Former IL Lobbyist Not Eager To Explain Email “The Rape In Champaign”

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Hearing Leviathan Sing, an Excerpt from “Listening to Beauty” by Megan Poole

October 23, 2025

In Listening to Beauty: Rhetorics of Science in Sea and Sound, Megan Poole invites us into a moving study of how encounters with beauty advance scientific study. We are delighted to share a brief excerpt from the book below. I am, by a flood, borne back to that wondrous period,

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Phoenix Poets Interview: Daniel Schonning

October 7, 2025

As we continue to celebrate the amazing writers, editors, and translators in our Phoenix Poets series, we’re delighted to highlight poet Daniel Schonning, whose debut collection will be published this month. As When Waking is an exploration of poetic form, centering on the alphabet as both its medium and constraint,

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The Municipal Finance Journal joins the Chicago Journals program

October 3, 2025

We are honored to announce that the Municipal Finance Journal (MFJ) has joined the Chicago Journals publishing program. The journal is published in partnership with the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Launched in 1980, MFJ is a forum for research on the issues facing

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A Reading List for Autumn!

September 25, 2025

The leaves are changing, the days are getting shorter, the nights are growing chillier, and it can all only mean one thing: fall is upon us. Below are a handful of books that celebrate everything autumnal and spine-tingling, ranging from new editions of classic Halloween tales to explorations of divination

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Read an excerpt from “Wired Wisdom” by Eszter Hargittai & John Palfrey

September 23, 2025

This month we’re pleased to share a short section from the first chapter of Wired Wisdom: How to Age Better Online. Read on for an excerpt from this surprising window into the online lives of people sixty and over—offering essential insights, no matter your age. How can you thrive in

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5 Questions for Daniel Wortel-London, the author of “The Menace of Prosperity”

September 18, 2025

Many local policymakers make decisions based on the belief that what’s good for the rich is good for cities. But this wasn’t always the case. Between the 1870s and the 1970s, a wide range of activists, citizens, and intellectuals in New York City connected local fiscal crises to the greed

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What to Read for National Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15, 2025

To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ve put together a reading list highlighting books by and about Hispanic individuals and communities from a range of countries and traditions. With these books from Chicago and our distributed client presses, you can explore poetic voices, artists from Central and South America, the

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Read an Excerpt from “Doing Meritocracy Right” by Thomas A. Cole

September 11, 2025

As America’s most vaunted cultural value, meritocracy is celebrated by some as an institution and derided by others as a myth—or even a trap. Thomas A. Cole argues in Doing Meritocracy Right: How Business Leaders Can Turn an American Aspiration into Reality (and Why They Should) that if meritocracy is to persist

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A Conversation Among the Editors of the American Beginnings, 1500–1900 Series

August 26, 2025

Titles in the American Beginnings, 1500–1900 series address critical issues in American history from the initial period of European contact through the end of the nineteenth century. The series includes works by senior and junior scholars from a broad array of historical subfields, including politics, labor, race, religion, gender, and

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WBEZ reporters tracked down former lobbyist Michael McClain looking for an explanation over his reference to "the rape in Champaign” in a 2012 email to the governor’s office.