Author: Sam Allingham
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Japanese Soldiers and Civilians during the Second Sino-Japanese War
In 1937, the Empire of Japan invaded the Republic of China, setting off the Second Sino-Japanese War. This conflict–later a part of the much larger Pacific War, the Asian theater of World War II–was the result of many years of Japanese imperialist expansion into Chinese territory, which was fragmented and under the control of various…
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The Curious Style of William Steig
William Steig is best known as a writer/illustrator of children’s books—or, if you’re younger than forty, as the inspiration for the DreamWorks animated film Shrek. But Steig didn’t begin writing books for younger readers until he was sixty-one. For much of his career he was most well-known as a frequent contributor to The New Yorker,…
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Mr. Channon’s Return
In the fall of 1952, a group of Indian businessmen and political activists gathered in Qutab Minar Gardens, a park in the outskirts of New Dehli, to welcome home the Indian freedom fighter and import/export professional Godha Ram Channon. A letter of invitation for this event described Channon as a “respected grand old man, [a]…
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The Penn Triumvirate
Between 1968 and 1983, the Music Department of the University of Pennsylvania was lucky enough to employ three of the major American composers of the twentieth century: George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Richard Wernick. Nicknamed “the triumvirate,” these three men helped push American classical music out of strict adherence to the European serialist tradition and…
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The Many Battles of Little Sparta
It seems a fair rule: artists should never respond to criticism of their work. But few artists are able to resist the temptation, and the outsized role that critics play in an artist’s success, especially in more rarified fields, makes it almost inevitable that the result will be rancorous. The critic has the privilege of…
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A Fine Hand for Music
As the production of printed matter grows increasingly automated (not to mention digitized), the handwriting of the past feels more precious with each passing year. One of the great pleasures of working in an archival repository is appreciating the wild variety of human penmanship, from chicken-scratch capitals to the ornate, formal calligraphy of diplomatic documents.…
Unique at Penn 