Mississippi River. Built in the Netherlands and reconstructed piece-by-piece […]
“Women Against Abortion” mentioned in The New Yorker
Karissa Haugeberg’s book Women Against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century was recently mentioned in an article in The New Yorker that examines the history […]
Mushroom time begins with the puffy Morganella pyriformis
Morganella pyriformis (Schaeffer) Kreisel & D. Kruger The habitat on wood and the abundant white rhizomorphs make this puffball easy to identify. Morganella versus Lycoperdon. It’s the mycologist’s version of pepperoni or […]
200 Years of Illinois: Scott Field and the Balloon Man
On May 4, 1927, balloonist Hawthorne C. Gray, a captain in the Army Air Corps, reached new heights in human endeavor. Literally. Taking off from Scott Field near Belleville, Gray […]
Backlist Bop: May Berenbaum on what’s the buzz
It’s spring, and the insects have returned in force. Though, unless you live in Antarctica, it’s doubtful you go a day without seeing an arthropod even in winter. These creatures […]
Bilge Yesil on Democracy Now!
Bilge Yesil, author of Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State appeared on Democracy Now! last week to weigh in on the Turkish referendum, whether Turkey will become a […]
Saluting the opening of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
On May 1, 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago and soon took its place among the magnificent public entertainments of the modern age. The following is an excerpt from Chicago’s […]
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 […]
Q&A with Debra Shattuck, Author of “Bloomer Girls”
Debra A. Shattuck is Provost and Associate Professor of History at John Witherspoon College. She recently answered some questions regarding Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers. […]
Contradictory environmental messages in the media commons
An excerpt from the new book The Media Commons: Globalization and Environmental Discourses, by Patrick D. Murphy. ….Integrated media systems promote the pursuit of wasteful cultural practices and ecologically unsustainable […]