24 Posts found for source_year: 2009

The election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness … [ Read more ]

Author: Hua Hsu | Source: The Atlantic (January2009) | Subjects: America, Excerpts, Race Relations

How has America changed since 2000?

Author: Timothy Lavin | Source: The Atlantic (January2009) | Subject: America

Who is responsible for the past eight years of dismal American governance? “George W. Bush” is a decent answer. But we should reserve some blame for the Founding Fathers, who created a presidential office that is ill-considered, vaguely defined, and ripe for abuse. Here’s how to fix what the Founders got wrong—before the next G. W. Bush enters the Oval Office.

Author: Garrett Epps | Source: The Atlantic (January2009) | Subjects: Excerpts, History, Politics & Public Policy

There are five maxims the federal government can follow to regain the public confidence it has lost over the past four decades.

Author: William A. Galston | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Winter2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy

America’s national security structure is designed to confront the challenges of the last century rather than our own.

Author: John A. Nagl | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Winter2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, Military | War | Peace

The threads of friendship knows no end.
I came for knowledge, I found instead soul friends.
In my life’s unexpected crossroads, our roads converged
And in converging, I was forever changed.
And though we must part
For different dreams view different ends,
I will always cherish and retell the tale
When strangers met, and yet…
Their hearts listened.
And like children, their bond endured,
long past their march of parting.

Our roads may not converge again,
But … [ Read more ]

Author: Emmanuel Matuco | Source: Harvard Business Review (HBR) (April2009) | Subjects: Family & Friends, Inspiration, Poetry

Having moved from political prisoner to cognitive scientist to Chilean senator, this uncompromising philosopher of communication is now educating business leaders for the world of social media.

Authors: Fernando Flores, Lawrence M. Fisher | Source: strategy+business (Winter2009) | Subjects: Excerpts, History, Thought Starters

Tom Vanderbilt on the future of the auto industry (a review of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability by Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon, Oxford University Press, 304 pp, 2010).

Author: Tom Vanderbilt | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Spring2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Environment | Sustainability, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy

Wherever there’s a debate over gay marriage, free speech, or even smoking in public places, the arguments John Stuart Mill made in On Liberty are still in the thick of the action.

Author: Christopher Clausen | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Spring2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Philosophy, Politics & Public Policy

A sympathetic critic issues a wake-up call for an America mired in groupthink and blind to its own shortcomings.

Author: Kishore Mahbubani | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Spring2009) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, International

America’s enduring love affair with big spending is fetching up against some unromantic realities. But a lifelong saver assures us that there are worse fates than socking it away for a rainy day.

Author: Daniel Akst | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2009) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Consumerism, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Life & Society

Nick Schulz on the economy’s animal spirits.

Author: Nick Schulz | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts

Positive thinking is indeed potent, but not always in the fashion that its advocates claim, Joanne V. Wood and two coauthors argue in Psychological Science (July). In a series of studies, they found that the effect of positive thinking depends on an individual’s self-esteem. Subjects with high self-esteem felt a bit better after repeating the statement “I’m a lovable person.” For subjects … [ Read more ]

Author: Joanne V. Wood | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Psychology | Behavior

The search is on for graceful strategies for exiting Iraq and Afghanistan. Apart from victory, history suggests, there are none.

Author: David M. Edelstein | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, Military | War | Peace

When Michael Barone began his career as a political observer, Los Angeles was like Des Moines by the sea and America was transfixed by the Vietnam war and the counterculture. Nobody saw the deeper forces that were beginning to transform the nation.

Author: Michael Barone | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Immigration, Politics & Public Policy

As scientists begin to bear down on the cognitive differences between reading online and off, they are discovering that the two activities are not the same at all.

Author: Rebecca J. Rosen | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, IT | Technology, Psychology | Behavior

If you are a fan of Ken Burns documentaries, this is as fine as any of them. It is interesting and educational on so many levels: the environment, biology, economic development, politics, etc. It will also really open your eyes to just how influential one person or a small group of people can be in enacting huge changes and improvements in society. You will learn … [ Read more ]

Author: Ken Burns | Source: PBS (September2009) | Subjects: America, Environment | Sustainability, History, Travel

Welcome the new world with open arms—and browsers.

Author: Tyler Cowen | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Information, Life & Society, Perspective, Productivity & Time Management, Thought | Inquiry

Description:
THE SOURCE: “Immigration and the American Obesity Epidemic” by Lingxin Hao and Julie J. H. Kim, in International Migration Review, Summer 2009.

Excerpt:
The average immigrant is slimmer than the average native-born American and stays that way for some 10 years after coming to the United States.

The typical native-born American male, 5’8″ tall, weighs 187 pounds. This makes him officially seriously overweight, according to the Centers … [ Read more ]

Authors: Julie J. H. Kim, Lingxin Hao | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Health & Medicine, Immigration, International

Certain universal moral precepts may be biologically dictated as well. One such rule is at play in an ethical puzzle known as “the trolley problem.” Researchers pose the dilemma to subjects this way: A trolley barreling down a hill is headed straight for five people who have been tied to the tracks, but you can pull a switch to move the trolley onto a path … [ Read more ]

Author: Marc D. Hauser | Sources: Nature, The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Note(s): Original Source: “The Possibility of Impossible Cultures” | Nature, July 9, 2009. | Subjects: Articles & Links, Culture, Sociology | Anthropology