"A Shocking and Seminal Event"

"That division was made all too clear as hundreds of anti-war protesters marched through New York City four days after Kent State. A large group of construction workers taunted them as anti-American and then attacked with crowbars in what became known as 'The Hardhat Riot'. Dozens were injured but President Richard Nixon understood the political advantage of siding with blue collar workers against students he called 'bums'."

Fifty years later, Chris McGreal at The Guardian writes that "the Kent State massacre marked the start of America's polarization."

"It Made Baseball Famous"

"At the time, the concept of amateurism was especially popular among fans. Inspired by classical ideas of sportsmanship, its proponents argued that playing sport for a reason other than for the love of the game was immoral, even corrupt.
"Nonetheless, some of the major clubs in the East and Midwest began disregarding the rule prohibiting professionalism and secretly hired talented young working-class players to get an edge.
"After the 1868 season, the national association reversed its position and sanctified the practice of paying players. The move recognized the reality that some players were already getting paid, and that was unlikely to change because professionals clearly helped teams win.
"Yet the taint of professionalism restrained virtually every club from paying an entire roster of players."

Robert Wyss at History News Network depicts the rise of the Cincinnati Red Stockings as the first professional baseball team 150 years ago.

"How Political Is the Personal?"

"Literary theorist Walter Benn Michaels argues, for example, that diversity can give a veneer of social justice to ideas about market competition and meritocracy that in reality promote inequality.
'The rule in neoliberal economies is that the difference between the rich and the poor gets wider rather than shrinks—but that no culture should be treated invidiously,' he explains.  'It's basically OK if economic differences widen as long as the increasingly successful elites come to look like the increasingly unsuccessful non-elites. So the model of social justice is not that the rich don't make as much and the poor make more, the model of social justice is that the rich make whatever they make, but an appropriate percentage of them are minorities or women.'"

Aviva Chomsky at Huffington Post connects campus protests to "neoliberal multiculturalism."

And Nathan Heller in The New Yorker reports from Oberlin.

"More Than Any Man Except Abraham Lincoln, John Bingham Was Responsible for Establishing What the Civil War Meant for America’s Future"

"It is Bingham who is responsible for the words: 'No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.'
"This sentence would be the legal basis for the Supreme Court’s subsequent decisions desegregating the public schools, securing equality for women, and creating the right to sexual privacy. Bingham also said that his text would also extend all of the protections of the Bill of Rights to the actions of state governments, which is largely, though not completely, the law today."

Gerard N. Magliocca in The New York Times discusses the "Father of the 14th Amendment."

"Rust Belt Stories"

"The author is fully present in these scenes, though the tales are predominantly those of others: Steelworkers laid off in their 50s, never to work again; autoworkers in their 40s moving into service jobs at a fraction of their former pay; chronically poor urban scavengers; young men who will never have a shot at a factory job rolling drugs in urban underground economies. Or economies in which nothing is produced."

Scott Martelle in the Los Angeles Times reviews Edward McClelland's Nothin' but Blues Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland.

Stand Up for Liberalism

"The trouble lay in the accomplishments Obama chose to cite--a boring litany of microgovernance that make him sound more like President Clinton than like President Obama. Obama’s presidency has been more consequential than that of any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson, but you would never know it from his speech. During his first two years in office he accomplished more than Jimmy Carter achieved in four or Bill Clinton achieved in eight. But these weren’t accomplishments that made him seem like a moderate conservative or a New Democrat. They made him seem like a muscular liberal."

Timothy Noah at The New Republic reacts to President Obama's speech in Ohio on the economy.

"Commoditization Is an Unfriendly Concept"

"If Southern California surf culture is Hollister’s guiding mythos, it is odd, too, that the company should name itself for a town twenty miles inland with declining home sales and greater-than-average earthquake activity. Did a lot of thought go into the choice? Or possibly none at all? It could be that 'Hollister' just sounded more marketable than the nearby towns of Chualar and Molus."

Molly Young in The Believer discusses the rise of "immersive retail."

It's Kenner! It's Fun!

"Some of his experimentation was conducted in the Howes’ own kitchen before he and other Kenner engineers finally settled on the concept that made the idea both safe and practical by deciding to use a light bulb to heat the oven.
"And the rest is toy industry history."

Barry M. Horstman in the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the death of Ronald Howes, the inventor of the Easy-Bake Oven.

The Old Man's Back Again

"Even then, Mr. Walker says, his interests extended well beyond pop to Beat literature and European films, especially those of Ingmar Bergman; musically he was drawn to darker, moodier sounds than mainstream pop permitted. The solo albums he recorded after he left the group featured songs by Jacques Brel, the impassioned Flemish singer-songwriter who was as catalytic an influence on Mr. Walker as Bob Dylan was on many of his peers."

Stephen Holden in The New York Times reviews Scott Walker:30 Century Man.

Thin-Crust, Thick-Crust, Stuffed, or...?

Adam Kuban delineates the regional types of pizza on Slice.