Articles on PR for People

Discussion Guide Planned for Yonkers Trilogy

A Discussion Guide is in development to address the controversial issues in Patricia Vaccarino’s Yonkers Trilogy. Titled Yonkers Beats, this Discussion Guide is intended for use by teachers, book clubs—or anyone who wants—to examine controversial topics that engender difficult conversations. 


So Not Yonkers is the third book in the Yonkers trilogy

So Not Yonkers by Patricia Vaccarino has been released. Ms. Vaccarino’s controversial coming-of-age novels take us on a dark journey encountering racism, sexual harassment, abortion, child abuse, homophobia, mental illness, organized crime, violence, death, lost love and lost friendship among the working class and poor in Yonkers. So Not Yonkers is the third book in her Yonkers trilogy.


Book Review: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

O Pioneers!, the first book in Willa Cather’s Great Plains Trilogy, unfolds along the crags and ridges of  rough terrain that is harsh to all those who dwell here. Set in the still uncultivated Nebraska Prairie, the story is told through the lens of young Swedish-American woman Alexandra Bergson who has an uncanny head for business and an even stronger knack for spotting fertile land.


Interview with UW History Professor Vicente Rafael on his new book

Robin Lindley interviews  UW History Professor Vicente Rafael on his new book The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte (Duke University Press).


Banning Abortion Pills – Choosing Between Secularism And Moralism

Texas Federal District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk recently banned prescribing and distributing the abortion pill mifepristone as unsafe. However, after a four-year review, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified the pill safe in 2000. 


Plagiarism and Ghostwriting Behind “Shakespeare’s” Passionate Pilgrim (1599)

All modern poets are likely to have been inspired to write poetry by reading “Shakespeare’s” verse. If such poets have been following news about “Shakespearean” attribution, they should have a few questions that cloud this inspiration. Were these “greatest” poems of all time (given the 4 billion “Shakespeare” books in circulation) actually written by an actor without a formal education? Are the hushed arguments regarding plagiarism in Passionate Pilgrim indicating that the most beloved poet stole his work from others? The linguistic, structural, biographical and other types of analysis in my British Renaissance Re-Attribution and Modernization series (BRRAM) answers these questions correctly with a purely fact-based approach for the first time. 


Enough is Enough!

The right to life takes precedence over the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment to our Constitution should be repealed/replaced. Here is a proposal.


Book Review: Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

Connell’s portrayal of Mrs. Bridge is a grim reminder that true evil, is banal, seemingly mundane, and often so steeped in good manners that evil actions are rarely identified as evil at all. 


A Flawed New Dawn

David Graeber & David Wengrow’s 2021 book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), is a heavily documented (revisionist) history of humankind, but it is also surprisingly flawed.


Risk and Ethics

I examined the factors that should go into making responsible decisions around risky ventures in our current environment in my column last month and concluded: “The general shape of risk has not changed that much in the past 15 years, but every time is new. There is no shortcut or quick fix to making consequential decisions at the right time. The elements that go into risk management are unchanging: careful, patient, and meticulous thinking.”