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During the week of July 11, Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, published an opinion piece on the Reuters wire service comparing the national turbulence of 1968 to today’s unrest. He was also quoted in The Hindu’s Thread opinion blog on socialism and the presidential campaign, and penned an essay on the influence of party platforms in the 20th century for In These Times, a monthly non-profit magazine and online publication.

Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History Maurice Isserman joined author Peter Edelman on June 4 for “Poverty in America,” a discussion of the politics and persistence of poverty in the United States, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, is the keynote speaker at “What’s become of ‘The Other America’ - The War on Poverty Then and Now,” a forum examining poverty now and half a century ago. The afternoon program is hosted by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) on Thursday, May 24, from 3 to 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, was interviewed by WRCT’s History for the Future, about the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Other America: Poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington. Isserman, Harrington’s biographer, wrote a new introduction for the 50th anniversary edition of the book. The interview, airing in Pittsburgh (88.3 fm) on Tuesday, May 1, and Wednesday, May 2,  is also available through the show's website and at the iTunes podcast page.

Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History Isserman presented a lecture titled  “The Legacy of Michael Harrington’s The Other America on Its 50th Anniversary” on April 18 at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Michael Harrington’s The Other America on March 6, the publisher Scribner is releasing a new edition. It includes a new introduction by Harrington’s biographer Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History.  The publisher calls The Other America “a landmark treatise on poverty in America.” Isserman wrote a New York Times op-ed on Harrington's influence  (March 3, 2012).

Professor of History Maurice Isserman published an op-ed about American Democratic Socialist Michael Harrington in The New York Times (3/3/12). In “The Poverty of An Idea,” Isserman notes that libertarian writer Charles Murray has lately kept alive the idea of a “culture of poverty, the theory that poor people are trapped by distorted norms and aspirations and not merely material deprivation." Yet, Michael Harrington was in the forefront of analyzing poverty as a social problem, Isserman notes.

Dissent Magazine published an article titled 50 Years Later: Poverty and The Other America by Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of History Maurice Isserman in its winter 2012 issue. The article is an adaptation of the prologue of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington, the biography Isserman wrote in 2000. The article included updated statistics and observations.