Rutgers University Press Blog

Duane Nickell Speaks with Radio Host and Astronomer Michael Foerster

FirstLight!’s famed host, astronomer, and NASA Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Lab Michael Foerster plans an interesting and fun interview with Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler author Duane Nickell on Friday 12/19 at 7:30 in the morning. If you’re in the Michigan area you can tune in at 90.7FM. 

Or, better yet, listen in online by visiting WNMC.org, and clicking on the "Listen" tab at the top of the page.

You can also hear the recording of the show and a longer interview next Monday when it is posted on the WNMC.org website. 

One of the 10 Favorite Books of 2008

The New York Times names Millennial Makeover,
by Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais,
One of the 10 Favorite Books of 2008

“In what turns out to have been a highly prescient book, the two authors predicted that 2008 would be a ‘change’ election, informed by new technology and by the outlook of a new generation of millennial voters, who tend to be more inclusive, optimistic and tech-savvy than their elders."
—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, 10 Favorite Books of 2008

As a new administration plans to assume national leadership in January, readers can learn the story behind the story. Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics is political history in action.

America’s demand for change in 2008 caused another of our country's periodic political makeovers. This realignment resulted from the coming of age of a new generation of young Americans—the Millennial Generation—and the emergence of the Internet-based communications technology that this generation uses so well.

Building on the seminal work of previous generational theorists, Winograd and Hais demonstrate and describe for the first time, the two types of realignments—“idealist” and “civic”—that have alternated with one another throughout the nation's history.

For anyone who wants to better understand the 2008 election—new “players” and how they play at political change—Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics should be at the top of your list!

Obamanitos

Morley Winograd and Mike Hais, authors of Millennial Makeover, were interviewed yesterday by MSNBC.COM about young people and President Obama:

Through a steady stream of texts and Twitters, experts agree Obama has managed to excite young voters by meeting them where they live — online.

“This is a group of people who are constantly checking in with everybody else in their circle to make a decision,” says Morley Winograd, the co-author of “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics” and a former adviser to Vice President Al Gore. He defines Millennials as ages 18 to 26.

“This is a generation that doesn't tend to think about asking experts for opinion," Winograd says. "They tend to ask each other, and then that becomes the truth."

Watch Morley and Mike at VROMAN'S in Los Angeles, courtesy of CSPAN'S BOOK TV:

Showbiz Demeans Politics

Russ Peterson, author of Strange Bedfellows, was just featured in the RALEIGH NEWS AND OBSERVER in an article called Showbiz Demeans Politics:

A survey by the Pew Center for the People and the Press in 2004 found that 61 percent of people under the age of 30 got some of their political "news" from late-night comedy shows.

So what is wrong with this? Plenty, says Russell Peterson, a former stand-up comic and political cartoonist turned political scientist at the University of Iowa.

The effect of endless jokes lampooning our political leaders is "implicitly anti-democratic," Peterson says. It plays to the deeply ingrained American belief that our political leaders are jokes and that the democratic system is "an irredeemable sham."

"Election after election, night after night, joke after joke, they have reinforced the notion that political participation is pointless, parties and candidates are interchangeable, and democracy is futile," Peterson writes in his new book "Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke" (Rutgers University Press, 2008).

Shock Therapy in TLS

Edward Shorter and David Healy's Shock Therapy was reviewed in the 9/5 edition of the TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT:

As a historical account, Shorter and Healy's volume relates a fascinating story in a plain and accessible style...the authors tell their history in more detail and with greater authority than earlier scholars.

Martin Bernal on Chicago Public Radio

Martin Bernal, author of the Black Athena books, most recently Volume 3, which was published in 2006, discussed his work and the controversy surrounding it on CHICAGO PUBLIC RADIO's Worldview:

Will the Millennials Win it for Obama?

Morley Winograd and Mike Hais, authors of Millennial Makeover, appeared on The Digital Age with James Goodale, a program on WYNE in New York:

The George

Michael Aaron Rockland's The George Washington Bridge was featured in the MORRIS DAILY RECORD this past weekend:

    His passion for the bridge is immediately apparent. Sitting in the kitchen of his Morristown house (which was used for the Meryl Streep movie "One True Thing"), he unrestrainedly reels off facts and figures about the GWB as well as stories and myths.   
    "One hundred and eight million vehicles crossed (the GWB) in 2007."
    "There are 285 people who work there, 85 of whom are cops."   
    "It takes about six years to paint the bridge."
    These facts are all in the book, but Rockland loves the bridge so much he can't help re-emphasizing them.

Mattson in Front Page

Kevin Mattson spoke to an arch nemesis at FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE, a conservative journal out of Canada, about Rebels All!

FP: Who was the Right’s greatest rebel? Who is he/she today? Why?

Mattson: Buckley for sure started the trend. He consciously made National Review a magazine that looked forward to full-fledge revolt against the liberal establishment – rather than an embrace of reaction and remnants. In God and Man at Yale, he labeled conservatives the “new radicals,” setting in place a style that remains to this day.

Trenton Thunder

The Yankees AA minor league affiliate the Trenton Thunder are 2008 Eastern League Champions! Bob Golon writes about the Thunder and the other great minor league New Jersey ball clubs in No Minor Accomplishment, which was recently featured in the HOME NEWS.