The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR and America at the Crossroadsby Randall Sullivan (Grove Atlantic Books, 2026). Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game will be held July 14at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as part of a nearly weeklong schedule of baseball-related events. The game coincides with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Major League Baseball has jumped aboard the celebration with full gusto. In […]
Books
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A history of public education
Why does Illinois have an education system that relies on property taxes? Where did physical education, high schools and vocational education in Illinois schools originate? How did Chicago become its own school district with separate rules and a separate pension from the schools in the rest of the state? These questions and more are explained […]
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Abraham Lincoln as party boss
Matthew Pinsker, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln. W.W. Norton, 2026; 564 pp., notes, index, illustrations. $39.99. Many of the thousands of books about Abraham Lincoln are specialized to some degree, rather than full biographies. Topics may be very narrow or quite broad, but still are focused on some specific aspect of Lincoln’s […]
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Lincoln as historian? A different perspective.
Central Illinois is Abraham Lincoln country. Springfield has his law office, the home he owned as an adult, his tomb and the Old State Capitol, where he legislated and spoke. Surrounding regions focus on courthouses where Lincoln prosecuted or defended numerous cases, as well as the reconstructed village of New Salem, where Lincoln lived as […]
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A life well written
It is a rare male who, having achieved some success of the usual sort, can resist the conclusion that it must be because he is very intelligent or very virtuous. And being public-spirited, such a man is eager to make his wisdom available to family and friends. He thus develops a reputation as a dull […]
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The study of awe
The new year is a good time to read Awe – The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, the 2023 book by Dacher Keltner. He pioneered the scientific study of awe and demonstrated that people who find everyday awe are more curious and open to new ideas and the […]
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Teach children citizenship
“A well-informed citizenry is the backbone of a healthy democracy,” writes Lindsey Cormack in her 2024 book How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It). She contends that raising engaged and informed citizens is an often-overlooked aspect of parenting. Cormack persuasively argues that parents have an essential role in […]
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Robert Moore reflects on his life
To track Robert Moore’s life and career is to study one person’s successful journey in the Great Migration of the 20th century. To see this Springfield man’s connections to other major events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement adds a personal dimension that makes history feel more real. Born in […]
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WWII Illiopolis ordnance plants
Thelma L. Ball, compiler, Illinois Munitions: A News Journal of the Oak & Sangamon Ordnance Plants, 1942-1950, Illiopolis, Illinois. Self-published, 2025. 350 pp., illustrations, newspaper list, index. Illiopolis today considers itself a village, with a population of 846 recorded in the 2020 census. It was even smaller in 1942 – about 700 people – when […]
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Who loved/loves Lincoln?
When I finished reading the preface to Stacy Lynn’s Loving Lincoln: A Personal History of the Women Who Shaped Lincoln’s Life and Legacy, I was in tears. She had precisely nailed the types of demeaning and painful incidents experienced by most women historians and scholars in male-dominated fields. It was not at all what I […]
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St. Francis of Dogtown returns to St. Louis
Nearly five years ago, readers of Illinois Times and residents of the Midwest met Francis Lenihan, affectionately known to his friends and acquaintances as St. Francis. Truthfully there is not very much “saintly” about Lenihan; his main job in the St. Louis Metro area is that of process server. He roams Missouri and parts of […]
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In the shadow of legends
“Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame, Wake up the echoes cheering her name, Send a volley cheer on high, Shake down the thunder from the sky!” The position of head football coach at Notre Dame is one of the iconic jobs in the sporting world. Along with manager of the New York Yankees, head coach […]
