The Metropolitan History Workshop invites you to attend a brown-bag presentation and roundtable discussion

 

WRITING FOR THE POPULAR PRESS: ACADEMIC INTERVENTIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

 

with Rick Perlstein

 

Friday, February 17

12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m.

Tisch Hall, Room 1014

 

Rick Perlstein is a former U-M graduate student, now an independent scholar and the author of BEFORE THE STORM: BARRY GOLDWATER AND THE UNMAKING OF THE AMERICAN CONSENSUS (Hill and Wang, 2001), winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history.  He has just published THE STOCK TICKER AND THE SUPERJUMBO: HOW THE DEMOCRATS CAN ONCE AGAIN BECOME AMERICA'S DOMINANT POLITICAL PARTY (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2005).  He is working on a new book, NIXONLAND: THE CULTURE AND POLITICS OF THE AMERICAN BERSERK, 1965-1972.  He has worked for Village Voice and Lingua Franca, and his writings have appeared in many forums including The Nation, Dissent, The Washington Post, The London Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review.

 

To set the stage for this presentation and the discussion to follow, participants are asked to read a series of seven op-ed columns and short articles authored by Rick Perlstein.

 

1. "It's the Wealth, Stupid," Village Voice, November 16, 2004

http://www.thinkingpeace.com/pages/arts2/arts283.html

 

2. "Leave It to Cleaver: Wedge politics have given the GOP an edge, so the

Democrats may want to slice and dice for their own side," Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2004

http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/2004-July/000204.html

 

3. "Reagan's Heartfelt Letters Illuminate His Presidency," Christian Science

Monitor, September 26, 2003

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0926/p01s04-uspo.html

 

4. "The Fringe on Top," OC Weekly, August 15, 2003

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0333,perlstein,46203,1.html

 

5. "What Gay Studies Taught the Court," The Washington Post, July 13, 2003

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cgs/WashingtonPostArticle.htm

 

**The remaining two articles are not directly linkable but can be found through the ProQuest database.

 

6. "Retiring, but Not Shy; Once, a Politician Ahead of His Time," The New York Times, August 26, 2001

 

7. "A Look at the Architects of America's Red Scare," The New York Times,

August 20, 2001

 

Please direct questions or requests for more information to Matt Lassiter (mlassite@umich.edu).

 

More information about the Metropolitan History Workshop can be found here:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mlassite/metro/metroworkshop.html