Day after Zinn’s death, a look at book’s impact
By Tracy Jan – Globe Staff / January 29, 2010
It’s one of the best-selling history books, a controversial tome that ignited the political consciousness of generations of young people. Taught in high schools across the nation and in some college survey courses, Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States’’ offers an activist’s perspective on history, from the founding of America to the war on terrorism.
A day after Zinn’s death Wednesday at age 87, local scholars, high school history teachers, and Zinn’s former students credited the revolutionary book with legitimizing to the greater public the experiences of people whose stories previously had not been told, including women, laborers, Native Americans, and other minorities.
“Howard’s book really causes us to recognize the darker side of American history, of slavery and the oppression of labor movements,’’ said William Keylor, a history professor at Boston University, where Zinn taught political science for more than two decades. “It really is a corrective to the standard orthodox story of America.’’
Zinn looked at American history from the perspective of the underprivileged, the oppressed, those left out of the standard narrative, Keylor said; he was someone who saw history as focusing too much on the political and socioeconomic elite.
Fenway scores Billy Joel, Elton John
By Thomas Grillo/Boston Herald – January 29, 2010
Billy Joel and Elton John will rock Fenway Park this summer.
The Piano Man and the Rocket Man’s “Face 2 Face” tour will stop at the storied ballpark on July 21 with a second show on July 24, a source told the Herald.
In addition to bringing two World Series titles to Boston, the current Red Sox ownership group has made Fenway Park more accessible to fans and turned it into a popular summer concert venue.
Since 2003, the ballpark has hosted Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Jimmy Buffett, the Rolling Stones, the Dave Matthews Band, the Police, Neil Diamond, Phish and most recently Sir Paul McCartney.
James Levine delights in BSO return
By Keith Powers/Boston herald – January 29, 2010
James Levine has returned.
The injury-plagued Boston Symphony Orchestra maestro returned to the podium yesterday evening at Symphony Hall, having had to cancel most of his fall engagements because of back surgery. Coupled with a shoulder injury and a bout with kidney cancer, his BSO tenure – Levine is now in his sixth season – has been one of fits and starts.
But now he’s back, in good form by the looks of it, and living up to one of his promises: to give repeat performances of difficult works as a way of increasing audience understanding. His return program featured major works by Elliott Carter, Berlioz and Ravel, all of them with dynamic soloists.
Carter, the 101-year-old wunderkind whose compositions Levine has long championed, enjoys a mini-revival over the next two weeks. His flute concerto, in its American premiere, highlights next week’s program; this evening began with his “Dialogues” for piano and orchestra. The performance was a first for Symphony Hall audiences, but “Dialogues” has previously been performed twice at Tanglewood.
AG finds clout of hospitals drives cost – State’s insurers pay twice as much to some providers
By Liz Kowalczyk and Scott Allen – Globe Staff / January 29, 2010
Massachusetts insurance companies pay some hospitals and doctors twice as much money as others for essentially the same patient care, according to a preliminary report by Attorney General Martha Coakley. It points to the market clout of the best-paid providers as a main driver of the state’s spiraling health care costs.
The yearlong investigation, set to be released today, found no evidence that the higher pay was a reward for better quality work or for treating sicker patients. In fact, eight of the 10 best-paid hospitals in one insurer’s network were community hospitals, which tend to have less complicated cases than teaching hospitals and do not bear the extra cost of training future physicians.
Coakley’s staff found that payments were most closely tied to market leverage, with the largest hospitals and physician groups, those with brand-name recognition, and those that are geographically isolated able to demand the most money.
“Everybody knows that there is dysfunction in the system, and nobody is happy with it,’’ Coakley said in an interview yesterday. “These rising costs are unsustainable. If we don’t do something about it, the only thing we’ll be able to afford is health care. No one will have money for food or housing.’’
The report did not identify insurers and providers by name, and Coakley declined to release the names of the highest-paid, saying she wanted to lay out systemwide problems, not blame individual organizations. More detailed information may come to light during Patrick administration hearings on how to control medical costs, scheduled to begin March 16.
A 2008 Globe Spotlight Team series focused on the Boston market found that hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital typically are paid 15 percent to 60 percent more for essentially the same work as other hospitals, even though the quality is not superior.
New Facebook group creates video, petition against newest four-year option
By Jenna Duncan/Huntington News Staff – January 28, 2010
Since Sunday afternoon, more than 3,000 Northeastern students and alumni have united through a new Facebook group, Fight For Five.
Complete with a YouTube video and online petition, the group’s mission, per the page, is to prevent the university from “phasing out” the five-year plan with a newly designed four-year option announced in early December.
The new program will include online classes, and in the Dec. 9 issue of The Boston Globe, President Joseph Aoun said he expected the program to “spread like wildfire.”
However, members of the Northeastern administration are speaking out that this is not the case. Ed Klotzbier, vice president and dean of student affairs, took to both his own Facebook page and blog about the group.
“The beauty of this – and what some students seem to be overlooking – is that this is an OPTION, not a requirement, nor a step toward the elimination of the co-op program,” he wrote on his official blog. “This is just something you can choose to do if you want to. We are and will continue to be a school that prides itself on our signature co-op program. Want to do 2 co-ops? Great. Want to do 3 co-ops? Cool. In almost every major, it’s not required. But rest assured that we’re not abandoning our roots, or trying to be like any other school.”
