Culture Watch

Will Wal-Mart Last Forever?

by Bob Batchelor

You think that Americans' national pastime is baseball, football, or Nascar? You're wrong. It's shopping. The United States is a country filled with passionate shoppers. Nothing is more American than finding a bargain. If you want to see an economic juggernaut in action during the holiday shopping sprint from Thanksgiving to Christmas, head over to the local Wal-Mart. The company's promise of"everyday low prices" is music to the ears of every shopper.

Why It Hurts to Watch Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life

by Vince Nobile

In a matter of weeks, Americans will engage in the Christmas ritual of visiting Bedford Falls, U.S.A., home to George and Mary Bailey, Uncle Billy, Bert and Ernie, Violet Bicks, and mean Henry Potter. It's the time of year for everyone's favorite holiday rerun, Frank Capra's 1946 classic, It's a Wonderful Life. Americans have been watching this film for more than half a century, but have long ago abandoned its message. In his time, Frank Capra was a persistent advocate for core cu

How Hollywood Imagines American Presidents

by Rick Shenkman

Quick: Name a president who was so hungry for power and influence that he ran for public office at age twenty-three, married a woman "above his station," and represented rich corporations. Probably Abraham Lincoln does not come to mind. Who's to blame? Hollywood. Hollywood's depiction of American presidents is by and large a record of failure. The movies almost always get the basic facts wrong. They usually give us one-dimensional presidents, either all evil or all saint.

The Artist Who Asked About the Contribution of Strategic Bombing to the American Way of Life

by Mike Davis

The artist Marcos Ramirez aka ERRE, whose Tijuana studio is a mere fifty yards from the nearest border patrolman, spends a lot of time staring across la linea at the strange culture on the other side. He likes gringos well enough, but sometimes is scared by our sublime ignorance of our own history not to mention those of our neighbors. For example, how many of us ever bother to think about the contribution of strategic bombing to the American Way of Life? As Ramirez point

Hillary's History

by Lewis Gould

Amid all the hysteria and hype about Hillary Clinton's new memoir, Living History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003, $28.00), almost no attention has been given to where the book fits into the genre of first ladies memoirs. Equally absent have been appraisals of the book's historical value for understanding the intricacies of the Clinton administration itself. In both cases, the strengths and weaknesses of Mrs. Clinton's narrative are likely to keep historians bus

Breaking the Cubs' Curse

by George Beres

After a drought of 58 years without a place in baseball's World Series, the day has come for an act that can remove from Chicago's Wrigley Field the Billy Goat Curse of 1945. Time is ripe. Bolstered by the strongest young pitching arms in baseball, the Chicago Cubs-- longtime symbols of diamond futility-- have mystifed the baseball establishment by staying in the tight race for the Central Division lead in the National League. So they should be ready for the myst

College Isn't for Everybody and It's a Scandal that We Think It Is

by Thomas Reeves

A billboard I saw recently featured the photograph of a smiling woman and under it, in large letters, the boast that she has sent nineteen young people to college. Whether this was an advertisement for a bank or a charitable organization, the thought occurred to me, a veteran of forty years of college teaching, that the act itself, while on the surface laudable, might not have been a wise investment of time and money.

The Man Who Brought Us Cadillac and Lincoln

by Yanek Mieczkowski

Few Americans know the name of Henry Leland. But they know the two automobile companies he founded, Cadillac and Lincoln. The high quality and standards that Leland demanded of his cars still resonate today, as Detroit faces stiff competition from automakers around the world. The importance of Cadillac and Lincoln in upholding the reputation of American automakers was driven home in July 2003, when marketing research firm J. D. Power and Associates released the results of two sur

Hillary's History: What the Media Overlooked

by Ruth Rosen

HOURS AFTER Sen. Hillary Clinton's memoir, Living History hit the bookstores, the media saturated the airwaves with her reaction to her husband's confession about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Readers are obsessed by the details of her personal life and that's what most reviewers have also emphasized. But what this fascination with gossip fails to emphasize is that her real legacy as first lady was using her enormous prestige to help redefine women's rights as huma

An Open Letter to John Burroughs Concerning the Brevity of Fame

by Edward J. Renehan Jr.

Mr. Renehan is working on a one-hour documentary about Burroughs (1837-1921) for public television. It is being produced by Lynn Spangler, whose previous credits include a much-praised documentary about the black abolitionist Sojourner Truth. The documentary is expected to be completed in early 2005. Dear JB: Some friends and I are making a documentary film about your long life. We've just finished a shoot at your beautifully-preserved but rarely-visited cabin, Slabs

Red Sox Blues

by Derek Catsam

Here we go again. It's August and the Gods of fate seem to be smiling on that little bandbox of a ballyard in the Fens. I've been through this before. I was only four when the Sox played the Reds in the greatest World Series of all time (Carleton Fisk is from down the road from where I grew up, and he hit some legendary home runs at my high school's baseball field). But ever since then, the Red Sox have been at the forefront of my consciousness and of my passions more than

The Question Students Flunked

How well do students comprehend what they read? The answer provided by the federal government's latest test is not very reassuring. According to the National Asessment of Educational Progress, a substantial number of twelfth graders have trouble meeting basic reading proficiency standards. Translation: they can't read. The National Report Card, as it's called, found that students are doing worse now than a decade ago. In 199

Why Have So Many Presidents' Kids Gone Wrong?

by Noemie Emery

LATE IN NOVEMBER 1988, Doug Wead, who had worked in the campaign that made George Bush Sr. president, wrote a paper about presidents' children for his associate, George W. Bush. What Wead found disturbed him--and disturbed the young George Bush when he read it: The children of America's presidents had a terrible record of failure and premature death. Bush himself had a superficial resemblance to Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.: a president's namesake, with a brother in politics whose career started in

Representative Ike Skelton's Book List

by Ike Skelton

Following is a book list prepared by Representative Ike Skelton (D-Mo). It's not your ordinary list. Skelton's highlights books he thinks are essential for people interested in national security issues. Skelton is a member of the Armed Services Committee. (For more details, click here.) The List1. Constitution of the United States2. "The Art of War," Sun Tzu3. "On War," Carl von C

Review of Robert Dallek's An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963

by Edward J. Renehan Jr.

Robert Dallek has previously given us two critically acclaimed biographies of Lyndon Johnson: Lone Star Rising and Flawed Giant. Now he chronicles yet another fractured luminary of American politics. In so doing, he delivers a remarkable cradle-to-grave account of JFK -- the best ever penned.Dallek made the most of his hard-won access to generally embargoed family papers at the JFK Library -- a cache previously open to only a few Kennedy loyalists, not

The Journalist Who Helped Jackie Robinson Break the Color Bar

by George Beres

My years dealing with sports reporters in Chicago while working at Northwestern University brought me into contact with some who today are minor legends among longtime readers. But none had a greater impact on the games-- and on society-at-large-- than one whom few remember today: Wendell Smith of the now defunct Chicago Today. Some may vaguely remember Smith's byline. But they, like I, probably needed the reminder of Wendell and his unsung efforts that were spotlighted

The Iraq War: The Movie (And Why It Is Such a Dud)

by Tom Engelhardt

Can't you feel the war already slipping away, just like Saddam Hussein or Mullah Omar or Osama Bin Laden? How briefly triumphal it was, the Iraqis falling before our forces, our tanks heading north, our missiles hitting home, much of it in real time on our own private screens. There was the heroic rescue of Jessica Lynch, the toppling of Saddam's statue, our generals grinning behind that marble table in one of Saddam's palaces. How victorious we were – and then came the looting and s

Was Bill Douglas as Bad as Bruce Murphy's New Biography Makes Him Out to Be?

by Rodger D. Citron

Bruce Murphy's biography Wild Bill has attracted considerable attention for its warts and all treatment of William O. Douglas. Through extensive research, Murphy presents a detailed picture of the Justice's private conduct - in which Douglas terrorized his law clerks, skipped from wife to wife while romancing other young women, and paid attention to his children only when a photographer was present - and argues that much of Douglas's public persona was embellished, if not fabri

Joseph Heller Moments

On this page we'll keep track of moments that sound like they are straight out of a Joseph Heller book. Feel free to submit your own suggestions by posting a comment below.Ya Think? Headline in the NYT on May 3, 2003, p. A10:"Baghdad Hospitals Face A Crisis, Groups Warn U.S." Saddam? You Keep an Eye on Him. We're too Busy. In the NYT on April 30, 2003 Dexter Filkins reported from Baghdad about an Iraqi named Qyes who claimed to know where Sa

The Sports Hero Who Was a Real Hero

by William C. Kashatus

Baseball celebrates the 100th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's birth this year. It's likely to be a refreshing change from having to mark the anniversaries of other prominent figures we've elevated to the status of "hero." As Americans, we often say that we want role models who reflect values we hold dear. But we deceive ourselves into believing that they're devoid of human frailties. For example, we deified President Kennedy, not only because he redefined the style of