Through Other Lenses: American Robotnik’s Readings for February 2012

Articles and Blog Posts

•  "Paved but Still Alive" by Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, January 6, 2012 – How to take parking lots seriously as public spaces.
• "The US schools with their own police" by Chris McGreal, The Guardian, January 9, 2012 – Kids’ bad behavior gets increasingly criminalized; Foucault is laughing in his grave.
• "Five Things the Census Revealed About America in 2011" by Brookings, January 17, 2012
• "The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, January 30, 2012 – “Why do we lock up so many people?”

Plus a few more on marriage:

• "The Marriage Paradox: Why We Say It’s Outdated But Get Hitched Anyway" by Nona Willis Aronowitz, GOOD, December 16, 2011 – Marriage as an institution is crumbling. Or is it?
• "The Golden Age of Divorced Women on TV" by Anne Trubek, Slate, December 22, 2011 – Pop culture catches up with a broader trend.
• "Help America: Get Divorced!" by Matthew Yglesias, Slate, January 31, 2012 – Divorce has positive economic consequences.

…and on immigration:

• "The No-Brainer Issue of the Year: Let High-Skill Immigrants Stay" by Alex Tabarrok, The Atlantic, December 20, 2011 – Arguing for the increase in immigration of high-skill workers #1.
• "Immigrants Don’t Take Jobs, They Create Them: Why We Need More Immigration" by Tim Fernholz, GOOD, December 22, 2011 – Arguing for the increase in immigration of high-skill workers #2.
• "The Next Immigration Challenge" by Dowell Myers, New York Times, January 11, 2012 – Why we need to shift from keeping newcomers out to encouraging them to integrate.
• "Immigration and Emigration", Times Topics, The New York Times – An overview of immigration reform over the past decade and numerous links to immigration-related NYT articles.

The Book Stack

• Jean Beaudrillard, "America", London: Verso, 1986 – American Robotnik Review
• Svetlana Boym, "The Future of Nostalgia", New York: Basic Books, 2002 – BUY NOW
• Bertrand-Henri Lévy, "American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of de Tocqueville", New York: Random House, 2006
• Anna Porter, "The Ghosts of Europe: Central Europe’s Past and Uncertain Future", New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2011 – BUY NOW
• Alina Simone, "You Must Go and Win: Essays", New York: Faber & Faber, 2011 – American Robotnik Review – BUY NOW

Do you have any recommendations for readings about America or immigration? Please share in Comments.