A discussion of the Occupy movement, and how it relates to students, politics, and Harvard. Topics include the horizontal organization of the movement, the impact of social media, and the background of the protesters. [audio:http://harvardpolitics.com/media/podcast/hpr-podcast-1.mp3] An extended edition is available for download here. A special thanks to Daniel Gross of WHRB 93.5 FM for assisting … Read more
There has been controversy this week regarding the praiseworthy decision of more than seventy Economics 10 students to walk out of N. Gregory Mankiw’s class in order to draw attention to the course’s neoliberal inclinations and to participate in the Occupy Wall Street protests the corporatization of higher education and the backbreaking burden of student … Read more
The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency Randall Kennedy 336 pp. Pantheon. $26.95. When it happened, few would have called Barack Obama’s marriage to wife Michelle much more than simple matrimony. But in retrospect, Randall Kennedy claims that Obama’s union played a critical role in helping him secure his place … Read more
9-11: Was There an Alternative? Noam Chomsky 176 pp. Seven Stories Press. $13.95. Following 9/11, few people questioned whether the American government was right to invade Afghanistan, and certainly did not blame the American government for the attacks on the World Trade Center. Noam Chomsky was one of the few dissenters. His book, 9-11: Was … Read more
The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency Randall Kennedy 336 pp. Pantheon. $26.95. When it happened, few would have called Barack Obama’s marriage to wife Michelle much more than simple matrimony. But in retrospect, Randall Kennedy claims that Obama’s union played a critical role in helping him secure his place … Read more
That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back Thomas Friedman, Michael Mandelbaum 400 pp. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $28. America faces a torrent of crises in education, governance, climate change, infrastructure, and labor, to just name a few. In these dark times, one … Read more
Today, several Ec 10 students plan on walking out of class to express their “discontent with the bias inherent in [the] introductory economics course.” (An open letter to Greg Mankiw gives a full description of why the students say they will be walking out.) As an economics concentrator, an Ec 10 alum, and a self-identifying liberal (on most … Read more
Raúl Cárdenas Osuna spoke Thursday October 28 in a conference hosted by DRCLAS, Cultural Agents, Cátedra Cultura de México and Conaculta Fonca. Cárdenas Osuna is an artist, activist and the founder of Torolab, a collective in Tijuana, Mexico that organizes urban and community interventions. Define: “Molecular urbanism,” “Emergency architecture,” “Contested territory,” “Diagnostic portrait,” “Trans-border trousers,” … Read more
The following letter was sent to Greg Mankiw by the organizers of today’s Economics 10 walkout. Wednesday November 2, 2011 Dear Professor Mankiw— Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course. We are deeply concerned about the way … Read more