Field Notes
What Lessons Does the WV Teacher Strike Have for Labor’s Future?
By Ken Fones-WolfToday, Janus is associated with a court case involving agency fees—monies collected to defray union operating expenses from those who choose not to join the duly recognized union that bargains for and protects their rights to fair treatment on the job.
Disaster Preparedness Is an Illusion
By Natalie BakerDisaster management, on an institutional level, performs an illusion of security; or a collectively shared pretense that people can prevent such events from occurring if a collection of actions is undertaken. It is a fantasy mainly because managing large-scale disruptions in a meaningful way is something we are generally very poor at doing, as has been demonstrated many times.
Is Democracy Compatible with Capitalism?
Reconstruction in the US, 1863-1877
By Charlie Post
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, one of the Reconstruction Amendments, to the US Constitution. Addressing citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, it has been one of the most litigated portions of the Constitution. Field Notes asked historian Charlie Post to respond to this anniversary by drawing some central political lessons from the history of the Amendment’s establishment.
In Conversation
PHIL NEEL
with Paul Mattick
This month brings the publication of Phil Neel’s Hinterland, the first in the Field Notes series of books published by Reaktion Books in association with the Brooklyn Rail, to provide in-depth analyses of today’s global turmoil as it unfolds.
Only Connect: A Review of Richard Walker’s Pictures of a Gone City
By Max MoorheadBy 2100 the San Francisco International Airport will likely see half of its runways submerged in water, reports a New York Times article from March. The study referenced in the article argues that land around the Bay Area that previously had been thought to be sinking at two millimeters per year could in fact be sinking by ten millimeters.
