Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry About What We Eat by Harvey Levenstein
The nutshell: Why are Americans so neurotic about their diets? McMaster University historian Levenstein traces fads and scares through the 20th century to show how science, industrial interests, and government policy manipulated our food fears. …
The Six-Point Inspection
New Zealand Is Nicer Than North Korea, Plus Insights on Food, Prison Camps, and Fairness
Fear of Food, Escape From Camp 14, and Fairness and Freedom
April 3, 2012The Six-Point Inspection: Archives
Con Artists, Clay, and a Court Case
The Mark Inside; Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay; and No Undocumented Child Left Behind
On March 20, 2012The Mark Inside: A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con by Amy Reading
The nutshell: Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet became a con man vigilante after losing all his money in a 1919 swindle. Yale University American Studies professor Reading tells his tale and ties it to Benjamin Franklin, the birth of counterfeiting, and the rise of the stock exchange. …
An Evolutionary Biologist, a Pharoah, and a President
Wired for Culture, Tutankhamen, and The Southern Tiger
On March 13, 2012Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind by Mark Pagel
The nutshell: Humans were born hungry for culture—and it’s this desire, as much as our genes, that has shaped how our species evolved, argues University of Reading evolutionary biologist Pagel. …
Gangs, Genies, and Movie Magic
Jumped In, Stranger Magic, and Zona
On March 6, 2012Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemption by Jorja Leap
The nutshell: Leap, a social worker turned UCLA anthropologist and crisis interventionist, spent a decade studying L.A.’s gangs and gang members. She weaves their stories with her own to explore which intervention programs work and which don’t, how gangs have changed over the past decade, and what she learned about life from her work. …
Nationhood, Neighborhood, and Grandmotherhood
A Single Roll of the Dice, Great American City, and Some Assembly Required
On February 28, 2012A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran by Trita Parsi
The nutshell: Middle Eastern policy expert Parsi interviewed leading political figures in the United States to explain the complex diplomatic dance of the Obama administration and Iran. …
ArticlesFeuilletonFriday, December 3, 2010 How One Family Created Chinese America
PoetryThis week in L.A.From the green room
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