Chicago Maroon

[img id=”80656″ align=”alignleft”] On the U of C’s official website, between the obligatory Argonne Laboratory update and an overzealous ode of acclaim to the new Temple of Milton Friedman, I was surprised to find an article digging in the dirt. Yes—the University news feed cooked up a really sweet review of the ongoing archaeological dig...

Equality for Illinois

By Marshall Knudson / May 8, 2008

[img id=”80580″ align=”alignleft”] As media operatives fished around in the goldfish bowl for a story last fall, they stumbled into proving to the world that historians can be newsworthy and even interesting. Allan Tulchin, who holds a Ph.D in history from the U of C, published an eye-opening article in the Journal of Modern History...

Beyond the ivory tower

By Marshall Knudson / April 25, 2008

[img id=”80530″ align=”alignleft”] Community is an idea that most of us respect and few denigrate. We grow up venerating community leaders, taking up the torch of community service, and reading the community paper. It’s a word of great currency and much contestation. Do we mean a group of individuals living in meaningful proximity, as in...

The other Chicago

By Marshall Knudson / April 11, 2008

Reading history is like playing video games: The past is filled with colorful figures, graphic violence, and at the end of the day, you can put the book down without much of a stain on your conscience or a damper on your spirits. It’s only when you come to realize you’re living your own unique...

Good to the last drop

By Marshall Knudson / February 28, 2008

[img id=”80372″ align=”alignleft”] Last week, Tom Buffenbarger, president of the machinists’ union and Hillary Clinton supporter, made a blundering attempt to portray Barack Obama voters as “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust-fund babies.” It wasn’t very eloquent, but then again, Hillary’s campaign has never set much store by eloquence. Now I happen to appreciate a good latte—and...

Time for U.S. to get off SOFA in Iraq

By Marshall Knudson / February 1, 2008

Every January for some years now, the news media publish accounts of the key words and turns of phrase used in the State of the Union address. Performing an autopsy on this president’s verbal effluent has helped some struggling writers achieve economic security—a topic which, incidentally, was not covered in the 2008 address. But here...

U of C students weather winter with frosty resolve

By Marshall Knudson / January 18, 2008

Back in grade school, celebrating the new year was like cutting the last corner of the Indianapolis 500. We’d hold our collective breath as the teacher chalked the four digits that would now grace the headings of our papers. Chipper phrases like “zip into 1997” or “slide into 1998” expressed the force with which we...

Apalling acts don’t justify executions

By Marshall Knudson / November 20, 2007

I was only six years old in the spring of 1994 when my parents first told me about the brutal slayings that had taken place just four years before in our hometown of Gainesville, Florida. Five college students were murdered, and, in a series of grisly scenes, their bodies were disfigured and theatrically arranged in...

Be “friends” with Obama on Web 2.0

By Marshall Knudson / November 6, 2007

In order to stay in vogue and surmount competitive obstacles, politicians have always taken advantage of available technologies to gain endorsement and to engineer the consent of their constituents. In the past this meant decidedly undemocratic methods such as “the rack” and “the dunking stool,” but in modern times these have given way to skilled...

Dispelling the “great myth” of Planned Parenthood

By Marshall Knudson / October 22, 2007

I was scanning the Tribune not so long ago when I came upon a phrase in the “Voice of the People” section that caught my wavering eyes. “…the great myth of our time: that sex is a right rather than a responsibility.” I shot forward with rage, instinctively jeering at that awful, harrying, grown-up word—responsibility....

CTA crisis requires real reform

By Marshall Knudson / October 18, 2007

My inbox smiled over the summer—listhost warfare took a welcome ceasefire, and I took a breath of relief for a while. Then, a new trickle of troubling messages started to pop up in its place. “Dear CTA Customer,” each message was headed, unfolding unceremoniously into a disquieting portrait of mass transit, with each message gloomier...

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