Short Stuff: Skid Row (not the band)

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal shows how the fast food industry has reshaped the American economic system and imprinted itself on the nation’s culture since the 1950s. The industry has profoundly reshaped how American food is produced, marketed, and consumed. The book explores fast food’s exploitative marketing and labor practices, destruction of the nation’s independent farmers, responsibility for the spread of deadly foodborne pathogens like E. coli, and creation of a national obesity epidemic. Fast Food Nation shows us how fast food has exerted a decidedly negative influence on American life.

Conventional accounts of American history tend to focus on the people at the top—presidents, generals, CEOs, and other influential figures and their struggles, ambitions, hopes, and dreams. But what about average people? The ones who had to live with the consequences of elite decisions, and who often struggled in obscurity? In A People’s History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn aims to tell their story, providing a bottom-up view of American history focusing on Indigenous people, Black Americans, women, laborers, and activists.

Our guide outlines Zinn’s interpretation of significant events, themes, and historical trends in American history. Through our commentary, we’ll provide alternative opinions on the motivations behind and consequences of historical events. We’ll also further explain Zinn’s approach to history and provide additional context for his arguments as well as his perspective on events that happened after the book’s publication.

Imagine living with the knowledge that you could lose your home at any time, for any reason. As sociologist Matthew Desmond explains in Evicted, millions of Americans live every day under the threat of eviction, and it takes a heavy toll on them both psychologically and financially.

This guide will start by explaining why Desmond believes evictions are out of control in the US today and his account of how that came about. We’ll then discuss how poverty and eviction each lead to the other, with predatory landlords and racial discrimination reinforcing that cycle. We’ll conclude with a few of Desmond’s ideas about how the US could empower its citizens to break that cycle permanently.

Our commentary will provide additional information about the history of poverty in the US and how it’s impacting people today. We’ll also examine the pros and cons of some potential solutions. Finally, we’ll present counterpoints to Desmond’s ideas from more fiscally conservative schools of thought, focusing on personal responsibility instead of systemic problems.

Widely acclaimed upon its publication in 2017, The Color of Law demonstrates that racial residential segregation—the fact that some neighborhoods are almost exclusively African American while others are almost exclusively white—is the result of explicit government policy rather than personal choice and random chance. From the conclusion of the Civil War through to the present day, federal, state, and local governments have enacted laws to confine African Americans to particular areas and prevent them from moving into others. These policies have had a profound and lasting impact on African Americans, affecting their educational and job opportunities, economic well-being, and physical health.

Imagine living with the knowledge that you could lose your home at any time, for any reason. As sociologist Matthew Desmond explains in Evicted, millions of Americans live every day under the threat of eviction, and it takes a heavy toll on them both psychologically and financially.

This guide will start by explaining why Desmond believes evictions are out of control in the US today and his account of how that came about. We’ll then discuss how poverty and eviction each lead to the other, with predatory landlords and racial discrimination reinforcing that cycle. We’ll conclude with a few of Desmond’s ideas about how the US could empower its citizens to break that cycle permanently.

Our commentary will provide additional information about the history of poverty in the US and how it’s impacting people today. We’ll also examine the pros and cons of some potential solutions. Finally, we’ll present counterpoints to Desmond’s ideas from more fiscally conservative schools of thought, focusing on personal responsibility instead of systemic problems.

Imagine living with the knowledge that you could lose your home at any time, for any reason. As sociologist Matthew Desmond explains in Evicted, millions of Americans live every day under the threat of eviction, and it takes a heavy toll on them both psychologically and financially.

This guide will start by explaining why Desmond believes evictions are out of control in the US today and his account of how that came about. We’ll then discuss how poverty and eviction each lead to the other, with predatory landlords and racial discrimination reinforcing that cycle. We’ll conclude with a few of Desmond’s ideas about how the US could empower its citizens to break that cycle permanently.

Our commentary will provide additional information about the history of poverty in the US and how it’s impacting people today. We’ll also examine the pros and cons of some potential solutions. Finally, we’ll present counterpoints to Desmond’s ideas from more fiscally conservative schools of thought, focusing on personal responsibility instead of systemic problems.

Widely acclaimed upon its publication in 2017, The Color of Law demonstrates that racial residential segregation—the fact that some neighborhoods are almost exclusively African American while others are almost exclusively white—is the result of explicit government policy rather than personal choice and random chance. From the conclusion of the Civil War through to the present day, federal, state, and local governments have enacted laws to confine African Americans to particular areas and prevent them from moving into others. These policies have had a profound and lasting impact on African Americans, affecting their educational and job opportunities, economic well-being, and physical health.