May 2012 Acquisitions

Books:
Ed Brubaker et al, Gotham Central, Vol. 4: Corrigan, 2012.
Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, 2002.
Kent Hartman, The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret, 2012.
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1, 2009.
Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés, Go the Fuck to Sleep, 2011.
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are, 1963, 1988.

DVDs:
Inglourious Basterds, 2009.

"Among Freedpeople"

"On May 1, 1865, freed slaves gathered in Charleston, South Carolina to commemorate the death of Union soldiers and the end of the American Civil War. Three years later, General John Logan issued a special order that May 30, 1868 be observed as Decoration Day, the first Memorial Day--a day set aside 'for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land.'"

Jim Downs at History News Network discusses the origins of Memorial Day.

"Undercurrent Of Inequality And Fear Roiling Just Beneath Surface Of '50s-Themed Diner"

"'This place is like a great nostalgic time capsule,' said customer Brad Handley, 61, describing the roller-skating waitresses, old-fashioned jukebox, and sense of overwhelming nuclear paranoia inherent in the family-style eatery."

From The Onion.

"One of the Most Beautiful Pieces of Artwork in the World"

"Thousands of well-wishers, bedecked in layers of fleece and sweatshirts, celebrated the landmark with a day-long party that included live music, art shows, boat parades, tearful renditions of 'San Francisco (Open Your Golden Gate)' and fireworks along the waterfront."

Carolyn Jones and Peter Fimrite report in the San Francisco Chronicle on the festivities to celebrate the Golden Gate Bridge's seventy-fifth anniversary.

"Something Like a Confessional Manifesto from the Emerging Director"

"All the talk in 'Too Late Blues' of integrity and authenticity seems even more significant in light of the career Cassavetes went on to forge. Despite a certain mannered slickness, the film is proof of his inability, even under clear constraints, to make anything less than a deeply personal work."

Dennis Lim in the Los Angeles Times revisits John Cassavetes's 1962 movie, Too Late Blues.

"We Were Born with a Divided Political Heart"

"For much of our history, Americans—even in our most quarrelsome moments—have avoided the kind of polarized politics we have now. We did so because we understood that it is when we balance our individualism with a sense of communal obligation that we are most ourselves as Americans. The 20th century was built on this balance, and we will once again prove the prophets of U.S. decline wrong if we can refresh and build upon that tradition. But doing so will require conservatives to abandon untempered individualism, which betrays what conservatism has been and should be."

E. J. Dionne, Jr., in The Washington Post wonders why conservative no longer seem to value community.

Land of Divergence

In The New York Times, David Leonhardt reviews Michael Lind's Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States, and Benjamin M. Friedman reviews Timothy Noah's The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It.

"Like Abstract Altars"

"The highlights of the Ocean Park series are large canvases (7 to 8 ½ feet tall) of abstract painting, most of them geometric and architectural in construction and appearance. While deceptively simple upon first glance or in reproduction, these works feature layers of paint over paint, signs of adding and subtracting, and traces of what the artist was previously working on emerging through newer layers."

Richard Chang in The Orange County Register discusses "Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series" at the Orange County Museum of Art.

Thru the Perilous Fight

"Historians of the period and of the war may resent Hofstadter’s summary dismissal, but it offers some clues as to why neither is the subject of much popular interest. The very things that put Hofstadter off—the bumbling diplomacy, the bitter infighting, the ineptly executed war effort—force us to confront a vision of the United States that doesn’t generally fit our understanding of its origins. The war plays out as a disappointing second act to the Revolution, with the nation suddenly at the whim of Europeans and Indians and riven by internal dissent, and the heroes and heirs of 1776 acting without the pluck and ingenuity that we expect of them. How are we to commemorate that?"

In Slate, James M. Lundberg observes the War of 1812's bicentennial.

"Couple Has Nest Egg Of Debt To Make Sure They've Got Some Money To Owe Down The Road"

"Ratliff said the nest egg was personally important to her, as her own mother had never put any debt aside and was now an elderly widow with almost no source of financial hardship."

From The Onion.

When People Stop Being Polite...

"But early on, it seemed, the show was morally simpler, those behind and in front of the cameras less practiced, maybe. The episodes largely functioned to vilify the bad and legitimize the good who might not have been so accepted otherwise. And the subject matter meant we were having conversations about oft-controversial topics in our homes and schools. Remember Puck, and how much we hated him in the third season and following, or his co-cast-member, AIDS activist Pedro Zamora, who was so beloved? Zamora, one of the first openly gay men with AIDS portrayed in pop-culture media, died on November 11, 1994, hours after the final episode of season three aired. This was unbelievable (people we'd grown to love on TV did not die, not like this) and heartbreaking. It's no less heartbreaking now—but more believable, having grown up as we have on reality TV."

Jen Doll at The Atlantic marks the twentieth anniversary of MTV's The Real World.

"The Hidden Hand at Work?"

"The reason that Eisenhower sustained high levels of popularity has nothing to do with the empty pronouncement that he knew right from wrong. A good soldier to the last, he knew not to rock the boat. He preserved New Deal programs, shunned controversy, kept his meddling in other countries’ affairs out of public view, and sometimes concealed outright the most unsavory aspects of his presidency. In the 1950s, Americans for the most part were content with this kind of leadership. The man who had defeated the Nazis helped guide them safely through the early Cold War. But more than a few citizens could see that Eisenhower also allowed right-wing demagoguery to fester, the civil rights struggle to suffer, the problems of the inner city to languish, and the conundrums of the superpower rivalry to remain acute and unresolved. It was in part because these Americans saw what Eisenhower had wrought during his two terms that in the ensuing years they decided, with all due respect, that they wanted something different."

David Greenberg in The New Republic reviews Jean Edward Smith's Eisenhower in War and Peace.

"These Districts Work Better without All the Bureaucratic Attachment Parenting"

"What could be wrong with a district where nightclubs and galleries are encouraged to thrive? Nothing, necessarily; done right, a city can help foster these scenes with a gentle guiding hand. Constructing an entire milieu from whole cloth, however, is where cities get into trouble. 'The problem with these created-overnight districts is that you’re trying to create a culture as opposed to letting one grow,' says Nathaniel Hood, a Minneapolis-based transportation planner. 'You’re getting the culture that one developer or city council member thinks the city needs, as opposed to the ground-up culture that comes from multiple players.'"

Will Doig in Salon criticizes "urban entertainment districts."

"Fleet Of Ambulances On Hand For 41-Year-Olds' Touch Football Game"

"'As soon as dispatch informed us that 15 middle-aged guys were talking about "tossing the old pigskin around," everyone on duty stopped what they were doing and got here as fast as possible,' said ambulance driver Reed Macallen, opening a fresh package of Ace bandages and making sure his defibrillator's batteries were charged. 'Given the widely varying levels of physical fitness and lack of any protective gear whatsoever, it's only a matter of time before emergency medical services are required.'
"'Someone's pulling a groin on the first play,' he continued. 'That's pretty much a guarantee.'"

From The Onion.

The Wah Gringo Expedition Go Girl

The Los Angeles Times reports the deaths of guitarist Charles "Skip" Pitts, novelist Carlos Fuentes, banjo player Doug Dillard, musician Chuck Brown, and singer Donna Summer.

Yes, It's Mine; I Bought It

"Cut to now. Women are boldly sporting more mega-tons of fake hair than Lady Bunny. Instead of Charlie!, it’s more about Charles II. That’s right, I’m getting historical on your asses, because today’s shoulder length mega-tresses have only one precedent: the man-wigs of 17^th-century Europe. Instead of trying to look merely healthy—just naturally lustrous—women now strive to look as much as possible like a bewigged aristo of yore. Every gal is coiffed with the powerful pompous abundance of the Sun King. Grab your periwigs, girls, because the Duke of Marlborough is totally back!"

Simon Doonan in Slate contemplates hair extensions.

"A Cold, Steely, Ruthless, Calculating Politician Who Nonetheless Wanted to Do the Right Thing in the End"

"The interview, by coincidence, came the day after North Carolina voted emphatically to ban all rights for gay couples in the state constitution. For gay Americans and their families, the emotional darkness of Tuesday night became a canvas on which Obama could paint a widening dawn. But I didn’t expect it. Like many others, I braced myself for disappointment. And yet when I watched the interview, the tears came flooding down. The moment reminded me of my own wedding day. I had figured it out in my head, but not my heart. And I was utterly unprepared for how psychologically transformative the moment would be. To have the president of the United States affirm my humanity—and the humanity of all gay Americans—was, unexpectedly, a watershed. He shifted the mainstream in one interview. And last week, a range of Democratic leaders—from Harry Reid to Steny Hoyer—backed the president, who moved an entire party behind a position that only a few years ago was regarded as simply preposterous."

In Newsweek, Andrew Sullivan, who helped start the movement for gay marriage in 1989, calls Barack Obama "The First Gay President."

Civil Cobra Onions

The Los Angeles Times reports the deaths of former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, hair stylist Vidal Sasoon, car designer Carroll Shelby, and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn.

"5-Year-Old Announces Circle No Longer Her Favorite Shape"

"Attempts to reach Billings for a follow-up interview were put on hold following the alarming discovery that after eight months of antagonistic behavior toward classmate Jeremy Caldwell, Billings no longer finds him gross."

From The Onion.

"This 'Nonchalant Approach to Motherhood'"

"Badinter doesn’t point fingers across the Atlantic to blame us Américaines for this very un-French new threat to women’s progress (except to note that the 'ayatollahs of breast-feeding' associated with La Leche League first began their 'ideological crusade' here), but no one who has lived through or witnessed Ameri­can motherhood over the past couple of decades can read her depiction of a new generation of postfeminist mothers losing their sexuality, abandoning their adult identities and shelving their professional purpose in the pursuit of 'some ideal notion of child rearing' without an uncomfortable shudder of self-­recognition. As we know, Badinter’s warnings about the dangers of excessive child-­centeredness are in many ways well founded; it was, after all, a general exasperation with our hyper­ventilating mode of motherhood that led us, in the past Tiger Mother-­dominated year or so, to start casting our eyes abroad for inspiration."

In The New York Times, Judith Warner reviews Elisabeth Badinter's The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women and Madeleine M. Kunin's The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family.

David Watts or Mr. Clean?

"These are some pretty primal emotions, and probably the kind of thing that drove George W. Bush and his handlers to take such great care making him out to be a redneck. Maybe these feelings won’t be stirred up by a profile in a newspaper that most Americans will never read, but you can bet the Romney campaign is spending a lot of time hoping that voters will see David Watts rather than Mr. Clean in the images of their candidate as unvoidably a charter member of the American ruling class." 

Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly uses two songs by the Jam to explore the public's view of Mitt Romney.

"Ahmadinejad Kind Of Getting Back Into Old R.E.M. Again"

"'Listening to some of those early albums they did for [record label] I.R.S. has reminded me of how great R.E.M. really was,' said the 55-year-old former mayor of Tehran, who is known for his rigorous implementation of radical Islamist policies throughout Iran. 'Stipe's cryptic vocals combined with Buck's bright, chiming guitar hooks, Mills' melodic bass lines, and the driving beat of Bill Berry's drums creates this ethereal sound that just completely kicks ass.'
"'They're basically like the original alternative rock band,' the controversial world leader and Holocaust denier added."

From The Onion.

Clear Title

Sports Illustrated presents a series of articles to mark the fortieth anniversary of Title IX.

"A Watershed Moment"

"Someday same-sex marriage will seem as natural to most Americans as racially integrated lunch counters. Particularly if that moment comes soon, history may remember Obama's statement less for moving public opinion than for reinforcing a move that was already underway. That's fine. It's still a huge development—one we should applaud and celebrate."

Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic reacts to President Obama's endorsement of marriage equality.

The Flying $10,000 Sabotage Things

The Los Angeles Times runs obituaries for musician Chris Ethridge, lawyer Walter L. Gordon, Jr., rapper Adam Yauch, television producer Bob Stewart, photographer Jim McCrary, actor George Lindsey, comedy writer Digby Wolfe, and children's book author Maurice Sendak.

"It Had Patches on It Like a Hand-Me-Down"

"White made the map and other drawings when he travelled to Roanoke Island in 1585 on an expedition commanded by Sir Ralph Lane. In 1587, a second colony of 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by White. He left the island for England for more supplies but couldn't return again until 1590 because of the war between England and Spain.
"When he came back, the colony was gone. White knew the majority had planned to move '50 miles into the marine,' as he wrote, referring to the mainland. The only clue he found about the fate of the other two dozen was the word 'CROATOAN' carved into a post, leading historians to believe they moved south to live with American Indians on what's now Hatteras Island."

The Telegraph reports on an old map that may provide a clue to the fate of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

"The End of 'Merkozy'"

"Needless to say, that’s not what you heard from the usual suspects in the run-up to the elections. It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is 'rather dangerous,' declared The Economist, which observed that he 'genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.' Quelle horreur!"

Paul Krugman in The New York Times reacts to the French and Greek election results.

"Right Up There in the Chutzpah Department with the Classic Example of the Patricidal Orphan"

"Lost in the back and forth, though, was the larger truth around the argument: yes, women have been hit disproportionately since the official conclusion of the recession in the summer of 2009—because they disproportionately hold the public sector jobs—in schools and government offices—that have borne the brunt of the layoffs. This is what really made the Romney attack so galling, more than his games with the numbers—he and his fellow Republicans in Congress and state capitals have slashing public payrolls with blithe equanimity and have resisted Obama’s efforts to provide fiscal relief to states and cities to mitigate the layoffs. That is, the big job losses among women (and among minorities, which Republicans also like to point to, to tweak Obama) are the direct result of a policy they have pushed. Yet they then lament, for political gain, the desired outcome of that policy."

Alec MacGillis in The New Republic points out that private-sector employment has recovered since the plunge four years ago.

"For All 'the Free Peoples of the Americas'"

"But by blocking the march to Mexico City, the victors at Puebla set back Napoleon III´s conquest of Mexico and the installation of the Hapsburg archduke Maximilian on the 'Cactus Throne' by at least a year. Had French soldiers reached the Rio Grande in 1863 rather than the end of 1864, Napoleon might have been in a position to offer recognition and formal alliance to the Confederacy."

William Moss Wilson at The New York Times connects Cinco de Mayo to the United States Civil War.

The Fall of the Comic Book

"According to Van Lente, one factor affecting the rising price of comics is the steady decline of the audience. 'For me it’s the starkest example of how comics when they were first conceived were completely different then than they are now. Comics were originally priced cheap not only so kids could get them, but because you made your money in bulk.' Oft-cited estimates of the Market Research Company of America show that, in 1945, roughly half of all Americans read comic books, including 95% of all boys, and (and!) 91% of all girls, between the ages of six and eleven. 'In 1947,' Van Lente added, 'one out of every three periodicals sold in the United States was a comic book. That’s 180 million comics in one year.' To experience market penetration like that, you’d pretty much have to be the Internet. And if you glance at these lists of circulation figures for the time, you see that by 1946 you have four different comic book titles that were selling more than a million copies per month. (Whereas now, there are only three titles clearing (barely) two hundred thousand copies monthly.) So in comparing the 40s with now, we’re comparing a time when comic books were hands-down no-joke the undisputed dominant paradigm of entertainment for American children to now, a time when the characters and storylines of comics constitute a very American mythology while the vehicles that brought them there, the comic books themselves, sit off to the side. They are, after all, just one medium of a bucket-full lined up to entertain the kids these days."

Brent Cox at The Awl compares comic-book sales today to the heyday of the 1940s.

"Our Silence Will Be More Powerful than the Voices You Strangle Today"

"Four days later, it all came crashing down. On May 3, police had shot to death six strikers at the McCormick Works, where a long-standing labor dispute had turned the factory into an armed camp, and beaten dozens more. On May 4, anarchists held an outdoor indignation meeting at a square called the Haymarket to protest the police murders. Anarchist leader Samuel Fielden was wrapping up his speech when the police, led by the same inspector who had led the charge at McCormick the night before, moved in to disperse the crowd. 'But we are peaceable!' Fielden cried, and just then somebody wasn’t. Somebody threw a bomb at the police, the police open fire, and the course of American history changed."

Jacob Remes in Salon traces the history of May Day.