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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues

21. 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

22. Moral Freedom or Moral Anarchy?

Author:
Alan Wolfe
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
Abstract:
It is very difficult to discuss the issues which are raised in my book, without talking about September 11. This event is so important in our history, and, in fact, so important in the history of the modern world generally, that I am going to tailor at least some of my comments around it and try to reflect both on the event itself and on some of the things that I have said in my work over the course of the last few years and how these things interact with each other.
Topic:
Education, Government, Politics, and Religion

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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