Archive for December, 2011

How the West Won

Posted By Zócalo On December 28, 2011

In Squaring Off, Zócalo invites authors into the public square to answer five questions about the essence of their books. For this round, we pose questions to historian Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization: The West and the Rest.

Ferguson tackles the modest topic of “Civilization” over the past five centuries, positing that there were six “killer apps” that allowed “the West” to overtake “the Rest”—competition, science, property rights, medicine, consumerism, and a certain work ethic. But these apps are also why the days of Western predominance are numbered: the Rest have downloaded these apps, while the West has lost faith in its own power. …

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So Long, 2011

Posted By Zócalo On December 28, 2011

by Sarah Rothbard

We’re closing the books on 2011 at Zócalo,
So a year-end poem seemed apropos.
We might have gone Roger-Angell-style,
Marching the year’s guests in single file,
Rhyming Steven Brill and Brad Cloepfil, Dakin Sloss and Andrew Ross,
But what to do with Evgeny Morozov? We might be at a loss.
So we’ll simply salute the year’s passing—by no means completely—
With unmetered verse that rhymes somewhat neatly. …

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Calendar

Posted By Zócalo On December 22, 2011

by Marc Malandra

Why are our lives so full of things
that didn’t happen? We carry
phantom luggage of journeys
we never took, leave futures …

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Wrong Occupation

Posted By Zócalo On December 22, 2011

by Bill Sharpsteen

When Occupy Wall Street protesters attempted to shut down West Coast ports earlier this month, they didn’t do much—except demonstrate their ignorance of how ports, and their community of workers, manage the business of moving containers in and out of the United States.

Failed protests are common at the ports. In 2006 and 2007, truck drivers wanted people to know about their sorry existence moving cargo from the port to warehouses or vice versa—a process known as drayage. Most of the truckers were self-employed, not necessarily by choice, and earned less than a 7-11 clerk. The drivers got a little publicity when some of them parked their rigs in the middle of the 710 freeway, but they left little lasting impression on the general public and even less on the people who hired them. Only a few containers even paused on their way through the supply chain; the ports continued running as usual. …

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Just Another Band from L.A.

Posted By Zócalo On December 22, 2011

by Rafael Alvarez

“Music is the only religion that delivers the goods . . .”

—Frank Zappa, born in Baltimore, died in Los Angeles

*

Cherry stole the Apicellas’ still-smells-like-new Ford Granada a couple hours after the bars closed on Thanksgiving. It wasn’t exactly theft. Mrs. Apicella left the keys on the seat and told the delinquent what time her husband would be stuffed with mashed potatoes and snoring like a cow. Cherry and Pete Kanaras threw their guitars in the back and aimed for Los Angeles. …

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Articles

Feuilleton
Friday, December 3, 2010
How One Family Created Chinese America
Zócalo

The Lucky Ones, by Mae Ngai The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America by Mae Ngai Hyphenated cultures seem to be a natural part of California’s landscape today, but it wasn’t always so. The Lucky Ones by Mae Ngai offers a fresh look at California history by reconstructing the lives of immigrant and second generation pioneers who lived between cultures when it was not such a common phenomenon. Ngai’s narrative brings Chinese Americans into a richer tradition of historical storytelling by humanizing an ambivalent, middle-class immigrant family, situating their lives within the more well-known histories of Chinese laborers and those who suffered from the 1882 Exclusion Act.

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