The Conversation

Philip Roth's journey from 'enemy of the Jews' to great Jewish-American novelist

Written by Brett Ashley Kaplan, Professor of Comparative and World Literature, Director, Program in Jewish Culture and Society, Director, Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Philip Roth would call the Jewish resistance to his work "the luckiest break I could have had."AP Photo/Douglas Healey

Like many, I was shocked to learn of novelist Philip Roth’s death.

Just a few months ago he was writing to me, making all sorts of snarky comments on the Dictionary of Literary Biography entry I had written about him.

For...

The forgotten history of Memorial Day

Written by Richard Gardiner, Associate Professor of History Education, Columbus State University

Preparing to decorate graves, May 1899Library of Congress

In the years following the bitter Civil War, a former Union general took a holiday originated by former Confederates and helped spread it across the entire country.

The holiday was Memorial Day, and this year’s commemoration on May 28 marks the 150th anniversary of its official...

How Christian media is shaping American politics

Written by Jason C. Bivins, Professor, North Carolina State University

President Donald Trump with televangelist Rev. Pat Robertson.AP Photo/Steve Helber

For Americans growing up between the 1950s and the 1980s, religion was not a regular presence on television. Aside from Sunday morning shows or occasional commercials, religious programming issued end-time warnings, sought monetary contributions, or staged faith...

How one 'Rosie the Riveter' poster won out over all the others and became a symbol of female empowerment

Written by Sarah Myers, Assistant Professor of History, Saint Francis University

During the war, the poster on the left, painted by J. Howard Miller, was only on display for only two weeks. Norman Rockwell's, on the other hand, was seen by millions.Nick Lehr/The Conversation

Seventy-five years ago, Norman Rockwell’s painting of Rosie the Riveter appeared on the cover of a May 1943 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Many...

Why the Catholic church is 'hemorrhaging' priests

Written by Verónica Giménez Béliveau, Professor, Religion and Society , University of Buenos Aires

Priests are Catholicism’s greatest figures: shepherds who manage believers’ relationship with the divine.

But, as Pope Francis recently acknolwedged, their numbers are dwindling. In fact, the number of priests worldwide has been dropping since the 1930s.

In Argentina, a predominantly Catholic country, the Church lost 23 percent of its...

Informants aren't spies – they're essential FBI tools

Written by Douglas M. Charles, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University

The FBI Building in Washington, DCAP

President Donald Trump tweeted this week that he would order the Department of Justice to investigate whether the FBI, under President Barack Obama, had “infiltrated or surveilled” his presidential campaign “for political purposes.”

Trump was referring to the FBI’s use of an...

A brief history of American winemaking

Written by Liz Thach, Professor of Management and Wine Business, Sonoma State University

A cellar worker steams American oak wine barrels before their use at Silver Oak Cellars in Oakville, Calif. AP Photo/Eric Risberg

The American love affair with wine dates back to the earlier European settlers in the 16th century, when they began making wine with a native grape known as muscadine.

Today every state produces wine, though almost half...

Bendable concrete, with a design inspired by seashells, can make US infrastructure safer and more durable

Written by Victor C. Li, Chair professor, University of Michigan

Fractured concrete pavement slabs on a street in Canton, Mich.Victor Li, CC BY-ND

Spring construction season is underway, and many tons of concrete will be used in the coming months. Unfortunately, concrete is a brittle material: Placed under stress, it cannot bend very far before it fractures. Some pavements that are being poured now will crack...

Self-cloning Asian tick causing worry in New Jersey

Written by Alvaro Toledo, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Rutgers University

The female longhorned tick, _Haemaphysalis longicornis_, crawling on a leaf.Jim Occi, Rutgers Center for Vector Biology, CC BY-NC-ND

New Jersey has a new visitor, and it’s not welcome.

No one is quite sure how the longhorned tick Haemaphysalis longicornis, an invasive bug originally from East Asia arrived in New Jersey and where, exactly, it...

New migraine drug: A neurologist explains how it works

Written by Yulia Orlova, Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Florida

Pain from migraine headaches is a major cause of disability. A new drug could prevent them, in some cases.R. Nial Bradshaw/Flickr, CC BY-SA

The FDA announced approval on May 17 of a novel preventive treatment for migraine headaches. Aimovig is the first in a new class of migraine-specific drugs that works by blocking an action of a protein that is...