The Ruins of Detroit

 

   Near the end of the year, I am cleaning out various email compartments and in one of them found a reference to this book: Detroit in Ruins. It is from a decade ago when I learned about the book from this review: “Detroit in Ruins: The Photographs of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre,” Sean O’Hagan, The Observer, Jan. 2, 2011. The subtitle: “In downtown Detroit, the streets are lined with abandoned hotels and swimming pools, ruined movie houses and schools, all evidence of the motor city's painful decline. The photographs of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre capture what remains of a once-great city and hint at the wider story of post-industrial America.” That is one of their photographs above.

There you see another one. The reason I noticed and kept the review is that the photographs in it were beautiful, even though they recorded devastation. As the reviewer notes: This sense of loss is what Marchand and Meffre have captured in image after image, whether of vast downtown vistas where every tower block is boarded-up or ravaged interior landscapes where the baroque stonework, often made from marble imported from Europe, is slowly crumbling and collapsing....They have also captured for posterity the desolate interiors that once made up the city's civic infrastructure: courthouses, churches, schools, dentists, police stations, jails, public libraries and swimming pools, all of which have most of their original fixtures and fittings intact.

You can still read the review and fortunately view some of the photographs, as well. The place to begin is at the Marchand Meffre website. More can be found at the publisher - Steidl. The price of the book is listed at 88 euros, but it is out of print.

If you wish to purchase your own copy, it now will cost you a bit more. Unfortunately it wasn't purchased by a London public library, or by Western.

I wrote about Steidl, "the best printer in the world," in my post about Gasoline Stations. For a fine Canadian printer, see Lumiere Press and Michael Torosian.

Schizophrenia May Be Eliminated

 Expurgation (4)

   The title may be misleading. It is the word 'schizophrenia' that is likely to disappear, not the mental disorder. The sub-title may be puzzling since it refers to three other posts I have provided, none of which you will have read. They all have to do with arguments about the purging of words from our dictionaries, just as we are now also arguing about the elimination of names from our maps. The first is about the word 'Accident', which tort lawyers, in particular, want removed (I just looked back at that one and it isn't bad.) The second is, "Illegal Aliens,"since there are none to be found on this planet. The third is  "Mistress",  because there is not a corresponding term to define the person your wife may be fooling around with. This fourth one may be my last, because keeping up with these linguistic battles is a full time job.

    Schizophrenia has surfaced since there seems to be a stigma associated with the illness. I pointed out recently that the American Medical Association wants practitioners to avoid troublesome words like, 'vulnerable' and 'high-risk'. Now the members of the American Psychiatric Association may opt not to label someone as suffering from 'schizophrenia', and the diagnosis may be dropped from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Those involved in the construction of the DSM are well practiced at this type of endeavour and in some cases have gone so far as to even eliminate the 'disease' - 'homosexuality' - for example. Those in the profession seem to be split about how to describe those with a 'split personality'.

  Clearly, yet again, I have tackled a subject about which I am not sufficiently credentialed. So, I will point you to the sources and let you decide this linguistic matter for yourself. The place for laypeople to begin is here: ‘Schizophrenia’ Still Carries a Stigma. Will Changing the Name Help?" Karen Brown, New York Times, Dec. 20, 2021.

"Many people with or connected to the mental illness approve of updating the name, a new survey shows. But some experts are not convinced it’s the answer....The idea is that replacing the term “schizophrenia” with something less frightening and more descriptive will not only change how the public perceives people with the diagnosis, but also how these people see themselves."

Good arguments for both sides are presented, including some mundane ones, like if the patient, loses the label, they could lose their insurance coverage. And, as Dr. Carpenter argues, "A rose by any other name would smell the same...“And if you make the change, how long until the stigma catches up with it?”

   Those serious about schizophrenia should have a look at the survey which is found here and the abstract is provided. 

"Are We Ready for a Name Change for Schizophrenia? A Survey of Multiple Stakeholders,"

(many authors), Schizophrenia Research, Volume 238, December 2021, Pages 152-160.

Abstract

"About one in 100 people worldwide are diagnosed with schizophrenia. Many people advocate for a name change for the condition, pointing to the stigma and discrimination associated with the term “schizophrenia”, as well as to how the name poorly characterizes features of the illness. The purpose of this project was to collect opinions from a broad, diverse sample of stakeholders about possible name changes for schizophrenia. The project represented a partnership between researchers, clinicians, and those with lived experience with psychosis. The group developed a survey to assess opinions about the need for change in the name schizophrenia as well as potential alternate names. We accumulated 1190 responses from a broad array of community stakeholders, including those with lived experience of mental illness, family members, clinicians, researchers, government officials, and the general public. Findings indicated that the majority of respondents (74.1%) favored a name change for schizophrenia. Most (71.4%) found the name stigmatizing. Of the proposed alternate names, those with the most support included “Altered Perception Syndrome”, “Psychosis Spectrum Syndrome”, and “Neuro-Emotional Integration Disorder”. Survey findings provide strong support for renaming schizophrenia. Most expressed hope that a name change will reduce stigma and discrimination."

   This issue was raised a few years ago, in this article which also includes many examples of how 'schizophrenia' is defined in other languages: "Name Change for Schizophrenia," (many authors), Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 40, Issue 2, March 2014, Pages 255–258.

I suppose the first order of business will be to change the name of the two journals in which these studies appear.

Those interested in the illness rather than the word should see:

"A Brief History of Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia through the Ages, Neel Burton, Psychology Today, May 4, 2020 and "10 Facts You Should Know About Schizophrenia," Michele Debczak, Mental Floss, Aug. 29, 2019.

The Bonus:

   If you are interested in words and those who used to be called 'crazy' or 'mad', have a look at: The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (it was published in England as, The Surgeon of Crowthorne.) For a shorter version see: Chapter 7, "The Hermit and the Murderer" in his book: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. If you don't enjoy this recommendation, I will give back all of your money.

American Customs Series

    Again, I am discussing a book series, this one about "American Customs." Considered are the customs and folkways of folks living in various regions of the United States. There are three books about the northeast (Cape Cod, Maine and New England), one for the mid-Atlantic area (Pennsylvania), one for the south (New Orleans) and two for the west (California and the Old Wild West.) The seven books were published by Vanguard Press during the years from 1946 to 1949. 

   These are unprofessional social histories, which means you are likely to enjoy them and find a good recipe-or-two, as well as some tales and yarns. The tables of contents of a few of the volumes are presented, as well as a some brief summaries. They are all still protected by copyright, which means that you cannot read complete digital copies of them. All are found on AbeBooks and some are inexpensive. 

It's An Old New England Custom

A listing and exploration of many customs associated with New England. Pie for breakfast, bundling, high excellence in epitaphs, phantom ships, haunted houses-these and many more are explored as to their sources and identification with the locale. A humorous and unusual historical curiosity of a regional nature, amusing prints, gay verses, bits of odd information, curious episodes- a characteristic Mitchell item. In format it has a slightly juvenile flavor which may limit the market. (Kirkus)

It's An Old California Custom

Informal chronicling of California's personality in terms of traits, inherited, adopted and native. Stories of old romances, gambling heritages, the large scale hospitality, the types of messiahs and cults, the pleasures of food and drink, the spirit of fiesta, are combined with material on gold hunting, bandits, hoaxes, real estate, the tendency for self deception, the playtimes of various clubs and groups, the exhibitionism, and the originality in solving problems of public works and civic questions. This traces, from the old land grants and the old families, the roots of California's individuality, independence and pride, and is a pleasant review, in conversational style, of the state's story....One of the numerous California books gauged to the interest generated by the centennial. Of regional appeal largely. (Kirkus)

It's An Old Pennsylvania Custom

There  are  two kinds  of historical writing: one is conceived  and  executed with fine attention  to  accuracy  of  facts  and  validity  of interpretation;  the other  is  conceived  and  executed  with  less  attention  both  to  the  facts  and their  interpretation.  The  former  is designed  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the specialist, or at least  of the serious student; the other  is designed  to  satisfy the  nonspecialist,  or  the  "general"  reader.  Both  kinds  can  and  should  be attractively  presented, but the latter, having  for its primary  purpose popu-lar  appeal, emphasizes style  even  at  the  expense  of  content.It9s An  Old Pennsylvania Custom is clearly of the second kind. It  is indeed a fine example. It  was written  by Mr. Mitchell  in  an interesting style, is excellently  designed  by  Stefan  Salter,  and  was  well  manufactured  by  H.Wolff. It  presents  a wealth  of  historical  facts,  both  conventional  and  un-usual, relating  to Pennsylvania. At  the same time, it  arrives at  interpretations  of the  facts,  both  in general  and  in particular,  which  clearly  mark  it as  of the  second  kind  of historical  writing. 
(Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography)

It's An Old New Orleans Custom

Companion volume to It's An Old New England Custom and It's An Old Pennsylvania Custom, this somehow manages not to overlap to any considerable degree the other books on New Orleans which have been published in the year past. This is full of human interest bits, anecdotes, slices of history and biography. There's a brief survey of New Orleans history as the changes of flag went on. There's a section on the music  from street cries to the classics. The most interesting chapter, perhaps, is the one on commerce as it is pursued by the citizens, who prefer to cultivate the art of leisure. Some rather ironic comments on the beauty and the frailty of New Orleans women; some entertaining sidelights on gambling from cards to lotteries; the river front and its melodramatic contribution to the city's checkered career; weather, fire and water- and the parts they play; basis for the repute for wickedness --offset by equal repute for hospitality, and a genius for elegant living -- these represent some of the many facets that contribute to the unique flavor of this enchanting city. The section on food has some toothsome recipes; (yes, I copied three for future reference). (Kirkus)

It's An Old Wild West Custom

This book captures the colorful spirit of the American West in its history and quirks. Included are songs and stories, charts of brands used to mark cattle, and sketches of the boom and bust of the Old West. In one chapter, the author informs us that the Westerner left his names casually and naturally on the land and on each other, without ostentation. This led to names like Jerked Beef Butte or Rattlesnake Basin in Arizona, or nicknames for fellow cowboys like Crooked-Nose Pete and Three-Fingered Smith. 

Duncan Emrich was a professor and collector of American folklore, once a ranch hand and historian in the military. The American Art & Portrait Gallery copy of this book is signed by the author, and inscribed under his portrait as "old bag eyes, the Monday morning folklorist."   

It's An Old State of Maine Custom

Without the particular charm of the last in this series, It's An Old New England Custom, this still holds an interest for natives of or visitors to this region. In this miscellany of historical facts and special features, customs, legends, superstitions, you will pick up a good deal of information about the timber country and the logging and shipbuilding it produced; its other industries- quarrying and fishing; the scenic attractions of its gardens, old houses, islands, flowers, birds; the pleasures of the palate- lobsters, seafood, blueberry pies (with recipes); and the character of its native humor... A predictable, regional market for this. (Kirkus)

It's An Old Cape Cod Custom

From the New York Times, June 19, 1949, where the complete review will be found.

For a discussion of this series see: Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980: A Descriptive Bibliography: Including Biographies of the Authors, Illustrators, and Editors 1st Edition, by Carol Fitzgerald.

The Bonus:

  In its early days, Vanguard Press published radical books and during the later ones, such authors as Saul Bellow and Marshall McLuhan. It was bought by Random House in the 1980s.

Property Matters

 For reasons I don't recall, I told you earlier this year about some people who own really big pieces of land. Lots of land, tracts larger than some countries. One of them is Bill Gates. Well, I just stumbled upon some new examples and will present them to you quickly as the year ends. 

Rupert Murdoch

   The elderly gentlemen above is Mr. Murdoch, pictured with this wife who you may have seen before in a picture with another older gentlemen. They have many reasons to be happy, one supposes, and now they have another one, a small spread in Montana they just purchased.
"Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his wife, Jerry Murdoch, have purchased a Montana cattle ranch spanning about 340,000 acres from Matador Cattle Co., a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The price was roughly $200 million, making it the largest ranch sale in Montana history, according to people with knowledge of the deal....
Mr. Bernall said the property spans 50 miles, from north to south, crossing two separate counties. Mr. Murphy said the ranch is home to around 4,000 elk, 800 antelope and 1,500 mule deer. There is also a 28-mile-long creek stocked with trout. The property has 25 homes, mostly for employees. "This is a working ranch," said Mr. Bernall.
They also have a few other places to live including:
The Murdoch family also owns a ranch in California. In 2013, Mr. Murdoch purchased an estate and winery in Los Angeles's Bel-Air neighborhood after learning about the vineyard from an article in The Wall Street Journal. In Mr. Murdoch's native Australia, the family owns Cavan Station, a roughly 25,000-acre sheep and cattle farm in New South Wales, according to the spokesman.

The Queen

   She will probably be at her country estate (Sandringham) where she will have almost 20,000 acres to roam around, avoiding the difficult family discussions which those of us in smaller abodes have to endure. She also has other options and just a few are noted here:

Buckingham Palace - Did you know: According to the royal family's official website, the palace has 775 rooms, including a roughly 120-foot-long ballroom and London's largest private backyard.

Windsor Castle - Details: William the Conqueror began building a timber castle just west of London in about 1070, according to the RCT. In the late 12th century, King Henry II rebuilt it in stone. It now has around 1,000 rooms and reportedly measures 484,000 square feet, with around 13 acres of grounds.

Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland

Details: This palace was originally a monastery founded around 1128. It features royal chambers which King James IV began converting into a palace in the early 16th century. Relatively compact by royal standards, it measures 87,120 square feet with some 289 rooms, according to RCT.

Balmoral Castle and Estate, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Details: In 1852, Prince Albert bought the 50,000-acre Balmoral Estate for his wife, Queen Victoria. He then commissioned a new castle with a reported 50 bedrooms to accommodate the royal family and their entourage.

I could go on. 

Some Canadian Content:

  A very tall WOODEN building is about to be built on the campus of George Brown College, thanks to a generous donation by Jack Cockwell, who owns a lot of woods. 

The building will be called Limberlost Place, after Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve in Ontario’s Muskoka region, which Jack Cockwell bought in 1985. Mr. Cockwell, 80, had parlayed modest beginnings as an accountant in South Africa into a job at the helm at what became Brookfield Asset Management Inc....

The Cockwells also recently bought a 150,000-acre black spruce forest near Timmins. They own three sawmills in Ontario, and control about one million acres of forest in New Brunswick and Maine.

Sources: 
"Private Properties: Rupert Murdoch Buys $200 Million Ranch From the Koch Family," The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 10, 2021.
"The Houses of Windsor - Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles Each Control Over a Billion Dollars in Property, and That is Just the Real Estate That Can be Valued: Here's a Look at Their Extensive Holdings," The Wall Street Journal Dec. 10, 2021.

You may not be able to read the WSJ, because it is behind a paywall. It is owned by Mr. Murdoch. The Montana property will probably be fenced in as well.

For the article about Mr. Cockwell, see: "'Mass Timber' Movement Breaking Ground on Ontario's Tallest Wooden Building," Peter Kuitenbrouwer, G&M, Dec. 14, 2021.

The Bonus:
If, as Proudhon stated, "Property is theft", then you can read about some of the biggest thieves in my earlier posts: Bill Gates: The Farmer and Real Land Lords. So as not to be accused of leaving out female examples, see the land lady Mrs. John L. Marion, mentioned in Sotheby's.

Lifelong Learning

University-Based Retirement Communities

   You are likely familiar with the initialism HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and you should know about UBRCs as a reader of this blog.  The only reason I am again writing about this subject, is because I have some new sources to offer. If you put these together with my two former posts, you will have considerable information about colleges and universities that are welcoming senior citizens. If you are one and are interested in retiring to a campus, this will all be very useful since you are short of time.

   The one pictured above is in Tempe and associated with Arizona State. It is not a bad place to be in the winter. I learned about it here: "Welcome Home to a Community of Lifelong Learners," Sara Matusek, Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 10, 2021. Here are some details:

"Retire on campus? Colleges find community with intergenerational living.

Ruth Jones lives on top of the world – her world, anyway.

From nine stories high, she can gaze down at a sun-smothered, urban Arizona sprawl featuring a school she began serving in 1981 – the top of an auditorium here, her last faculty office there.

The former political science professor is so fond of Arizona State University that she retired on campus.

“One of my former professors said, ‘Stay on campus as long as you possibly can. … Because those students will keep you young,’” she recalls. “I realized the wisdom in what he said.”

Dr. Jones lives in a high-end, intergenerational senior living residence that opened on the Tempe campus last year. With perks like access to classes and campus IDs, Mirabella at ASU is billed as an immersive alternative to traditional lifelong learning. Retirees here are convinced they have more to give, rejecting a mindset of decline for one of usefulness and growth."

Mirabella’s sleek 20-story tower opened its doors last December. Surrounded by traffic and eateries, it sits on the urban edge of the Tempe campus, which hosts roughly 55,000 students. U.S. News and World Report ranks ASU first for innovation.

“We believe strongly at ASU in the idea that we should all be lifelong learners,” says Morgan Olsen, executive vice president, treasurer, and chief financial officer of the school.

Mirabella’s couple-hundred residents, ages 62 and older, are largely white and presumably well-off. (Entrance fees range from $382,400 to over a million dollars, on top of monthly service fees up to $7,800.) Some residents have moved there from across the country, while several have ties to the university as alumni or former employees, like Dr. Jones, who mentions enjoying an undergrad course on world religions and recreational art classes at Mirabella.

Another Mirabella resident, Richard Ruff, who, with his wife, Janet Spirer, divides his time between here and San Diego, also connects with students on academic topics. A retired organizational psychologist, he mentored students this past semester through the Center for Entrepreneurship. Along with helping him feel purposeful, the gig afforded him welcome insight into kids these days.

Older adults seek three things, says Andrew Carle, a senior living and aging industry consultant: “They’re looking for active, they’re looking for intellectually stimulating, and they’re looking for intergenerational retirement environments. And basically, I just described a college campus.”

  The article includes a link to Lasell Village, another UBRC, which is in Newton, MA. Here is a description:

 Lasell Village, sponsored by Lasell University, is home to an average of 225 residents in its independent living apartments. Lasell Village also provides supported living, short-term rehabilitation services and long-term skilled care, as well as in-home healthcare. This award-winning community invites residents to experience senior living and retirement in a whole new way, by promoting an active, intellectually enriched lifestyle in a college setting.

A sample endorsement:

“The connection with Lasell University has made me feel like a student again—it’s something I never thought I would experience while living in a retirement community!”

  More importantly, the article also includes a link to RetirementLiving.com which provides a list of such communities. There are two close by and one is at Hillsdale College, which would be a very comfortable place to be if you are conservative. Here is a description of University Commons at the U. of M.:

"Bordering the University of Michigan’s North Campus in Ann Arbor, University Commons is a condominium community consisting of ninety-two independently owned residences. The buildings, townhomes, and villas of University Commons blend into the natural setting of hardwood forest and natural wetlands. Formally opened in 2001, University Commons was originally conceived in the 1980's by university faculty members who envisioned an intellectually satisfying living style and life-long learning, combined with the convenience of condominium living.

Community members are at least 55 years old and include faculty and staff of the University of Michigan as well as other colleges and universities, professionals and business people. Many continue to work full or part-time in paid or volunteer positions. University Commons is often described as a university oriented, academically inclined and intellectually curious community."

By the way, RetirementLiving is a very good source for all things geriatric. 

Sources:

With the above information and these two posts, you will have a good bibliography relating to  UBRCs.  Retiring Back to University and Campus Corner. 

 

The University

 

     I happened to notice this review of four new books relating to universities. I also happen to have in the bin, a bibliography relating to universities. Oddly enough, books about them are not easy to gather. Given the pandemic and the generally difficult times on campuses everywhere, there is much written about higher education. Some of the news is bad; for example, Laurentian’s bankruptcy and the absence of students in actual classrooms (see my earlier post: Campuses, Creative Destruction and the Coronavirus.) On the other hand, some academics who are dissatisfied with what is going on have decided to start a brand new one in Austin, Texas!

A summary of the review is presented and followed by the bibliography. Merry Christmas to those of you interested in higher education. Here is the source and the beginning paragraph along with portions of the reviews for each book.

"Power at the University: Books That Explore Higher Education as the Rehearsal Room for Democracy'" Simona Chiose, The Globe and Mail, Dec. 21, 2021.

"After 20 months of intermittent online learning, where the value of a university education can be easy to question as the experience is reduced to a checkerboard of names and faces, encountering a quartet of books that takes universities seriously is cause for optimism. Across these four books, the promise of universities burns bright, from improving democracy to accelerating incomes to life-changing discoveries. Nothing Less than Great: Reforming Canada’s Universities, Harvey Weingarten, "For Harvey Weingarten, the quality of undergraduate education is the first task. In Nothing Less than Great: Reforming Canada’s Universities, Weingarten – a former university president and higher education administrator – sets out his case that while Canadian universities are poised on the cusp of greatness, they are at risk of stagnation." “Is it so preposterous to contemplate an undergraduate curriculum structured around solutions to problems – a Department of Poverty Reduction or Climate Change Solutions – instead of the traditional departments that often operate in silos and create impediments to students who wish to learn in multi- and interdisciplinary ways?” he asks.... Governments and institutions must attend to improving their most important product: the human capital created in undergraduate education, he argues."

What Universities Owe Democracy, Ron Daniels

"The university as a place of promise and peril emerges clearly in Ron Daniels’ What Universities Owe Democracy. Alarmed by the attempted January 6, 2021 coup in the United States and armed with international surveys showing declines in democracies’ political health, Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University (and a Canadian), advances the most forceful argument for universities as change-makers.

In spite of Daniels’ hopes, the university emerges as an imperfect vessel for democracy. Seized with the university’s role on the national stage, Daniels misses the opportunity to reckon with how demands for internal change and representation can advance democracy. And significantly, for a book published after the first peak of the pandemic, he does not address remote learning, which offered a glimpse at how access can be truly expanded even as it underlined how there is no replacement for humans sharing physical space."

Allies and Rivals: German-American Exchange and the Rise of the Modern Research University, Emily Levine

"Levine begins her story with the founding of the University of Berlin in 1809, the prototype of an institution that “would authenticate and legitimize knowledge” in order to educate a “professional civil service and competitive military.” (The University of Berlin, now the Humboldt University of Berlin, would go on to be home for 57 Nobel laureates.) From this origin story, she travels back and forth across the Atlantic to trace how German and American men leveraged professional education and their respective countries’ hunger for expertise and science as the foundation for their own ascent."

Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First, Indira Samarasekera and Martha Piper.

"Closer in time and geography, Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First, reinforces the message that universities are slow-moving beasts. Written by Indira Samarasekera, a former president of the University of Alberta, and Martha Piper, a former president of the University of British Columbia, the book provides advice to accompany every professional phase in women’s careers, from reaching for leadership to retirement."

The Bibliography

   This bibliography is a good one, but it is almost a decade old. The essay accompanying it is still worth reading. 

"The University, the Market, and Professors: A Bibliographic Essay," Ethan Schrum

The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture

Spring 2012 / Volume 14 / No. 1 - The Entire Issue is Devoted to “The Corporate Professor.”

The headings are supplied by Schrum. Those books that are highlighted are available in the libraries at Western. That some of them are not available is explained by the fact that the subject of higher education did not fall under the purview of a particular collections librarian. Before heading to campus, you should double-check.

The History of Universities since World War II

Bender, Thomas, and Carl E. Schorske, eds. American Academic Culture in Transformation: Fifty Years, Four Disciplines. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Chomsky, Noam, et al. The Cold War & the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years. New York, NY: New, 1997.

Freeland, Richard M. Academia’s Golden Age: Universities in Massachusetts, 1945–1970. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992. Online

Geiger, Roger L. Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993. Storage

Kerr, Clark. The Uses of the University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963. Several Copies

Leslie, Stuart W. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1993. Several Copies & Online

Loss, Christopher P. Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011. Online

Lowen, Rebecca S. Creating the Cold War University: The Transformation of Stanford. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.

Nisbet, Robert. The Degradation of the Academic Dogma: The University in America, 1945–1970. New York, NY: Basic, 1971. Storage

O’Mara, Margaret Pugh. Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Storage & Online

Simpson, Christopher, ed., Universities and Empire: Money and Politics in the Social Sciences During the Cold War. New York, NY: New, 1998. Weldon

Markets

Bok, Derek. Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. Storage & King’s

Geiger, Roger. Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004. Storage

Kirp, David L. Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. Business & King’s

Slaughter, Sheila, and Gary Rhoades. Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

Slaughter, Sheila, and Larry L. Leslie. Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Storage

Corporatization and the Fate of the Professor

Donoghue, Frank. The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2008. Online

Ginsberg, Benjamin. The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why it Matters. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Gould, Eric. The University in a Corporate Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. King’s & Storage

Somerville, C. John. Religious Ideas for Secular Universities. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009. King’s

The Bonus:

Nerve... is published by ECW Press, about which I knew nothing. What do the initials stand for? I'm still not exactly sure:

At first the acronym was self-descriptive: Essays on Canadian Writing (the name of the journal of literary criticism we started in 1974). But as the company grew and changed, our name, in our minds, also changed. We’ve heard the company called Essential Canadian Writing, Excellent Contemporary Writing, or, more recently, Extreme Cutting-Edge Writing. And these names have been, and still are, appropriate. But now we realize that each of those letters represents a particular strain of ECW Press’s diverse passions — Entertainment, Culture, Writing.

ECW Press is located in Toronto and they have their own blog.

SARCO

 
   The very stylish SARCO pictured above is a streamlined coffin-like contraption, designed to assist you in committing suicide, if you choose to do so. It has been produced in Switzerland, where a lot of other well-designed products are made, and the maker of it would like it to be available globally via a 3D printed design. SARCO, I bet, is highly unlikely to make it to Canada, and not because of the current supply chain problems.

   The designer is the director of Exit International which is a group that supports euthanasia. If you are interested in that subject, and in favour of it, you will be pleased to know that SARCO makes it easier; nitrogen is slowly released into the chamber and the occupant quickly and painlessly ceases to exist. More importantly, this makes DIY dying much simpler, since one can make the choice and not need the assistance of a medical authority to administer a drug.   

   What could go wrong? Well, as a pro-euthanasia, pro-MAID supporter, I am thinking, plenty. It is highly unlikely that I will be able to saddle-up in a SARCO and not because of supply chain issues. There are many anti-MAID proponents and these anti-choice deniers are more adamant than the anti-climate change ones. I am sure that there are already many pro-lifers preparing legal briefs, arguing that if such an option is allowed, there will be a Sarco surge, propelled partially by relatives too eager to purge the planet of their irritating elderly parents. As well, government agents are likely to support Rent-A-SARCO agencies to assist in the elimination of those in public-supported facilities who are draining the public purse.

  Such things do need to be thought about and perhaps SARCO will help. One article notes that this new device "Inflames the Assisted Suicide Debate", but it also notes that:

Others who have studied the ethics of voluntary assisted suicide welcomed the debate that Sarco has inspired. Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn., said the debate about Sarco could lead to a new way of looking at end-of-life options, including by legislators.
“That might be bigger or more important than the actual Sarco itself,” he said, adding that Dr. Nitschke was “illustrating the limitations of the medical model and forcing us to think.”
“There are a lot of people that live with illnesses or conditions that they don’t want to live with, but they don’t qualify for medically aided dying where they live,” he said. “If he really goes forward with it, this may get the nonmedical approach to hastening death some more attention.”

Sources:
   If you simply type in "SARCO" in December 2021, you will find many articles, some of which suggested that Switzerland had approved the SARCO, which is not exactly the case. The article I mentioned is: "A 3-D Printed Pod Inflames the Assisted Suicide Debate," Christine Hauser, New York Times, Dec. 16, 2021. 

   More about MAID is found in my post: More Contrarian News for Old Codgers (OATS3)

  For non-Canadian readers "MAID" is an acronym for "Medical Assistance in Dying." Many are opposed to offering such assistance, including some doctors who argue that they should only be delivering MAIL - "Medical Assistance in Living. " For more see: Canada's New Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Law.

The Bonus: 
  For those of you too busy to research SARCO, it is apparently short for sarcophagus. That word you will have to look up on your own. 
  Those of you on either side of the MAID issue will be interested to know that there is a Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Germany, where they do know a lot about dying. 

                 Making Light of Heavy Things Since 2016.
 

"The One and Only Hitch"

 

   Last year during December I wrote about Christopher Hitchens who had died in December, nine years before. I predicted that on the tenth anniversary of his passing, many paeans would be produced. I was correct. The title of this post is plagiarized from one of them. A few snippets are provided and they should be attributed to John G. Rodden (see, "The One and Only Hitch," American Purpose, Dec.15, 2021.)

How much we have missed him in this last, lost decade! Imagine “the Hitch” skewering the Donald for yet another Trumpertantrum, imagine him lambasting Jeff Bezos and Big Tech, imagine him mocking the craven American exit from Afghanistan, imagine him dissecting the politically correct shibboleths of the professoriate, imagine him daring and defying “cancel culture” to silence him…. Yes, imagine his delicious dismissals and superb send-ups of the ideologues and hypocrites on all sides. January 6? The 1619 Project? The anti-vaxxers? “Follow the science”? What verdicts he would have pronounced or published, I do not know. I only know that they would have been worth reading and worth listening to—and worth pondering. I only know that he would not have spared the Left, and he would not have excused the Right....

Christopher Hitchens may have been the greatest overall combination of speaker and writer in the English language of our time. The two skills are so different that it is rare indeed to encounter a master of both.

   The entire article should be read, and if you happened to have missed "The Hitch" when he was here, then you will be rewarded if you take the time to read just about anything he wrote. If you need convincing, just look for any YouTube video in which he is included. 

  If you need still more convincing, here is another sample from the many pieces written about him in the last few weeks. 

Christopher’s output, in columns, essays and books, was voluminous. He was one of very few foreign journalists to transplant to the United States and make an impact within the Beltway. He also had many detractors and enemies, notably but far from exclusively, among his former comrades on the radical left. Their hostility troubled him not at all. Unable to best him in debate while he was alive, some turned to condescension in death, insinuating that his talent was superficial and his politics a pose. In a review of a posthumous collection of Christopher’s essays, Terry Eagleton said primly: “His desire to belabour the establishment was matched only by his eagerness to belong to it.” 

Rather than assail the critics—for what would be the point, and where would it end?—I merely counter that Christopher was a giant of letters and of social criticism. His death diminished not only his admirers but the allied causes of rationality and liberty. His work transcended journalism. It was literature, and deserves to be celebrated as such for generations to come. 

   That is from: "The Courage of Christopher Hitchens: Ten Years Ago, I Lost a Friend and the World Lost an Intellectual Giant. We Miss Him Now More Than Ever, Oliver Kamm, Prospect  Dec. 13, 2021.

   Saying "Amen" certainly wouldn't be appropriate and I said what I had to say in Christopher Hitchens.