AltWeeklies Wire
Why Did the Liberals Cross the Road? Bill Bishop Crunches the Numbersnew
Although conventional wisdom affirms the accuracy of the analysis in The Big Sort and the social costs that flow from it -- a decrease in across-the-aisle contact, elevated levels of rhetorical excess, diminished civility -- it does not follow that our political life has reached new levels of intemperance, or that this has had any enduring impact on our capacity to govern.
The Texas Observer |
Char Miller |
07-23-2008 |
Nonfiction
Is There a Middle Way in the Globalization Debate?new
As Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine, by Stan Cox, and Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out Of Africa, by Robert Paarlberg collectively demonstrate, the globalization debate seems to demand either a stifling of common sense, or a radical reassessment of assumptions.
The Texas Observer |
James E. McWilliams |
07-02-2008 |
Nonfiction
Lauri Lebo Tackles Intelligent Design, Evolution, and the Medianew
After reading this book and thinking of the millions of dollars and thousands of hours squandered, the hatred, the vitriol, and the disbelief that we're still fighting this age-old battle, I just feel tired and sad. This isn't the end of the story. We'll see it again, fight the battle once more, spend the money, fire up the troops, spar with the same theory in a different cloak, attract the international media, meet at a different courthouse, pass judgment on a different school district.
The Texas Observer |
Ruth Pennebaker |
06-18-2008 |
Nonfiction
David Milne Dissects the Life of Walt Rostow, Who Never Examined His Role in Terrible Violencenew
Walt Rostow's advice as LBJ's chief advisor led to aggressive military action Vietnam, culminating in massive bombings that left the taint of death and failure on LBJ's presidency.
The Texas Observer |
Thomas Palaima |
06-11-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Bad Money' is Not Meant to be Pretty, and It Isn'tnew
Phillips argues that financial recklessness, combined with peak oil and the rise of Asian economic power, will doom -- has already doomed -- American world leadership and our standard of living, which depend on the value of the dollar.
The Texas Observer |
James K. Galbraith |
05-21-2008 |
Nonfiction
Inside the Oil Conundrumnew
Excerpts from Robert Bryce's Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence".
The Texas Observer |
Robert Bryce |
05-07-2008 |
Excerpts
'World Made By Hand' Conveys Post-Oil Society Through Richly Descriptive Narrativenew
While no doubt many consider him a doomsayer or a kook, Kunstler has become a go-to guest lecturer on topics ranging from architecture to urban planning to peak oil -- and now he's translated ideas in his nonfiction writing into a novel.
The Texas Observer |
C.B. Evans |
05-07-2008 |
Fiction
'A Person of Interest' is Hypnotically Absorbingnew
While Susan Choi's new novel is clearly, in part, a fictionalized account of the Theodore Kaczynski bombings, the plot's trajectory also resonates in our post-9/11 world.
The Texas Observer |
Azita Osanloo |
04-23-2008 |
Fiction
Talking Politics & Prose with Elizabeth Haileynew
"Like a lot of women my age, I missed the '60s because I was at home raising my daughters," says the silver-haired, silver-tongued author of the trailblazing A Woman of Independent Means. "But now that I'm in my 60s, I'm ready to march. In the third act of my life, I'm ready for the front lines."
The Texas Observer |
Robert Leleux |
04-23-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: activism, Elizabeth Hailey
Jim Wallis Reimagines a Christian Take on Controversial Political Issuesnew
If progressives can see past their justified mistrust of politicking pastors, they may find in the evangelical pastor Wallis not just an ally but a visionary, beckoning from the vanguard of social justice.
The Texas Observer |
Emily DePrang |
04-09-2008 |
Nonfiction
Michael Pollan Stumbles with His Latest Booknew
Big claims, not too much support, mostly unconvincing. That's my nutshell response to Pollan's most recent answer to "the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy."
The Texas Observer |
James E. McWilliams |
03-26-2008 |
Nonfiction
James Dawes on the Worst News in the Worldnew
Anyone concerned with human rights will come away from That The World May Know troubled and well informed.
The Texas Observer |
Thomas Palaima |
02-11-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Good Place to Shed Your Culturenew
Believe me when I say Christensen isn't your garden-variety travel writer-memoirist. Strangers in Paradise isn't your garden-variety travel book-memoir, either.
The Texas Observer |
Josh Rosenblatt |
01-29-2008 |
Fiction
'The Flowers': Leaves of Sassnew
A story "that didn't have nothing to do with people or places you've ever seen," the book also lifts its seasoned author to another place in the literary order.
The Texas Observer |
Steven G. Kellman |
01-14-2008 |
Fiction
'Evacuation Plan' Looks at Checkout Timenew
O'Connell's novel sprang from observing life in an Austin hospice.
The Texas Observer |
Janet Heimlich |
01-14-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Evacuation Plan, Joe M. O'Connell
