Events

February 1, 2019 at 7:15 pm

Wealth & Poverty | Glass House: Anchor Hocking and Lancaster, OH, Feb. 20

The Wealth and Poverty theme presents a public lecture by Brian Alexander on “Glass House: Anchor Hocking and Lancaster, OH” Wednesday, Feb. 20, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Walter Hall Rotunda.

Brian Alexander, portrait

Brian Alexander

The iconic Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world’s largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster’s society was built.  Compelling, heart-breaking, evocative, Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town is a must-read for anyone trying to understand what has happened to many American communities and the people who live in them.

Brian R. Alexander was born and raised in Lancaster, Ohio.  He has written about American culture for many magazines and newspapers like The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Science, Outside, The Atlantic, and Esquire.  He is the author or coauthor of several books, including The Chemistry Between US (2014), America Unzipped (2008), and Glass House (2018).  Alexander is a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award.  He has also been recognized by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism’s John Bartlow Martin Award for public interest journalism, the Association of Healthcare Journalists, and other organizations.

“After crushing my mother with the news that I was not going to law school, I became a writer like I’d always wanted. I wrote my first short story at age five. It was supposed to be about Dan’l Boone, but if you were to read it you’d say it’s really more about Fess Parker and Ed Ames. Since then, I’ve written for many magazines and newspapers like The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Science, Outside, Esquire. I spent five years as Glamour magazine’s Jake columnist, then became a contributing editor there. I was also a contributing editor at Wired where I covered biotechnology. Today I write books, mostly, and contribute regularly to the Atlantic as well as Outside and other magazines,” Alexander says on his website.

This free, public lecture at Ohio University is cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Departments of Geography, Political Science, Social and Public Health, and Sociology and Anthropology, The Appalachian Rural Health Institute, and The Kennedy Lecture Series.

Contact Yeong Kim (kimy1@ohio.edu) for any questions about Brian Alexander’s campus visit and in general the Wealth and Poverty Public Lecture.

Wealth and Poverty theme logologo

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