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Howard Zinn and actor Viggo Mortensen take part in a 2008 panel discussion about "The People Speak" at Emerson College in Boston. (Michael Dwyer/AP) One name I never expected to hear come from Donald Trump’s mouth during the last election was that of Howard Zinn. Had the former president really ever heard of the radical historian who died in 2010 even as he excoriated the late Boston University icon for trying to make “students ashamed of their own history”? Or had one of his speechwriters summoned Zinn’s name from the dead to drive terror into the souls of suburban women?

This term, artificial complexity, has not been widely used in the context of architecture. However, the architect and urbanist Leon Krier has frequently illustrated the phenomenon permeating the design of buildings, landscapes, and cities. His diagrams expose the absurdity of so much contrived complexity vs. the rational form of Krier’s classically inspired architecture and urbanism. Mathematician Nikos Salingaros has written extensively about complexity in architecture, using the terms disorganized, random, and invented complexity. And Christopher Alexander spent a lifetime trying to te...

David Treadwell: Notes from the Interviewer’s Desk: Part II By David TreadwellJust a Little Old Share In last week’s column, I addressed my role as an interviewer over my 50-year career. Here are some of the notable people I’ve had the privilege of interviewing. Maine’s own Joan Benoit Samuelson won the gold medal for the marathon in the 1984 Summer Olympics. I wrote an article about Joan for Yankee magazine. Joan is a gem, as everyone who has ever met her already knows. I also interviewed Dave Wottle, gold medalist for the 800 meter run in the 1972 Olympics. Dave, who was dean of Ad...

Twitter Facebook Jon Westling, a motorcycle-riding scholar of medieval European history, onetime Freedom Rider, and president emeritus of Boston University, died last week at age 77. Westling’s career at BU spanned 46 years and included several top leadership posts, although his most lasting avocation was teaching students about the history of Europe. He came to the University in 1974 to work on a project to produce films for the US Bicentennial. While that project never materialized, John Silber (Hon.’95), then BU president, took notice of the 32-year-old and drew him into his admi...

Are you not? >> >> yes, i thinkgone further and further to the left. and i think first of all you are correct under john silber. there was at least an effort that was put up to control or to bring more than a single point to bear on an issue. he was legitimate academic in the true sense of the word. he passed away this year for those of you who didn't know it. i think my observation is that the left acts up when the left feels threatened. i think if you go back and let's say the past half century or so. when they were threatened by mccarthy. they responded briskly to say the least if you want ...