This explains the basic state of the dialogue about socialism in the United States right now.
Important software update
Ribbons are soft, right?
Samantha Bee on the Green New Deal
I’m all in favor of point four.
A Review from Croatia
I found this lovely review from Express.hr.
Just found this comic from the Chicago Reader
I’d missed this back in January when it first appeared, but I have to say, as a long time comic fan, it is really thrilling to see one’s name in a speech bubble (in the upper right hand corner). Thanks very much to the talented Anya Davidson!
Photos from the Housing Works Valentine's Day Event
An great crowd in SoHo for Valentine’s Day.
Thanks to Oriana Leckert and the Gothamist!
Very happy to be included among this Gothamist list of the 10 best things to do in New York City this week. Thank you Oriana Leckert!
Little Atoms Podcast with the Brilliant Neil Denny
I was so please to have had the opportunity to speak with Neil Denny on the Little Atoms podcast. He asked such thoughtful and insightful questions, and i love the fact that he allows long-winded academics like me to waffle on when necessary. I really do need to learn how to speak in sound byte one of these days…
A fun conversation with Dan Snow on the History Hit podcast
Thanks so much to Dan Snow for reaching out to me to be a guest on his wonderful History Hit podcast. I had so much fun during this conversation; Dan asked the most thoughtful and insightful questions.
My new book!
So so so excited that this one is finally out. I’ve been working on this book for almost a decade.
A review all the way from Bangladesh!
I just found this amazing review all the way from Bangladesh. The book is definitely making it’s way out into the world.
The BigThink
Thanks so much to Scotty Hendricks who wrote a lovely summary and review of the book at BigThink.com.
Just launched a new podcast!
I did something crazy today and taught myself Garageband so I could produce my own little podcast about the life and work of Alexandra Kollontai. I just posted my first episode. Check it out here.
My new Qwerkywriter!
I am so excited to have just received my new Qwerkywriter in mint green. I have moved my old black one to the office and this one now graces my home work station. It is definitely the best mechanical keyboard out there. I love that it simulates the feeling on typing on a typewriter, and that I can use it wirelessly with my iPad.
Thanks to the Toronto Star! →
An amazing review in the New Yorker! →
Heartfelt gratitude to Rebecca Mead! She really understood what I was trying to do with this book. I couldn’t be more thrilled with this engages and rigorous review.
“The virtue of Ghodsee’s smart, accessible book is that it illustrates how it might be possible for a woman — or, for that matter, a man — to have an entirely different structural relationship to something as fundamental as sex, or health.”
Read the full review here
Winter academic reading
My spring semester is about to start, but I had some time to delve into some great books about Eastern Europe and the politics of knowledge production during the Cold War. I wrote review of Birth of Democratic Citizenship and To See Paris and Die, I read Know Your Enemy for the first time and it inspired me to go back and reread Laura Nader’s and Noam Chomsky’s essays in The Cold War & The University.
The East German Birth Strike
I found this interesting article about the “womb strike” of the early 1990s in Eastern Germany.
Oxford English Dictionary on "Socialism"
The OED allows a lot of room for interpretation of the word “socialism.” Some people want to pin it down to state or collective ownership of the means of production, but it is clear that in modern usage it can mean a lot of different things to different people including: “any of various systems of liberal social democracy which retain a commitment to social justice and social reform, or feature some degree of state intervention in the running of the economy.”
“Frequently with capital initial. A theory or system of social organization based on state or collective ownership and regulation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange for the common benefit of all members of society; advocacy or practice of such a system, esp. as a political movement. Now also: any of various systems of liberal social democracy which retain a commitment to social justice and social reform, or feature some degree of state intervention in the running of the economy.”
Feel like I just spent 2 hours and 40 minutes in church
And it was so good. I am sorry I never managed to see this show while it was running, but thank goodness for Netflix. I have been transported.