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2. The Liberal Arts at Home and at Work
- Author:
- Pauline Yu
- Publication Date:
- 11-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
- Abstract:
- How many of you have had the experience of touring an older industrial city, perhaps in the company of a local booster keen to describe the city's glorious past, exhibit its vibrant present, and sketch its exciting future? You're likely to have been shown the redeveloped business district, with some gleaming skyscrapers, transportation hubs, and commercial redevelopment. Much would have been made of the "world-class," "cutting-edge," and "competitive" facilities businesses could find there.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Education, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
3. The Underground Railroad In South Central Pennsylvania
- Author:
- Matthew Pinsker and Scott Hancock
- Publication Date:
- 02-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
- Abstract:
- "Among historians," one scholar suggested just a few years ago, "the underground railroad has become a dead issue." As if to confirm that judgment, the most important recent study of runaway slaves contains only two index entries for the Underground Railroad. The authors of that widely acclaimed monograph, John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, are candid about the reasons for this decision. "Although historians continue to disagree about various aspects of the Underground Railroad," they write, "few deny that even today it is shrouded in myth and legend."
- Topic:
- Human Rights and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States
4. Fear, Security and the Apocalyptic World View: The Cold War's Cultural Impact and Legacy
- Author:
- Paul S. Boyer
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
- Abstract:
- In 1967, Louis Halle published a book called The Cold War as History. If that title seemed jarring and premature in 1967, it would simply appear obvious and conventional today. The Cold War is receding from our collective consciousness with breathtaking rapidity. Cold War encyclopedias are appearing; an Oxford Companion to the Cold War will doubtless arrive at any moment. To the college freshmen of 2000 — seven years old when Ronald Reagan left the White House — the Cold War is merely a chapter in a textbook, an hour on the History Channel, not lived experience.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Cold War, and Communism
- Political Geography:
- Russia and United States
5. Creating a Global Economy
- Author:
- Joan E. Spero
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
- Abstract:
- Headlines in recent weeks have been filled with news of earthquakes. From Turkey to Taiwan, tectonic plates have been shifting leaving toppled buildings, trapped victims, and homeless survivors in their wake. In the last decade of the twentieth century, other less visible but equally powerful seismic shifts have also taken place. The tectonic plates of the world's political, security and economic systems have shifted dramatically. The end of the Cold War, the creation of a global, capitalist economy, and the emergence of the United States as the world's only superpower—these and other seismic shifts have toppled the dangerous but stable bipolar international system that had endured for nearly fifty years. Power structures, relations among states, international institutions, and international norms have changed in fundamental ways.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States
6. Some Reflections on Three Mile Island
- Author:
- Dick Thornburgh
- Publication Date:
- 09-1999
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
- Abstract:
- On the evening of March 28, 1979 America experienced the first, and worst, nuclear power plant accident in its history. The crisis began when a valve opened, unnoticed, allowing coolant water to escape from the plant's new Unit 2 reactor. Following a series of technical and human failures, temperatures within the unit rose to more than 5,000 degrees, causing the fueling core to begin melting. During the next tension-packed days, scientists scrambled to prevent a meltdown while public officials, including Governor Dick Thornburgh and President Jimmy Carter, attempted to calm public fears. In spite of these efforts, thousands of residents fled to emergency shelters or left the state, driven by rumors of an imminent CHINA SYNDROME. In the end, only one layer of the containment structure was compromised and the accident never reached the proportions of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The accident nonetheless resulted in the release of some radiation, the quantity and effects of which are still debated.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Island