Six on NY: 2018 Winner: Russell Shorto, Revolution Song'; Welcome Chancellor Carranza; New York circa 1903. "Looking up Broad
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2018 Winner
Russell Shorto, Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom
From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. “…a decidedly refreshing approach… Shorto’s achievement is a remarkable one” — The New York Times Book Review. “A tour de force” — Gordon S. Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution.
Russell Shorto’s work has been praised as “first-rate intellectual history” (Wall Street Journal), “literary alchemy” (Chicago Tribune) and simply “astonishing” (New York Times). In his epic new book, Russell Shorto takes us back to the founding of the American nation, drawing on diaries, letters and autobiographies to flesh out six lives that cast the era in a fresh new light. They include an African man who freed himself and his family from slavery, a rebellious young woman who abandoned her abusive husband to chart her own course and a certain Mr. Washington, who was admired for his social graces but harshly criticized for his often-disastrous military strategy.
Through these lives we understand that the revolution was fought over the meaning of individual freedom, a philosophical idea that became a force for violent change. A powerful narrative and a brilliant defense of American values, Revolution Song makes the compelling case that the American Revolution is still being fought today and that its ideals are worth defending.
About the Author: Russell Shorto is the best-selling author of The Island at the Center of the World and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine March Museum Messenger
"David Kirkland, the director of the Metro Center at NYU, in a report: “Separate but Unequal: Comparing Achievement in the Most and Least Diverse NYC Schools” reported the most diverse schools generally had “modest” advantages in test scores, Kirkland makes recommends for improving diversity and goes on to suggest a range of other policies.
A few days ago I attended one of the Department sponsored Town Hall Diversity Meetings. About twenty tables, each with a facilitator, and specific questions. In my group, three Black and one white parents – the Afro-American parents had no interest in busing their kids to a “white” school. My table was far more interested in equity in funding than moving kids from school to school.
No one will be happy – white parents will vigorously oppose being moved to majority minority schools and at the elementary school level Black parents want equitably funded neighborhood schools."
"You have seen the ads — oh, God, have you seen them. Ever since the cheap-ass labor provision company Fiverr (“Freelance Services Marketplace for the Lean Entrepreneur”) started plastering New York City subway cars with its “In Doers We Trust” ad campaign early last year, straphangers have been complaining about their Tony Robbins-on-meth taglines: If “Thinking big is still just thinking,” does that mean Fiverr — whose business model is built on having freelancers post tasks they’re willing to do for as little as $5 — wants us all to leap into self-starterdom before we look? Is “Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice” an attempt to compliment hard workers, or a call to work yourself to death? It all felt like, as Jia Tolentino wrote for the New Yorker, being hit each morning with a firehose of jargon “through which the essentially cannibalistic nature of the gig economy is dressed up as an aesthetic.”
Sometime in the last few days, one subway rider decided to strike back using the oldest of urban protest tools: the magic marker. Over one image of a highly made-up millennial in a hoodie with the slogan “Nothing like a safe, reliable paycheck. To crush your soul,” they wrote, “That’s why ‘Fiverr’ only wants to pay freelancers five dollars per task!” On a neighboring ad reading “Somewhere, someone is planning a meeting about taking immediate action” — meant, presumably, to chide overly comfortable wage earners who refuse to drop everything and start their own Fiverr-staffed animation studio, via comparisons to the People’s Front of Judea — the unnamed penperson scrawled: “In West Virginia, teachers went on strike and won higher pay. Is that immediate enough for ya?”
The Voice managed to track down the mad scribbler, who agreed to speak about their actions on the condition of anonymity. (The MTA tends to get sue-ey over billboard liberation.) ... "
