By Chris Mercogliano I am in absolute agreement with Bruce E. Levine: it isn’t ODD at all that our society has stepped up its efforts to pathologize young people with biopsychiatric labels like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Oppositional Defiance... Read more →
by Glenn Branch The missing link? The recent battle over the place of evolution in Florida's state science standards wasn't quite ripped from the pages of a Carl Hiaasen novel—as far as I could tell from my office in California,... Read more →
A link rescue from the not-to-distant past: Carl Elliott, who has a forthcoming Beacon book about consumerism and corruption in the medical industry, had a harrowing piece in the New Yorker about professional human guinea pigs, which is now available... Read more →
by Jane Eisner MEADVILLE, Pa. - In this pretty, snowy college town deep in Pennsylvania's north country, enterprising college students are mapping out how to fix the way we nominate presidential candidates. Their ideas are too good to ignore. The... Read more →
by Sherrilyn A. Ifill In the flush of the current presidential campaign, when crowds of blacks and whites caught up in Obama fever chant together, “race doesn’t matter,” and even the mainstream media seems delirious with the possibility that the... Read more →
Beacon author Philip Winslow, in his recent book Victory for Us is to See You Suffer, several times quotes and highlights the activities of the Israeli group Breaking the Silence, "an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of... Read more →
by Barbara Katz Rothman It's an interesting historical moment to be a white mother of a Black child, as another white mother's Black child is running for president of the United States. Who'd have thought? I too am a white... Read more →
by Sasha Abramsky In the years after World War II, California’s prisons were seen as being some of the most progressive correctional institutions in America. They were generally well funded, and the officials in charge of the system had a... Read more →
by Victor Tan Chen If there's a lesson from the recent debacle over an economic stimulus package, it's this: Republicans need to stop engaging in class warfare. Class warfare, as the Republicans have pointed out time and time again, is... Read more →
by Philip C. Winslow Open Letter to: President Mahmoud Abbas, Ramallah Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza City Occupied Palestinian Territories Dear President Abbas and Prime Minister Haniyeh: I write to you in frustration and some alarm as the latest violence... Read more →
by Glenn Branch Not so long ago in Birmingham, England, it was a reggae version of the Origin of Species with a video to match, but soon in San Diego, they’ll be listening to the Galápagos Mountain Boys playing their... Read more →
Books are great—we all love books around here—but seeing a writer in person, giving a reading or a talk, can stimulate the intellect, illuminate the work, and delightfully entertain. Mary Oliver is one of Beacon's most popular writers, and, according... Read more →
by Allison Trzop Several weeks ago, a couple of folks from Beacon -- including Director Helene Atwan -- had the pleasure and the privilege of attending several readings and tapings for a miniseries being shot over at Emerson College’s Cutler... Read more →
by Christopher Alan Bracey During a recent promotional event for my book, Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, From Booker T. Washington to Condoleezza Rice, a middle-aged African American woman asked me a question that I’ve... Read more →
by William Ayers In his State of the Union address on January 28, President Bush, our self-styled “education president,” urged Congress to re-authorize the No Child Left Behind Act, calling it a “good law” and claiming that because of this... Read more →
by Suzanne Strempek Shea The woman in the post office doesn't like Hillary, but tells me she's not about to vote for Barack. "He's Muslim," she leans in to whisper. I lean in closer and reply "He's not." Barack Obama... Read more →
Tom Hallock, Beacon's Associate Publisher, spent last weekend in the company of 500 booksellers at the American Booksellers Associations' third Annual Winter Institute in Louisville, Kentucky. by Tom Hallock Independent booksellers, like independent retailers in other industries, have long been... Read more →