“Leadership is situational” It makes sense, for it is mighty difficult to think of leadership outside of a context, a challenge, a before and an after. But if leadership is contingent, dependent upon the who, where, when and what, how do we understand leaders? What makes them, shapes them, and makes them tick? What is…
Author: David Potash
Best Bet for Retaining Value: Local History
A new resident of the Catskills, I have been learning about the area. There have been lots of trips, explorations and conversations. But a local history done by scholars? Is there a better way to get the bigger picture? Possibly – but for this book nerd, please give me the scholarly history! In 1995, Abraham…
The Dean of New Things Embraced Change
In the past half-century public higher education, like so much of America, has changed dramatically. It’s a vastly different landscape, with millions more attending college as the economy – the world – demands new skills, new knowledge, and new ways of doing business. The City University of New York, one of the largest systems in…
Strong Towns For All
Charles Marohn’s Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is a most provocative book. Since reading it I haven’t been able to look at the built environment around me in quite the same manner. The outgrowth of popular blog, Strong Towns describes a movement in urban planning and the journey to its creation.…
Armed American Public Health
What are the reasons, consequences and outcomes for a more heavily armed America? It is a question increasingly looked at by politicians, policy makers, businesses, and more than a few scholars. One of the country’s foremost experts is Jonathan M. Metzl, a professor at Vanderbilt University. He directs the university’s Department of Medicine, Health and…
Reasons Has Its Reason
How does one plump a 37-year-old philosophy book? How can one best recommend a scholarly study that demands close reading and is challenging for those without a solid understanding and appreciation of continental philosophy? It is no easy task, even though in so many ways, Frederick C. Beiser’s The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from…
Public Health Reconsidered From A Different Perspective
Jonathan Metzl is a doctor, psychiatrist, professor and author of several well-received books. Right before the pandemic he wrote Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland. The work garnered a great deal of attention and significant praise. It is a powerful study, drawing from several disciplines, and made all…