September 2009

By Kaiser Kuo

Sino-American relations in the Obama Administration are off to an encouraging start—at least at one level. Despite Beijing’s apprehensions over an Obama victory, the first seven months of the new presidency have seen a rare, nearly friction-free transition. Secretary of State Clinton and House Speaker Pelosi, both veteran critics of Beijing’s human rights record, were conspicuously quiet during visits to China earlier this year. For its part, Beijing has focused on common ground with Washington in dealing with the economic crisis, and even offered praise, after a fashion, for the Obama Administration’s “balanced” response to July’s ethnic violence in Urumqi.

By Todd Sneller

Unquestionably, the most important value-added product to the State’s economy is, and will continue to be, ethanol production.”

This conclusion is included in the executive summary of an economic analysis commissioned by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture in 2004.

Review by By George W. Neubert

“American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940”
Co-editors: Patricia Cox Crews and Marin F. Hanson
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940” is an important recent publication produced by the International Quilt Study Center (IQSC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that examines quilt making in the United States from the Civil War to World War II from both an artistic and historic perspective.

By Mark Derowitsch

America has some of the world’s most breathtaking trees.

Think about it for a moment. There are majestic, towering redwoods along the West Coast. Colorful, vibrant maple trees throughout the New England countryside. Stand after stand of pines, as far as the eye can see, high up in the Rocky Mountains. And lush, green parks liberally scattered around the nation filled with trees of all different shapes and sizes.

By Gene Zuerlein and Lacey Bodnar

Dam building, channelization, bank stabilization and levee construction resulted in the ecological alteration of nearly three million acres of natural riverine and floodplain habitat, significant land-use changes and inundation of valley lands under reservoirs.

By Twyla M. Hansen

Prairie is from the French, a word defined as a treeless, grass-covered plain. But I would add and so much more. Prairie provides us with a solid sense of place, as in this is our natural heritage. Try to imagine the entire central U.S. and Canada covered in grasses and forbs—millions of acres—alive with animals great and small, above and below ground. Prairie is the epitome of rootedness, as in we are not going elsewhere, as in we’re adapted to harsh winters, fierce winds and punishing summers. And in spite of losing most of this historic vegetation to the plow, we still have excellent examples of tallgrass prairie close by to experience up close and personal.