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Editor's note
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Fifty years ago this week, pictures from the violent clashes outside the Democratic Party’s convention in Chicago shocked – and divided – Americans across the country. 1968 was not only a year of rebellion and student protests but also of reaction: in November Richard Nixon won the White House on a campaign to restore “law and order.”
Today, to mark the 50th anniversary of 1968, we launch our first podcast series, “Heat and Light.” In conversation with journalist Phillip Martin, historians tell the story of six key but lesser-known events from that tumultuous year – what happened, why it still reverberates today and why they, as scholars, have devoted their careers to studying the 1960s. From the students who challenged their schools’ military
connections and the tortured setup of American TV’s first interracial kiss, to the beginning of the end of the “traditional” American family. What was just heat? What brought light, too? Subscribe to Heat and Light here!
And if you want some reading material to complement your listening on 1968, our historian-interviewees have got you covered.
African-American studies scholar Stefan Bradley dives into the detail of the Columbia University protests of April 1968 that started when black Harlem residents objected to the construction of a new university gym and ended up making world headlines. And historian of conservatism, Natasha Zaretsky, writes of arriving with some trepidation, as the daughter of San Francisco leftists, on a Midwestern campus 15 years ago where her students grew
up on church, patriotism and traditional family. Yet instead of ideological barricades, there was empathy and learning.
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Maria Balinska
Editor and Co-CEO
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Top stories
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Black power militant H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael (right) appeared at a sit-in protest at Columbia University in New York City on April 26, 1968.
AP
Stefan M. Bradley, Loyola Marymount University
The 1968 protests at Columbia University led the institution to abandon a gym project that residents considered racist and cut off its defense work – and generated worldwide attention in the process.
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The poor treatment of Vietnam War veterans, many of whom had PTSD, angered Natasha Zaretsky’s Midwestern students.
REUTERS/Mike Theiler
Natasha Zaretsky, Southern Illinois University
A scholar raised by leftist San Francisco parents in the 1970s ends up teaching in the heartland, where her students represent a very different kind of politics. What she learns from them is profound.
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Listen to our new podcast to hear insights from these scholars and others. Six episodes will help explain what events of 50 years ago were just heat, and what brought light, too.
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Science + Technology
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Emanual Maverakis, University of California, Davis; Carlito Lebrilla, University of California, Davis; Jenny Wang, Yeshiva University
You've heard of the genome, and possibly the proteome – all the proteins in the human body. But have you heard about the glycome – the collection of sugars – that may hold the key to diagnosing disease?
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Economy + Business
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Erik Gordon, University of Michigan
The history of leverage buyouts suggest Musk was smart to heed the advice of investors and nip his plan to take Tesla private in the bud.
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Tim Meyer, Vanderbilt University
The US and Mexico announced a bilateral trade deal that pointedly excludes Canada. A economic law expert explains what it means.
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Health + Medicine
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Joan Cook, Yale University
Prisoners of war experience trauma, torture, humiliation and profound loneliness. A trauma psychologist explains how the effects can be lasting – and that Americans' gratitude should also be.
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Sarah Linnstaedt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Did you know that trauma, even when there is no tissue or nerve damage, can cause chronic pain? Exactly how much pain and who is most vulnerable depends on which 'stress genes' we carry.
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From our International Editions
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The new deputy is the Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, 47, from Victoria, who won overwhelmingly, from fellow Victorian Greg Hunt and Queenslander Steve Ciobo.
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Jan Hoole, Keele University; Daniel Allen, Keele University
Dogs have the same hormones and experience the same chemical changes that humans do.
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Dan Malleck, Brock University
History has shown that prohibiting popular intoxicants spurs illegal and sometimes excessive use. Ontario municipalities taking up Doug Ford's offer to ban local retail weed sales should take note.
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