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Articles by John Wennersten
In Memoriam: Ruth Ellen Wennersten
Ruth Ellen Wennersten of 408 A St NE, Washington, DC died in Tamarindo, Costa Rica on Feb. 2, 2025, of heart failure caused by pulmonary embolism. Ruth Ellen was 79 years old. She is survived by her husband, Jack Wennersten, two sons, Stewart (wife Maria) and Matthew (wife Mala) and two grandchildren, Anthony and Sofia (aged 17 and 15), all of Northwest Washington. Ruth Ellen and Jack Wennersten moved to Washington, DC in 2001 after academic careers.
In Soma Veritas | Washington Independent Review of Books
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, published in 1932, is a prescient novel about civilization in the year 2540. In the book, he frames his satirical ideas about human happiness via Shakespeare’s comment in The Tempest: “How beauteous mankind is! Oh brave new world, that has such people in it.” Huxley’s “World State” is one of mass and mindless consumption reinforced by government intervention in the birth process and lifetime behavioral training.
Washington Independent Review of Books
Though the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952 made the once-isolated agricultural and fishing communities on the Eastern Shore open to widespread development, residents who have a long heritage there still identify, in Wennersten’s words, “more with the region as a social entity than being part of the State of Maryland.” It’s a large expanse geographically, encompassing more than a third of Maryland’s land area, yet its total population accounts for only eight percent of the state’s...
Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake - 1850 to the Present
For more than 40 years, John R. Wennersten, emeritus professor of history at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, has been writing about the social, cultural, and natural history of the Chesapeake. His books include The Oyster Wars of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland’s Eastern Shore: A Journey in Time and Place, and The Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography. Clearly, he has made himself an authority on the region.
New from IMR: Responses to Migration Policies, Immigrant Employment Outcomes, and Family Dynamics across Borders
The Summer 2018 edition of the International Migration Review (IMR) is now available online and in print through paid or institutional subscription. This edition offers a focus on migration policies and responses to them, including a paper on spiritual citizenship and a paper analyzing the evolution of migration policies around the world. It also features papers on transnational family dynamics related to marriage and education and the factors shaping immigrant employment outcomes.
The Chesapeake watershed’s countryside is being replaced by ‘mallside’
Sprawl in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, despite efforts at “smart growth,” continues at an unprecedented rate. Growth occurs principally along transportation corridors; the main culprit is the federal highway system, which has been the silent ally of real estate development and urban sprawl. Interstate 81 in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania has seen the growth of exurban developments, often with populations far larger than the town or village with which they share a Zip code.
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