Pistol Pete Reiser’s Dings: A Story for Today.

Pistol Pete Reiser’s Dings: A Story for Today.

Published May 8th, 2015 by Peter Kinder

In Nice Guys Finish Last (1975), Leo Durocher wrote: ‘There will never be a ballplayer as good as Willie Mays, but Reiser was every bit as good, and he might…

American Character Baseball Fifties History Literature Sports Writing WWII

Random Notes: Re-segregation; IDA & NSA; and Disinvestment

Published July 12th, 2014 by Peter Kinder

On second reading, ‘Segregation Now…’ by Nikole Hannah-Jones which appeared in the May Atlantic hits like Katrina and leaves in its wake – stripped of self-congratulatory, MLK-day delusions –…

‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’: A Lesson on History and Global Warming

Published June 12th, 2014 by Peter Kinder

Last weekend, I went to my 50th boarding school reunion. It was an altogether wonderful and wonder-filled three days. But I had something on my mind, something…

Climate Change Community & Society Eastern Ohio Education Environment Ethics & Morality Fifties History Future History Literature Modern Life New England Peace & War Religion Roman Empire Science Fiction & Fantasy Social Change

Global Warming Campaigners: What They Can Learn from the Tobacco War

Published June 4th, 2014 by Peter Kinder

Coal and tobacco: Do today’s global warming campaigners have something to learn from the tobacco wars? A lot, I think. Yesterday’s New York Times headline feed featured…

To Jonas Salk & Anti-Polio Campaigners: An Inadequate ‘Thank You’

Published February 23rd, 2014 by Peter Kinder

Today with great reverence I wish to thank Dr. Jonas Salk and those who preceded and followed him in the struggle to control polio. For as The Writer’s…

Community & Society Eastern Ohio Families Family - Mine Fifties History Folk & Acoustic Music Future Joni Mitchell Medicine & Illness Modern Life Religion US History

Pete Seeger: Secular Saint & Sinner

Published January 30th, 2014 by Peter Kinder

‘Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in…

American Character Crime - Organized & Not Environment Ethics & Morality Fifties History Folk & Acoustic Music George Orwell Music Religion Social Change Soviet Union US Criminal Law US History US Politics WWII

Dag Hammarskjöld: The Road Not Taken

Published December 31st, 2013 by Peter Kinder

Robert Frost, the poet of my youth, wrote when my grandfathers were young men: I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two…

American Character Community & Society Cross-Cultural Exchange Ethics & Morality Fifties History Future History Imperialism & Empire Ingmar Bergman Movies Peace & War Politics Religion Robert Frost Sixties History Social Change US Politics Writing

Air Pollution, Coal and Charles Dickens

Published September 4th, 2012 by Peter Kinder

I’ve found few people credit my descriptions of the air pollution accepted as normal in the late 1940s and 1950s. But Charles Dickens had described them in the aptly named…

Appalachians & Plateau Coal Energy Environment Fifties History Industrial Revolution Ohio Social Change UK US History Writing