The Conversation

How the US government created and coddled the gun industry

Written by Brian DeLay, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley

A U.S. soldier fires a Colt M16 in Vietnam in 1967.U.S. Army

After Stephen Paddock opened fire on Las Vegas concertgoers on Oct. 1, many people responded with calls for more gun control to help prevent mass shootings and the routine violence ravaging U.S. neighborhoods.

But besides a rare consensus on restricting the availability of so-called bump...

Economist who helped behavioral 'nudges' go mainstream wins Nobel

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Economist and Research Scientist, The Ohio State University

As a founder of behavioral economics, Thaler has helped change the way economists look at the world. AP Photo/Paul Beaty

The 2017 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to University of Chicago’s Richard Thaler for his work in behavioral economics, which is the integration of economics with psychology.

While the award was not a total...

Why would the Trump administration ban travel from Chad?

Written by Tricia Bacon, Assistant Professor of Justice, Law & Criminology, American University

In September, the Trump administration issued a revised travel ban after conducting a “worldwide review” to determine whether citizens from other countries posed a security or safety threat.

The administration continued to ban citizens from most of the Muslim majority countries sanctioned in the original order – Somalia, Libya,...

Why Rick Perry's proposed subsidies for coal fail Economics 101

Written by Meredith Fowlie, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley

Demolishing the coal-fired R.E. Burger Power Station in Shadyside, Ohio, July 29, 2016.PROFirstEnergy Corp., CC BY-ND

In a controversial proposal, Energy Secretary Rick Perry has asked federal regulators to effectively subsidize coal and nuclear power plants at ratepayers’ expense. Under Perry’s proposal, plants that operate in...

For Native Americans, a river is more than a 'person,' it is also a sacred place

Written by Rosalyn R. LaPier, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, The University of Montana

Colorado River.AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File

The environmental group Deep Green Resistance recently filed a first-of-its-kind legal suit against the state of Colorado asking for personhood rights for the Colorado River.

If successful, it would mean lawsuits can brought on behalf of the river for any harm done to it, as if it were a person.

In the...

Indigenous people invented the so-called 'American Dream'

Written by Lewis Borck, Archaeologist, Leiden University

When President Barack Obama created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the 2012 program that offered undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children a path into society, for a moment the ideals of the American Dream seemed, at least for this group, real.

We call these kids (many of whom are now adults) “Dreamers,”...

What makes American society so violent? 4 essential reads

Written by Emily Costello, Senior Editor, Politics + Society, The Conversation

shutterstock

Editor’s Note: On Friday, Oct. 6, “Third Rail with OZY” will discuss violence in the United States.

These stories from The Conversation archive explore how violence permeates different aspects of American society.

#1. Kids today

Do American parents teach their kids violent behavior through the use of corporal punishment?...

The 'inevitable sadness' of Kazuo Ishiguro's fiction

Written by Cynthia F. Wong, Professor of English, University of Colorado Denver

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro listens to a question during a press conference at his home in London on Oct. 5, 2017.Alastair Grant/AP Photo

On a damp October day in 2006, I followed Kazuo Ishiguro and my 10-year-old daughter Grace to a back table at a bustling cafe in London for an interview. As Ishiguro answered my questions, he explained how he...

How Columbus, of all people, became a national symbol

Written by William Francis Keegan, Curator of Caribbean Archaeology, University of Florida

Agricultural Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1893. University of Maryland Digital Collections

Christopher Columbus was a narcissist.

He believed he was personally chosen by God for a mission that no one else could achieve. After 1493, he signed his name “xpo ferens” – “the...

Why the Nobel Peace Prize brings little peace

Written by Ronald R. Krebs, Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, an advocacy group that has worked to draw attention to their “catastrophic humanitarian consequences.”

Every year, the winners of the Nobel Prizes are announced to great fanfare. And none receives more scrutiny than the Nobel Peace Prize...