See also Netflix’s ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads documentary on Johnson and Wardlow’s and Cornforth’s biography of Johnson, Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson.
Books
Books, City, Culture
The Pictures on the Wall
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Books, Politics, Review, Trump
Review: Everything Trump Touches Dies
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Not everyone who opposes Trump does so from the same position or perspective; a picture that depicts his opponents only as Democrats and liberals is a pinched – and false – illustration. There are yet Republicans (and independents of no major party) who have and always will oppose Trump. Republicans (and this libertarian) who implacably…
America, Books, Culture, Politics, Press
Reading Next: Truth Decay (‘An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life’)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’m currently reading Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury on the Trump campaign & administration. (FW has a currently reading widget on the right sidebar of this website.) Afterward, I’ve something in queue, from Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich – their just-published Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis…
Books, City, Culture, Film
Advocacy Seldom Reaches Chocoholics
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A necessary element of writing or speaking – if it is to be enjoyable and sustained – is to believe what one writes or says, and to express those beliefs as one naturally would. (Even more important, of course, is to hold sound ideas, but here I’m writing about the underlying feeling of expression.) Writing…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 14 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the final post in a series considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. I can happily recommend Goldstein’s book, both for the tale it tells of a single city’s struggle after an auto plant closes, and for what readers may reasonably infer about a none-too-bright boosterism that has left Janesville (and other cities) divided…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 13 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the thirteenth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Six (2013) of Janesville (Chapter 54, A Glass More Than Half Full). Goldstein’s 54th chapter describes a 2013 dinner of Forward Janesville (a local “business alliance hell-bent on reviving the city’s economy”). Someone at…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 12 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
This is the twelfth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Six (2013) of Janesville (Chapter 50, Two Janesvilles). Amy Goldstein is not, by style of writing, a polemicist (something that might be said, for example, of a blogger). Yet, for it all, she knows…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 11 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This is the eleventh in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Five (2012) of Janesville (Chapter 47, First Vote). Amy Goldstein’s chapter about the November 2012 presidential election is a study in contrasts, between the polling-place experiences of first-time voter and vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Goldstein’s…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 10 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
This is the tenth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Five (2012) of Janesville. Goldstein writes of the broader events of 2012 (the Recall election, Ryan running for vice president) and others that are more intensely individual (a graduate of a retraining program takes her own life…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 9 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This is the ninth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover remaining chapters from Part Four (2011) of Janesville. Part of this story is well-known to Wisconsinites: Gov. Walker introduces a Budget Repair Bill (since its enactment into law now-universally called Act 10 by Wisconsinites), Democratic senators leave…
Babbittry, Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 8 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This is the eighth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter from Part Four (2011) of Janesville (The Ambassador of Optimism). I’ll cover the chapter in detail because it’s so perfect in its account of boosterism, as though Sinclair Lewis’s protagonist George F. Babbitt overtook a Janesville resident and…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 7 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
This is the seventh in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover five chapters from Part Three (2010) of Janesville (Labor Fest 2010, Project 16:49, Figuring It Out, and Bags of Hope). Goldstein describes the year’s Labor Day parade in Janesville through three politicians’ public personas: Since this is an…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 6 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
This is the sixth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover five chapters from Part Three (2010) of Janesville (The Last Days of Parker Pen, Becoming a Gypsy, Family is More Important than GM, Honor Cords, and The Day the White House Comes to Town). What was left…