2011-05-20 NEWS FLASH!
A Note from Doug
The End of a Career in the Classroom
“The semester at the University of Modena ended on May 18. and it was chosen by me to be my last teaching day — ever. My decisive reason for that was that I go by train to Modena, and the trip has been getting to be a big physical hassle. Indeed, Anna has insisted on accompanying me on my last ten classes, and she was right to do so.
“So, what began in 1949 ends in 2011. Enough...but it was nice while it lasted. When the big day came, the students were sweet in the bye-byes. Anna wept a bit. Albert, our doggie, wagged his tail. Ciao, ciao, ciao...
“The train is was the compelling reason, but I must also admit something: My memory is failing. I am sure of it. But even more surely, I have not forgotten what a very wonderful life and friends I have had and am having.
“But starting now, we won't be found in the classroom together...”
Doug
2011-02-01 We're Excited! A new look and feel to the Doug Dowd website is being developed here... though, still a work in progress.
Eventually, all the material on the old website will be incorporated, and both places will have the same material. We think the new look is gorgeous, clean, and easy to navigate.
Take a look around! Your comments (about what exists) and suggestions (about what should exist) are welcome. Please send them to:
2011-01-18 A glowing review of Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression, by Jack Rasmus (Pluto Press, 2010). It's wake-up time!
2010-11-28 A new letter from BO...Doug and Anna have moved to a new apartment in Bologna. Doug is still teaching next Spring. And he's writing a new book.
2010-06-01 At Doug's surprise 90th birthday party, his wife Anna and his old pal Bruce Dancis let it be known to him and seventy-plus friends that they were going to have Doug's Blues for America published again — this time both in English and Italian.
Bruce agreed to tighten up the text (he is a newspaper editor), and because the books first saw light of day in 1997, Doug agreed to add a new last chapter and a Postscript. The Postscript is finished. Here it is.
2010-02-06 HOWIE, a sad letter from Bologna
2009-12-22 Emergency call...to action! [pdf format]. Doug writes an open letter to his friends and the world. Obama looks good mostly because his predecessor was the worst POTUS in U.S. history [who was installed by a right-wing supreme court even though he lost the election]. Pressure must be brought to bear if the current U.S. government is not to finish the job of leading the world to ruin. And we have to supply the pressure.
2009-10-07 A new letter from Bologna: The year is 1970...Dan Berrigan is on the run...Doug is in Hanoi with Noam Chomsky...Bruce Dancis rallies 14,000 draft card resisters...It's time for prison...
2009-09-20 Doug's class of 2006-09-09 is now online (and available as a CD).
2009-00-06 A new commentary, Obama's Stuck in the Mud and So Are We If we don't get together, Obama will make disastrous decisions.
2009-08-13 A new article, Toward a Fully Democratic Society or More Disasters? It's up to us --- "We the People." (Also available as PDF.) FDR was pressured into The New Deal. Will Obama be pressured into a similar, but better, program? If we don't push him, he won't do it. And without major change, we face disasters. Our fate is in our hands...
2009-07-16 A new letter from Bologna: Doug will continue to teach at the Univ. of Modena. Also in this letter, Doug discusses (and proposes) lighting a fire under the current U.S. president. He also includes a missive on U.S. healthcare. Fiinally, he mentions a new article of his.
2009-05-21 A new letter from Bologna: Doug reminisces about his professorial debut, at UC Berkeley in 1949.
2009-03-20 A new letter from Bologna: Pres. Obama has inherited one helluva mess. The Repugs will try to blame everything on him. Obama is intelligent and decent, and he needs all the help we can give. It's crisis time.
2009-03-05 Doug's Penultimate U.S. Lecture, the class at Modern Times Bookstore, San Francisco, 2006-09-05. He discusses the four things at the bottom of the abyss that are going to bring the world to an end, "four horrible things" having to do with war, the economy, politics, and the environment.
He notes, [In my then-87 years] "I've never been as horrified, as frightened, as disgusted, as I am now."
Doug's dire predictions are uncannily accurate: They sound like articles from today's better newspapers of the world (or blogs).
The lecture is also a fitting summary of his 60-some years of teaching and activism. Listen to the lecture...