Squaring Off

Everything in Moderation, Except Moderation

Economist Robert Cherry Argues for a Third Way

January 9, 2012

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 Brooklyn College economist Robert Cherry, co-author of Moving Working Families Forward: Third Way Policies That Can Work.

Cherry and co-author Robert Lerman argue that “the Third Way”—an intermediate position between Republicans and Democrats—holds the answer to a lot of America’s political dysfunction. Based on studies as well as conversations with working-class families, they propose policies that are not hemmed in by ideology but propelled by pragmatism.…

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Democratizing Discovery

Michael Nielsen on the Open Science Revolution

On January 4, 2012

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 Michael Nielsen, author of Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science.

Science has traditionally been a field of competition and secrecy, where research is guarded from rivals at all costs. But the Internet is revolutionizing the process by which discoveries are made. Nielsen explores this transformation and makes the case for why it will benefit all of us. …

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How the West Won

Niall Ferguson Explains the Rise and Fall of Civilization as We Know It

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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Street Vendors to the Rescue

Robert Neuwirth Argues for the Benefits of an Informal Economy

On December 19, 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 journalist Robert Neuwirth, author of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy. …

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Grammarians at the Gate

Henry Hitchings on the History of English-Language Wars

On December 15, 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 Henry Hitchings, author of The Language Wars—A History of Proper English.

English speakers have been arguing about grammar and usage for centuries. Why—from George Bush’s flubs to the first debate in the 1600s over the difference between “will” and “shall”—are we so concerned about conventions? Hitchings’ history of our conflicts over the rules we make for how we write and speak explores the origins of language and examines the role of technology today. …

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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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