Rutgers University Press Blog

When Boys Become Parents on Radio Times

Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coane spent an hour with psychologist Mark Kiselica, discussing teenage fathers, their biggest challenges, and how to help them become good parents.  Kiselica is the author of "When Boys Become Parents: Adolescent Fatherhood in America." 

Click here to download the podcast.

"Hope for a Heated Planet" by Bob Musil

In my book, Hope for a Heated Planet, I tell the story of hunting for my friend Gus Speth’s book in my local Barnes & Noble. Gus is the Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a former official from the Carter and Clinton years. He has plenty to say. I also confess how I drove around looking for parking, enjoyed the air conditioning, drank at Starbuck’s and committed other environmental sins. Finally, as he had ruefully predicted, I found Speth’s book -- which spans history, politics and policy, environment, and economics -- tucked away in the basement between the cats and the dogs. It was under “Nature and animals.”

Morley and Mike in Texas

On Sunday in the FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, the unstoppable Morley Winograd and Mike Hais wrote an op-ed about the millennials:

As Millennials seek to "tear down the walls" that divide American society, they will bring new energy and enthusiasm to the nonprofit sector and its traditional focus on that cause. Nonprofits will attract many of the best and the brightest Millennials, giving them a long-term advantage over the private sector in this new era. And, those companies that build a purpose into their brand reputation, such as ending outsourcing to improve prospects for American job seekers, will also succeed in both hiring Millennials and in the marketplace.

Coney Island

This past weekend in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, Michael Immerso, author of Coney Island, wrote about the changes facing the home of the Wonder Wheel:

New York's goal of making Coney a year-round tourist destination is worthy of support -- but not in a way that leaves insufficient space for seasonal attractions and amusements that have become synonymous with Coney Island. The city hasn't yet struck a proper balance. Under the current plan, too little land is allotted for the outdoor amusements, arcades and game stands that have long been Coney Island summer staples. The redevelopment zone comprises some 47 acres, and with the right zoning there can be ample space for year-round attractions without confining classic Coney Island amusements to a fraction of that area.

Sarah Palin

In DISSENT MAGAZINE, Kevin Mattson, author of Rebels All!, writes about everyone's favorite hockey mom:

We’ve also got a sense of the McCain campaign’s strategy to deal with Sarah Palin’s problems: Blame them on the media. The elite media, that is.  In translation that means blaming journalists who check for things called facts and then report those facts to readers or viewers in an effort to figure out what they mean.  For the right, the liberal media is just ganging up on a defenseless “hockey mom” from a small town in Alaska.

It’s the salt of the earth versus what Nixon vice president Spiro Agnew called “the nattering nabobs of negativism” all over again. The Republican base is energized and ready to rumble; its war cry is against the media elite and their right to believe whatever they want.

Comedy and Politics

Russ Peterson, author of Strange Bedfellows, writes a blog offering predictions, analysis, and video clips on how comics and late night shows are skewering the Presidential campaigns:

The best bit of the night, in that regard, at least, was Bill Clinton's non-endorsement endorsement of Obama on “Weekend Update.” The writing was clever, and more to the point, it got at a truth about Clinton’s recent behavior in a way only comedy could. And I have to hand it to Hammond; his Clinton impression has gotten more subtle and detailed. He’s got the post-bypass, lower-energy voice; better yet, he conveyed Clinton’s evasiveness with all the subtle disingenuousness of the man himself.

The Dream of Melby Dotson

David Marriott, who published Haunted Life with us last year, has a new collection of poetry out called Hoodoo Voodoo. Here's one of the poems:

The Dream of Melby Dotson

Rocking—the train’s motion—
that of an assault come alive,
in your throat,

the feet suddenly lifting
with a shudder
(your difficulty breathing)

Home Work

In the latest installment of her Home Work column for the NEW YORK TIMES, Perdita Buchan, author of Utopia, New Jersey, muses on disaster preparation:

And if you had to leave, what would you take with you? I put this question to my book group as we sat around on a recent summer night. Disaster did not seem immediate, despite some memories of the 1992 northeaster that piled sand like snow two blocks in from the beach. The answers — pets, photographs, objects with a particular history, and the computers that, these days, contain our lives — were not surprising. But another suggestion was. Might it not be liberating if a lot of things just blew or floated away? Granted, we were discussing this on a still night full of crickets and fireflies, but just maybe something in us wishes for the scouring blast of storms.

Live Mint

Mitra Kalita, author of Surburban Sahibs, published in 2003, is currently writing a column called Wider Angle for LIVE MINT, the Wall Street Journal's web venture in India. Check it out!

President Carter

Kevin Mattson's Rebels All! slaps around conservatism, but his next book honors President Carter and in this essay that ran in US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, Kevin reminds us that President Carter told Americans to watch it in his famous 1979 crisis of confidence speech:

What Carter really did in the speech was profound. He warned Americans that the 1979 energy crisis—both a shortage of gas and higher prices—stemmed from the country's way of life. "Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns," the president said. Consumerism provided people with false happiness, he suggested, but it also prevented Americans from re-examining their lives in order to confront the profound challenge the energy crisis elicited.