Alasdair S. Roberts

Aug 31

Bloomberg publishes column on America’s “ghost navy”

Bloomberg’s Echoes blog has published my short piece on US naval policy after the War of 1812 — including the construction of a “ghost fleet” of major ships. Read the column. It draws on America’s First Great Depression. Story also picked up on gCaptain and History News Network. Image on right: a stereographic photo of the USS New Orleans, taken in the 1870s. Its keel was laid at Sackets Harbor NY in 1815. Had it been finished, it would have been one of the largest warships in the US Navy, and perhaps the world.

Aug 30

September newsletter for Governance available

The September newsletter for Governance is available here.

Aug 24

Radio Free Europe column discusses WikiLeaks article

Luke Allnut discusses my recent article on WikiLeaks in today’s column on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Also related pieces from Brazil’s Exame, South Africa’s Legal Brief Today, and DemocraticUnderground.com.

Aug 12

ARPA publishes review of America’s First Great Depression

The American Review of Public Administration has just published a review of America’s First Great Depression. The book “shows the extent to which economic crisis can ripple out into something far larger,” says Jos Raadschelders. Access the review.

Aug 10

Talk at Harvard Book Store on September 14

I’ll be giving a talk about America’s First Great Depression at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge MA on September 14. Details here.

Aug 7

Los Angeles Times publishes oped on US postal service

The Los Angeles Times has published my oped on the troubles of the US Postal Service in the 1840s. Read the oped. This piece is drawn from America’s First Great Depression. Also on History News Network.

Aug 1

Public Administration Review publishes article on Occupy movement

Public Administration Review has just published my article on the Occupy movement online. It will appear in the September/October print issue of the journal. This is a review of several books about the movement published earlier in 2012. The article is open access until December.

Jul 14

Failure Magazine interview about America’s First Great Depression

Jason Zasky of Failure Magazine interviewed me last week about America’s First Great Depression. Read the interview. And there’s a Washington Post story about Failure Magazine itself here.

Jul 7

So-Called Experts now in Kindle edition

So-Called Experts: How American Consultants Remade the Canadian Civil Service, 1918-1921, is now available in a Kindle edition. This short book was originally published by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada in 1996. The book “examines the critical role of an emerging group of civil service experts whose view of the reform problem was driven by their experience in the corrupt world of Chicago’s municipal government. Struggling to establish their own credentials, these experts refused to concede that their prescriptions were irrelevant to the problems that the Canadian government faced at the end of the First World War.”

Jun 28

Governance newsletter for July is now available

The Governance newsletter for July is now available here. It features a commentary by Theodore Marmor of Yale University (right) examining the politics of healthcare reform in the United States.