Connie Goddard

Revisiting Industrial Education: Lessons from Three Distinctive Progressive Era Schools                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021;  7:00 – 8:15 p.m.

Free, open to the public              No need to register

 Zoom link:shorturl.at/xGHR3

Before there were vocational-education programs, there was manual training and industrial education, which emphasized the practical instruction of the hand and eye. Manual training improved perception, observation, dexterity and visual accuracy. It combined practical with academic education.

Goddard’s forthcoming book, Revisiting Industrial Education: Lessons from Three Distinctive Progressive Era Schools, examines influential schools in North Dakota, New Jersey and Chicago. Chicago’s innovative Manual Training School (CMTS), was created in 1884 and influenced dozens of similar schools before being incorporated into John Dewey’s department of education at the University of Chicago in 1901; once there, it lost its distinctive identity. Why Dewey ignored CMTS – as well as complementary ideas from Frank Lloyd Wright and W.E.B. Du Bois – are among the fascinating questions Goddard asks in her “rich contextualization of educational activities around the turn of the century,” as an early reviewer said of her book.

Goddard will also discuss: Getting published; Writing during Covid and Lessons from writers who guided her research.

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For more information, contact program chair Greg Borzo: (312) 636-8968; [email protected]

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, 7-8:15 p.m.

Free, open to the public.  No registration required. This meeting will be conducted by Zoom. Enter this URL in your browser: https://uic.zoom.us/j/9987216609

Marlene Brill, moderator, Midland Authors Vice President and Awards Chair 

These six authors won the Midland Authors Annual Book Awards in 2019. Hear them discuss their work. 

Chelsea Wagenaar, The Spinning Place, a beautiful, intelligent, capacious book exploring a mother-child relationship.

Andrea Warren, Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II, a vivid narrative withplentiful, telling photographs that convey a tragic story from a child’s point of view.

David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, a searing, multilayered, memoir and investigation of one of the least understood massacres in the history of American and Native American relations.

Heather Shumaker, The Griffins of Castle Cary, a delightfully written ghost story filled with mystery and humor.

Iliana Regan, Burn the Place: A Memoir, an original voice, as author seeks her sobriety, identity, passion and life partner.

Tim Johnston,The Current: A Novel, an intricately woven tale of crimes that plagued a small Minnesota town.

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For  more information, contact event chair Greg Borzo at (312) 636-8968 or [email protected]

NewYorkTimes bestselling author and Chicago’s own Rick Perlstein discusses his new book

Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980

Free; open to the public. Join us via Zoom with this link: https://uic.zoom.us/j/9987216609 

Perlstein is the author of: The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan; Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, picked as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by over a dozen publications; and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, which won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history.

He’s a contributing editor and board member of In These Times magazine.

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For more information, contact event chair Greg Borzo at (312) 636-8968 or [email protected]

eminent historian Ann Durkin Keating in conversation with Greg Borzo, Midland Authors Event Chair.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020  at the Cliff Dwellers

See the video here, recorded by CAN-TV

      Juliette Kinzie is one of Chicago’s forgotten founders. She arrived in Chicago in 1831 and not only witnessed the city’s transition from Indian country to industrial center, but was also instrumental in its development. The World of Juliette Kinzie offers a new perspective on Chicago’s early history and is a fitting tribute to a remarkable woman who was an astute observer of early Chicago, an influential contributor to the city, and even one of the first women historians in the United States. This book brings Kinzie to life.

Ann Durkin Keating, who teaches history at North Central College, is one of the foremost experts on 19^thcentury Chicago. She has volunteered extensively with the Chicago History Museum, Illinois State Historical Society and Naper Settlement. The World of Juliette Kinzie was published by the University of Chicago Press (2019), as were Keating’s previous books, including her very well reviewed  Rising Up from Indian Country:  The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago.

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MIDLAND AUTHORS presents:

Lori Rader-Day; Patricia Skalka; Tracy Clark; Sam Reaves

  The Mystery Behind Mystery Writing 

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020; Cocktail hour: 6-7 pm;  Panel discussion: 7-8 pm

Free, open to the public.    Free appetizers, cash bar.  at the Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan Ave. 

Lori Rader-Day:  The Lucky One

Lori Rader-Day has been leading a “life of crime” since age seven, when she wrote a piece of Beverly Cleary fan-fiction. Today she’s co-chair of the mystery readers’ conference Murder and Mayhem in Chicago and the national president of Sisters in Crime, a 4,000-member crime writers organization.

Patricia Skalka:  Death By the Bay

Patricia Skalka is the award-winning author of the Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries, which pit a former troubled Chicago cop against a roster of clever killers in northern Wisconsin. She’s the immediate past president of the Chicagoland Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Tracy Clark:  Borrowed Time

Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is author of the critically acclaimed Chicago Mystery series, which features Cassandra Raines, a former Chicago homicide cop turned intrepid private investigator. She’s a member of the national board of Boucheron, the annual world mystery convention.

Sam Reaves, moderator:  Homicide 69

Sam Reaves has written crime novels including the Cooper MacLeish series, the Dooley series and the stand-alones Mean Town Bluesand Cold Black Earth, as well as a true crime memoir Mob Copwith Fred Pascente. He’s a polyglot who has traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East and has worked as a teacher and a translator. And Reaves is a board member of Midland Authors.

MIDLAND AUTHORS PRESENTS:
Margaret McMullan • Rich Lindberg • Donna Urbikas • David W. Berner

Tuesday, January 14, 2020, at the Harold Washington Library 

McMullan: Where the Angels Lived: One Family’s Story of Exile, Loss and Return

“McMullan has written a beautiful and heartrending account of her pilgrimage to Hungary in the hope of retrieving what she can of the story of a relative lost in the Holocaust. Written with her usual vividly realized, emotionally engaging prose, (this book) is a powerful testament of familial mourning as well as a vision of 20th century European history that is searing and uplifting.” — Joyce Carol Oates, Pursuit: A Novel of Suspense

Lindberg: Whiskey Breakfast: My Swedish Family, My American Life

“Lindberg does not spare himself or his ancestors in this poignant, powerful memoir of his family’s entry to
the United States. He evokes the haunted landscape of poverty and superstition from which his ancestors fled
to America…only to suffer different demons in that new land.” — Harry Mark Petrakis, Collected Stories

Urbikas: My Sister’s Mother: A Memoir of War, Exile and Stalin’s Siberia

“This stunning, heartfelt memoir looks unflinchingly at the scars borne by one Polish immigrant family as
their daughter tries to become a normal American Girl in Chicago. …a must-read for World War II history
buffs.” — Leonard Kniffel, author of A Polish Son in the Motherland

Moderator, Berner: The Consequence of Stars: A Memoir of Home

“Reflective, engaging…Berner’s authentic storytelling takes you with him on his travels through the chapters of his life where in the end, he reveals connections to finding a place to be, his home under the stars.” — Nancy Chadwick, author of Under the Birch Tree

CAN-TV recorded this panel discussion about memoirs. Watch it here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAQ4MzsT8Dg

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan Ave.
Free, open to the public. Free appetizers, cash bar.

Authors Michael C. Dorf and George Van Dusen draw on scores of interviews and unprecedented access to private papers to illuminate the life of a political icon. Dorf is a practicing lawyer and adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Van Dusen is Mayor of Skokie and adjunct professor at Oakton Community College.

“Clear It with Sid! offers a close look at one of America’s political titans. It’s an indispensable resource for understanding post-World War II America because it reveals the nitty-gritty of how national politics was done over five decades.” — Gary Johnson, President, Chicago History Museum

Sidney Yates was born in Chicago, the son of a Lithuanian blacksmith, and rose to the pinnacle of Washington power and influence. Wise, energetic, charismatic, petty, and stubborn—Yates presented a complicated character to constituents and colleagues alike. Yet his get-it-done approach allowed him to bridge partisan divides in the often-polarized U.S. House of Representatives. He was a preeminent national figure involved in issues that ranged from the environment and Native American rights to Israel and support for the arts. Speaker Tip O’Neill relied on him and advised anyone with controversial legislation to first “clear it with Sid!”

CAN-TV recorded this presentation about Sid Yates. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/JCHjB3vJXeI

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan Ave.
Free, open to the public. Free appetizers, cash bar.

Join Stuart Dybek (author of several books, including The Coast of Chicago), Dominic Pacyga (author of several books, including American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago) and Sandra Colbert (discussion moderator and author of several books, including Chicago Bound) as they discuss the rich history of Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods, with an emphasis on Polonia, Chicago’s Polish-American community.

Watch the CAN-TV video recording of this event about Polonia:

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Harold Washington Library Center Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S State St, Chicago, IL 60605

Authors Flint Taylor, Ed Bachrach and Austin Berg discuss Chicago’s torturous past—and its chances for reform. Author and former alderman Dick Simpson moderates the presentation.

This event is presented by the Midland Authors in collaboration with the Chicago Public Library and in conjunction with the Burge Victims Speak exhibit at Harold Washington Library Center.

Taylor is the author of “The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago.” “Written in a straightforward style by someone on the frontlines of a 50-year fight (for justice), the book recounts the courageous persistence of both the lawyers fighting for victims of state-sanctioned abuse and the victims themselves,” says Mary Wisniewski, author of Algren: A Life.

Bachrach and Berg are the authors of “The New Chicago Way.” “This book reveals how serious Chicago’s government problems are and how they are related to each other. More important, it provides a comprehensive solution to those problems. It should be read by scholars, public interest groups and the public,” says Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago whose books include “The Good Fight: Life Lessons from a Chicago Progressive.”

Doors to the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium open at 5 p.m., and seating is first come, first served. Books are available for purchase, and the authors will autograph books at the conclusion of the program.

Listen to an audio recording of the event: