"Who Needs a Public Health System When Sickness Is a Personal Failure?"

"In the workplace, the anti-smoking movement had a stronger card to play: the 'social cost' of smoking, which activists learned to quantify. The key moment was a lawsuit brought by a telephone company employee called Donna Shimp, who suffered from headaches and rashes in the smoky office where she worked for New Jersey Bell. In 1975, Shimp sued for a smoke-free workplace on the basis of her rights as a non-smoker, but she also stressed the 'cost factors' of workplace smoking. If New Jersey Bell would not act on behalf of non-smokers, it might act on behalf of its bottom line–as indeed it did. Shimp and the group she founded, Environmental Improvement Associates, gestured towards the health hazards of inhaling second-hand smoke, which researchers were beginning to discern, but her argument boiled down to the claim that 'smoking–and quite often, smokers–cost too much.' This chimed with a new wave of management consultancy that dedicated itself to a leaner, meaner, cleaner workplace."

Jackson Lears at the London Review of Books reviews Sarah Milov's The Cigarette: A Political History.

"Let's Find Out Why"

"The English language provides a great many solid choices for someone wishing to describe a leader who plays on mob psychology or racial intolerance. 'Demagogue' is an obvious one, but there are others—'nationalist,' 'nativist,' 'racist,' or 'fascist,' to name a few. They are serviceable words, all of them. In the feverish climate of the Democracy Scare, however, none of those will work: 'populist' is the word we are instructed to use. 'Populists' are the ones we must suppress."

Thomas Frank at Harper's Magazine looks at the original Populists compared to how the description is used today.

"If You Want to Save the World, Veganism Isn't the Answer"

"In the vegan equation, by contrast, the carbon cost of ploughing is rarely considered. Since the industrial revolution, according to a 2017 report in the science journal Nature, up to 70% of the carbon in our cultivated soils has been lost to the atmosphere.
"So there's a huge responsibility here: unless you’re sourcing your vegan products specifically from organic, 'no-dig' systems, you are actively participating in the destruction of soil biota, promoting a system that deprives other species, including small mammals, birds and reptiles, of the conditions for life, and significantly contributing to climate change."

Isabella Tree at The Guardian writes that "intensively farmed meat and dairy are a blight, but so are fields of soya and maize."

"Tariffs Are Rigged Against Them"

"In the 1920s, Republicans returned to power and resumed their protectionist agenda, but when crop prices fell, Midwesterners again turned on the party. Chastened by Taft's experience, President Herbert Hoover promised to aid farmers by raising agricultural tariffs. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 did protect crops, but it also radically increased the duties on manufactured goods, provoking a trade war with Europe at the worst possible time. As the Great Depression spread misery across the country, voters blamed Hoover's tariff. In 1932, they elected FDR in a landslide and pummeled the GOP.
"Reduced to a perennial minority, Republicans finally abandoned their protectionist doctrine and embraced free trade. The ferocious tariff debate that had dominated American politics since the nation's founding slipped into the shadows, remembered only by historians and economists.
"Until Donald Trump."

At The Atlantic, Michael Wolraich discusses taxes on imported goods, past and present.

"Race and Freedom Are of One Piece, Are Born at That Same Moment"

"The American Revolution is an extraordinarily important event in world history. And combined with the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the revolutions in Latin America, this Age of Revolution transforms not simply our own nation but transforms the world as well.
"After the American Revolution, after the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the Declaration of Independence, the presumption is that all men are created equal. Equality is the point. And what then has to be explained for the very first time in world history is inequality. And why inequality exists. In other words, if all men are created equal, why are some men and women still slaves?
"And the explanation for the persistence of slavery can be: 'Well, perhaps there is something wrong with that notion of equality.' In which case the whole notion of the post Revolutionary world, the whole notion of American nationality, is also wrong.
"Or the explanation can be: 'Perhaps these people who are enslaved are not quite men.' And of course that leads us to a whole sea change in terms of racial thought."

PBS, at its website for 2003's Race: The Power of an Illusion, offers an interview with historian Ira Berlin.

"You Can Kiss Much of It Goodbye"

"Put it all together, and the prospect is for a dramatic change in the mix of California produce and overall output. The UC paper foresees a decline of more than 40% in avocado yields, and as much as 20% in almonds, table grapes, oranges and walnuts. (Wine grape yields will be generally unaffected, but their quality might be compromised.)
"Disruption is already evident with some crops in some regions, the paper notes—in truth, dealing with natural variations in weather always has been the hallmark of California farming—but that's nothing compared to what lies ahead. 'The increased rate and scale of climate change,' the researchers say, 'is beyond the realm of experience for the agricultural community.'"

Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times discusses the impact climate change will have for California agriculture.

"The Story of Capitalism Begins Not in Smog-Laden Factory Cities but on the Farms of the English Countryside"

"To be sure, plenty of pre-capitalist societies have relied on some of what we see as the trappings of capitalism: money, trade, markets, and even wage labor. But capitalism itself, Cook argues (like many historians and theorists of capitalism, going back to at least Marx), is something very novel. 'Markets, commodities, and consumer goods,' he writes, 'while certainly necessary components, do not a capitalist society make.' For Cook, it is instead the rise of dividend-producing investments that defines capitalism. First land, and then people, came to be seen not merely as commodities to be bought and sold, but as capital, the price of which was increasingly tied not to some measure of innate value or even to hours of labor committed, but by the promise of future profits."

Adam Gaffney at the New Republic reviews Eli Cook's The Pricing of Progress: Economic Indicators and the Capitalization of American Life.

"The Model for Trump's Immigration 'Solution' Was a Humanitarian Catastrophe"

"The Bracero Program was meant to be an alternative to undocumented immigration, but ended up providing a cover for it. Though there were between 200,000 and 450,000 braceros per year in the 1950s, farmers wanted more laborers—and the existence of a large number of braceros created communities where undocumented workers could also find work. And as large farms employed braceros, smaller farmers often turned to the undocumented to stay competitive. If braceros were shadow workers with nebulous rights, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers who came in the wake of the program existed as shadows of shadows. "Operation Wetback, initiated in 1954 and overseen by President Eisenhower's military pal, retired Major General Joseph M. Swing, had an ostensibly humanitarian rationale; social groups like churches and labor unions had been raising alarms about the exploitation of immigrant labor. But the most influential push came from farming interests who had created the problem. For them, it was a way to shut down proposed laws that would penalize them for hiring undocumented workers."

Jeet Heer at The New Republic warns against a revival of an infamous Eisenhower-era immigration policy.

Nuts to You

"Small wonder that almonds have passed peanuts as America's favorite nut. And nearly every almond eaten in the U.S. is grown in California—a million tons in 2014, twice the amount a decade before.
"But while supply has doubled, global demand has run amok, especially in Asia, so that the price has doubled too. Thus almonds have become the golden state's most lucrative ag export—and 80% of the world's supply. And that means the state is, in effect, shipping its precious water overseas."


Paul Solman at the PBS Newshour investigates the use of water by California nut growers.

Cadillac Desert

"California is caught between the lessons of its history and the habits of its political economy. Droughts of 10 years duration and longer have been a recurring feature in the region for thousands of years, yet a modern capitalist economy values a given commodity only as much as the price of that commodity. Current pricing structures enrich a handful of interests, but they are ushering the state as a whole toward a parched and perilous future."


As Governor Jerry Brown orders some reductions on water use, Mark Hertsgaard at The Daily Beast explains how thirsty agribusiness avoids restriction.


And David Dayen in Salon criticizes Brown's policies.

"A Parasite on Public Health and the Planet"

"Protests in the Indian desert state of Rajasthan failed, despite studies showing Coke operations were even more of an environmental drain in dry areas with strained aquifers. Coke bottling persists in Rajasthan, Elmore found, because its politicians didn't want to risk losing their jobs. 'This was the brilliance of Coca-Cola capitalism,' he writes. 'By not owning its many distributors and by relying on native intermediaries in foreign nations, Coke could claim that it was a critical component of the local economy. . . . Once embedded in host communities, Coca-Cola became very difficult to dislodge, even in places where it caused serious environmental problems, because killing Coke meant killing jobs. In impoverished communities, . . . the argument of dollars and cents won the day.'"


Beth Macy in The New York Times reviews Bartow J. Elmore's Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism.


Salon runs an excerpt from Elmore's book.

The Fabric of Our Lives

"If there is an ancestral home for the Industrial Revolution, it's Manchester, England, where the first factories were built. Cotton propelled the factory's emergence, created after British inventors found a way to spin slave-grown cotton into yarn more swiftly. The man who invented the mechanized cotton mill at the center of these new factories was Samuel Greg, the prototypical genius-inventor of capitalist lore. By tying Greg’s success to slave-grown cotton and the ghastly conditions of factory workers, Beckert recasts him in a garish new light. Women and children comprised the vast majority of these first factory workers, all of them expected to work 14-hour days and huddled into barracks at night. If we celebrate Greg as a genius, Beckert implies, we must also accept that he was utterly dependent on the most coercive labor systems imaginable."


Eric Herschthal in Slate reviews Sven Berkett's Empire of Cotton: A Global History.

"A Different Kind of Resource Shock Is Unfolding"

"How did California get here? This winter’s infamous 'polar vortex,' which has blocked storm fronts from reaching California, hasn’t helped. But the state was facing dry conditions long before this winter. Whether climate change is at play is a question on which scientists disagree: Some say yes, citing in particular the thinning snowpack, and some say no, citing climate models that predict global warming will make California wetter, not drier. Regardless, the current drought merely tipped into crisis a state whose water woes have been worsening for decades. California would be better prepared to withstand its current lack of rain had various constituencies conceded to tougher water-saving measures over the years. Which constituency is most culpable is subjective. Your answer depends largely on your politics."


Jeffrey Ball in The New Republic discusses what Californians will have to do about the state's drought.

"No One Thinks a Fix Will Be Simple"

"Some of these decisions will have to be undone in the near term, some will be undone by the implacable economics of residential development and agriculture, and some we will have to live with for decades more. Fatuous political posturing to give some groups of users priority over others is a waste of time, and one thing we have less of every dry day is time."


Michael Hiltzik discusses California's drought in the Los Angeles Times.

"There’s a Tendency to Grab a Hold of Some Historical Incident and Yoke It to a Current Agenda"

"Historians say that the settlers in Plymouth, and their supporters in England, did indeed agree to hold their property in common—William Bradford, the governor, referred to it in his writings as the 'common course.' But the plan was in the interest of realizing a profit sooner, and was only intended for the short term; historians say the Pilgrims were more like shareholders in an early corporation than subjects of socialism."

In a 2010 New York Times article, Kate Zernike discusses competing narratives about the Pilgrims.

"A Constant Reminder that We Live in a Hydraulic Society"

"First, worried that the aqueduct couldn't meet its needs, Los Angeles shouldered aside San Diego's plans to tap the Colorado River and took over that project for itself. That may help to explain San Diego's abiding resentment of all things Angeleno, its persistent opposition to water planning that might benefit the city and its often fruitless quest for an 'independent' water supply of its own, no matter what the cost.
"Second, to ensure that it was getting all the water the aqueduct could convey, Los Angeles determined to strangle agricultural water use in the Owens Valley. This prompted the valley's armed resistance. The aqueduct was repeatedly blown up, and at one point, it was seized by the embattled farmers, who shut it down entirely.
"Los Angeles ultimately won that conflict. The Owens Valley economy was devastated and the city wound up owning most of the area, which it attempted to run as a virtual colony. For half a century, investments in valley business were actively discouraged."

William Kahrl in the Los Angeles Times marks the centennial of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

"It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way"

"Jim Knoepp of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that has campaigned against the guest worker program, said farm work, like other difficult labor, can be made attractive to Americans at reasonable cost, and farmers should not be excused from doing so.

"'There used to be lots of American pickers who moved around the country,' he said. 'But wages have stagnated and conditions have deteriorated and agriculture is unwilling to make these jobs attractive. Think of trash collection. That’s not very appealing either. But if you offer a decent wage and conditions, people do it.'"

 

Ethan Bronner in The New York Times reports on a lawsuit in Georgia alleging hiring discrimination in farm work. 

"The Worst Famine in History"

"Nowadays, Yang asserts, 'rulers and ordinary citizens alike know in their hearts that the totalitarian system has reached its end.' He hopes 'Tombstone' will help banish the 'historical amnesia imposed by those in power' and spur his countrymen to 'renounce man-made calamity, darkness and evil.' While guardedly hopeful about the rise of democracy, Yang is ultimately a realist. Despite China’s economic and social transformation, this courageous man concludes, 'the political system remains unchanged.' 'Tombstone' doesn’t directly challenge China’s current regime, nor is its author part of an organized movement. And so, unlike the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Yang Jisheng is not serving a long prison sentence. But he has driven a stake through the hearts of Mao Zedong and the party he helped found."

In The New York Times, Jonathan Mirsky reviews a new English-language translation of Yang Jisheng's Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962.

The Ordeal of Monticello

"Television correspondent Shannon Lanier is a direct descendant of Sally Hemings through her son, Madison Hemings. 'It's been an interesting journey for me, because it started out when I was a kid, me standing up in class and saying, "Thomas Jefferson is my great-great- great-great-great-great grandfather," and being so happy and proud to brag about it when we're studying the presidents. But then the teacher says, "Sit down and stop telling lies," and all the kids laugh at you.'
"By the mid-1990s the laughing had stopped. Historians even at Monticello were becoming believers. Lanier was 19 when he attended the controversial, first-ever combined Hemings-Jefferson family reunion at Monticello in 1999. 'Before that reunion, I had only known the Hemings descendants from the Madison line of the family,' he said."

Martha Teichner of CBS News reports on recent chronicles about Thomas Jefferson and slavery.

And in The New York Times, Jennifer Schuessler discusses debates over Jefferson, and Paul Finkelman denounces the third president.

"No Greater Evil Than Interfering with Market Forces"

"Recognizing that the British handling of the famine was 'parsimonious, short-sighted, grotesquely twisted by religion and ideology' rather than deliberately genocidal is important because while powerful, paranoid, racist madmen like Hitler are relatively rare, our own time is replete with men like Trevelyan. The Moralists saw the famine as a combination of divine judgement on the Irish people and the market working itself out in accordance with God’s plan, an equation of brutal capitalism with pseudo-Christian piety that can be just as destructive as outright malevolence."

Laura Miller in Salon reviews John Kelly's The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People.