‘Woman’ Is An Ambitious Attempt To Capture Four Centuries of Being

womanAmerican History of an Ideaby Lillian Fadermanillustrated. 571 pages. Yale University Press. $32.50. We’ve come a long way, baby. Maybe? This is the general sentiment evoked in Lillian Faderman’s “Woman: An American History of an Idea,” an ambitious attempt to describe the changing state of being a woman in this country over the past four …

How Bad Is the Western Drought? Worst in 12 Centuries, Study Finds

ALBUQUERQUE — Scientists said Monday that the mega-drought in the Southwest America has become so severe that it’s now the driest twenty years in at least 1200 years in the region, and climate change is largely responsible. The drought, which began in 2000, has reduced water supplies, devastated farmers and ranchers, and helped fuel forest …

Joe Klein Explains How the History of Four Centuries Ago is Still Shaped

Culture is shapeless; is not immutable. Somehow, frontier grandchildren accepted the polio vaccine in the 1950s. Somehow, the Puritan state of Massachusetts was opposed to Prohibition – it was ruled by a generation of Irish Catholic politicians (but “Happy Hour” was banned in 1983 during a series of drunken car crashes). Of the Scots-Irish, Fischer …