Removing Social Safety Nets: Workers Comp & the English Reformation

Removing Social Safety Nets: Workers Comp & the English Reformation

Published March 15th, 2015 by Peter Kinder

What happens when an essential part of the social safety net frays or disappears? A conversation with my son, Jotham, a lawyer who’s handling some Workers’ Compensation cases, got me…

Archaeology Business Children Community & Society Corporate Social Responsibility Domestic Corporations (US) Ethics & Morality Families Future History Lessons - Economic Law - Civil Medicine & Illness Modern Life Progressive Era Religion Social Change US Politics

Calvin Coolidge: A Man of (Small ‘R’) Republican Virtue

Published July 4th, 2014 by Peter Kinder

Born on the 4th of July, 1872, Calvin Coolidge served as President from 1923 until 1929. He was a New Englander of stern integrity. His political skills, though,…

American Character Calvin Coolidge Ethics & Morality Massachusetts Progressive Era US History US Politics Vermont

Woodrow Wilson’s Tragedy: Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s Death

Published November 22nd, 2013 by Peter Kinder

I started this post on Wednesday, a brilliant late fall day just as Nov. 22, 1963, was in southern New England. Like everyone else alive that day, I…

American Character Community & Society Cross-Cultural Exchange Ethics & Morality John Maynard Keynes Kennedys Peace & War Progressive Era Sixties History US Politics WWI

The New Normalcy: Lawrence Summers & Paul Krugman’s Pall on Parade

Published November 18th, 2013 by Peter Kinder

No administration was more tumultuous than Woodrow Wilson’s second (1917-21): World War I entered and won; the fight over the League of Nations; Prohibition’s start; the influenza pandemic;…

American Character Business Depression (1930s) Economics Finance & Financial Services Financial Crisis (2007-09) Paul Krugman Progressive Era Recession (2008) Social Change US Politics

‘Remember the Maine!’: On Syria, We Should

Published September 8th, 2013 by Peter Kinder

Presidents have often sought Congress’s blessing for foreign adventures using rationales that seemed dubious at the time: Iraq and weapons of mass destruction; Afghanistan and al Qaeda; North Vietnam…

American Character Calvin Coolidge Community & Society History Imperialism & Empire Middle East Wars Peace & War Progressive Era Rudyard Kipling Social Change UK US History US Politics Vietnam War War on Terror William McKinley

‘The Rule of Law’: A Lot of Moldy Washing

Published July 28th, 2013 by Peter Kinder

What distinguishes ‘us’ from ‘them’, we learnt in the bomb-shelter era, is ‘the rule of law’. We’ve got it; they don’t. Watching foundations and universities over a…

American Character Business China Community & Society Corporate Social Responsibility Corporations Cross-Cultural Exchange Depression (1930s) Economics Future Law - Civil Progressive Era Richard A. Posner Sixties History Social Change US History US Politics

Railroads: ‘The Octopus’ & Captive Shippers in 1901 & 2013

Published February 4th, 2013 by Peter Kinder

Few books read once in adolescence made as permanent an impression on me as Frank Norris’s novel, The Octopus: A Story of California (1901). Wheat farmers squeezed into…

Agriculture American Character Business Communities Community & Society Corporations Ethics & Morality Free Trade History Lessons - Economic Law - Civil Literature Progressive Era Railroads Transportation

The Obama Team & the Nation Return to Normalcy & Beyond

Published January 26th, 2013 by Peter Kinder

Updated 1/27/13 at 8:40 a.m. At his inauguration in 1921, Warren G. Harding told a World War and Woodrow Wilson weary country, ‘Our supreme task is the resumption…

American Character Future History Judges & Legal Scholars Law - Civil Progressive Era Social Change US History US Politics

Clarence Darrow on Prohibition: Lessons for Today’s Drug War

Published April 17th, 2011 by Peter Kinder

Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), the lawyer who defended evolution in the infamous ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’, has a birth date that fitted him: April 18, the anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride. …

Clarence Darrow Community & Society Drug Legalization Drug Policy Drug Wars History Law - Civil Mexico Peace & War Progressive Era US Criminal Law