New Outsider/Insider Episodes and Lehrhaus talk on the Invention of the Weekend
Friends:
Just two short plugs that might interest followers:
On Thursday, we posted Episodes 6 and 7 of the Outsider/Insider podcast I am proud to co-host with my good friend and collaborator Ray Reagans. These episodes are a two-part interview with Lily Tsai, a political scientist at MIT and a cherished colleague as well. This conversation builds on our earlier episodes where we are trying to reckon with difficult questions about how to realize the potential in diverse (university) communities and avoid “inclusion failure” as was experienced last year on so many campuses. You can find links to these and the earlier episodes on the introduction page on Substack to Outsider/Insider. And you can always find episodes by searching “Outsider/Insider” on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
Folks who live in the Boston area may be interested in a talk I will be giving at Lehrhaus bistro/house of learning in Somerville on December 19th, at 5:30, on the invention of the modern weekend. This is one of several historical episodes that I am revisiting as part of my book project on the invention and spread of the seven-day week. Here’s the blurb and link to more info on the talk:
The Weekend: The Surprising History of the Two-Day Holiday Nobody Really Sought
This class will present the modern, American two-day weekend in a completely new light, one that is quite different from the myths about 'who invented the weekend?' that circulate in popular culture. The focus of the session will be on examining a few eye-opening (and delightful!) historical materials from the 19th & early 20th century that help us puncture various the most prominent myths (no, unions didn't invent the weekend, nor did Henry Ford); to realize that framing the historical development as 'the weekend' is anachronistic (the phrase precedes the two-day period by many decades), and that the question itself is anachronistic. In short, the weekend was about as likely as a 'four-day week' is today and it had no social movement behind it other than a few Rabbis. So how and why did we obtain the gift of the two-day weekend?