Happy International Workers Day!

Happy International Workers Day


Although the first day of May was once the pagan festival of Beltane, today people around the globe celebrate it as their version of Labor Day. May 1st became associated with the labor movement because of a massive general strike that started in Chicago in 1886. On that day, over 300,000 workers (and around 40,000 in the city of Chicago alone) walked off of their jobs at 13,000 businesses across the United States. On May 2nd and 3rd, the work stoppage gained momentum and the strike grew to include almost 100,000 workers. The action was largely peaceful until the fateful Haymarket Affair of May 3, 1886, which ended in a massive wave of repression, a sensational show trial, and the hanging of four innocent men.

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My grandmother's long hair...

This is a photo of my 93-year-old grandmother from last week. She had not cut her hair since the pandemic began. I have never in my entire life seen her with hair this long. She was born in Puerto Rico in 1927 and came to New York after WWII to work as a seamstress. Although she only had a third-grade education, she was a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union for many years and a lifelong Democrat. When my parents divorced in the early 1980s, my grandmother moved in with us and I was very close with her as a teenager. I haven’t seen her in almost two years because of the pandemic, but I’m hoping to rectify that soon. 

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The blurbs for Taking Stock of Shock

So pleased to have these great blurbs for my forthcoming co-authored book with Oxford University Press

“From a starting point of cacophony, where different disciplines and data seem to depict the post-Soviet transition as either a grand success or an absolute failure, Ghodsee and Orenstein seam together a convincing narrative where both achievements and disappointments can coexist. The book’s focus on widening inequality allows reconciling these opposing views and providing crucial insights not only for scholars of transition countries but also for observers and policymakers in other regions.”
— Maurizio Bussolo, Lead Economist, World Bank
“Ghodsee and Orenstein have written a provocative book on what they argue are the different transitions people across the post-Soviet sphere have experienced over the past decades. Drawing on an impressive array of economic, demographic, public opinion, and ethnographic data, they critically analyze the emergence of stark inequalities that have generated tremendous hardships for many and enormous benefits for some. Taking Stock of Shock is sure to stimulate debate among scholars and policy makers alike.”
— Gail Kligman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, UCLA

A new newsletter is out!

I’m having fun with my newsletter and sent out the most recent update today, inspired as I was by the cherry blossoms at Chanticleer.

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Now is only once...


The Chanticleer Pleasure Garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania opened for its 2021 season on March 31st. I’ve already gone four times in the last two weeks to experience the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossoms. Between 1993 and 1996, I lived for three years in Japan teaching English in middle and high schools through a special program organized and funded by the Ministry of Education, and I have fond memories of the Japanese cultural traditions surrounding the blooming of the sakura trees.

Because they blossom only for a few days each year, families, friends, and colleagues carefully plan special Hanami celebrations to mark the coming of spring. In late March or early April (depending where you live in the archipelago) millions of people share picnic blankets under the riotous explosions of pink, drinking sake or specially brewed cherry blossom season beer while reveling each other’s company. Even the gentlest of breezes produce flurries of petals that drift listlessly through the air and catch in your hair life fairy dust. Parks and public spaces burble with joyous voices.

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