Mass-murderer Jim Jones, as seen through the eyes of his trusted lieutenant By Leigh E. Rich Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple By Deborah Layton Doubleday, Anchor Books $23.95 November 18, 1978—Buried inconspicuously in a remote part of Guyana, 913 members living in the Jonestown “commune” commit […]
11.05.1998
04.02.1998
Categories: History, People, Social Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Tombstone’s real epitaph
Even when it comes to history, the customer is always right By Leigh E. Rich The story is all too familiar. The characters are always the same—Wyatt and Virgil, Billy and Ike, Doc Holliday, Johnny Ringo, Sheriff Behan and Big Nose Kate. And the conflict expeditiously plays out at the O.K. Corral. But the latest […]
03.26.1998
Categories: Books, Feminism, Science, Social Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Late bloomer
Desmond Morris’s reductive work on human sexuality is about a hundred years past its prime By Leigh E. Rich The Human Sexes: A Natural History of Man and Woman By Desmond Morris St. Martin’s Press $25.00 Sure, Rome was built in a day, and every facet of human nature can be explained in a 250-page […]
01.18.1996
Categories: History, Social Science, Theater, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Powerful play depicts difficult issues in racism
‘Fires in the Mirror’ examines identity, hate and cooperation By Leigh E. Rich Don’t expect a Holly wood happy ending, comedic strife and a few musical numbers from Anna Deavere Smith’s “Fires in the Mirror,” Arizona Theatre Company’s third production in its 1995–1996 season. Instead, Smith’s acclaimed play portrays the all too realistic uglier side […]
11.16.1995
Categories: History, Social Science, Theater, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Play considers birth of a nation
The transformative power of ‘A Namib Spring’ By Leigh E. Rich March 21, 1990, Namibia—Africa’s last colony—became its youngest nation. The South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) ended South Africa’s racist rule and laws of separation. “A Namib Spring,” Patrick Baliani’s latest play, dissects this “birth of a nation,” reminding us that “democracy will not […]
