Zachary Michael Jack
Zachary Michael Jack is the author of many books on place, the outdoors, and the environment, including most recently The Haunt of Home: A Journey Through America’s Heartland.
Articles by Zachary Michael Jack
Love and Loathing in Lawn Tractor Land
In the ultimate form of mimesis, the well-seasoned mower who comes to know every inch of the property he maintains, also comes, in the end, to know the contours and…
Of a Woodstove
I’ve heated with wood for a winter, and I am pleased to do so, but it’s backbreaking labor to warm this way for a lifetime
Forget Red vs. Blue, America is Cactus vs. Philodendron
Is there a direct causal connection between America’s embrace of succulents and semi-succulents as houseplants-of-choice and the conspicuous mass movement of Americans to states with the least amount of rainfall?…
The Life of Tiger: A Midwesterner’s View
Woods may be Californian by birth, and a Floridian by residence, but I believe there’s something in his latest comeback capable of stirring the soul of even the most reticent,…
Early-Alerting Early-Alert Systems on College Campuses
The university’s best, most utopian aims must not beget dystopian early-alert policies that infringe on students’ personal liberties while turning campus into a place where everyone is an informant, and…
The Agrarian’s Soul and the Gardener’s Art: Liberty Hyde Bailey Gardener’s Companion
I have no doubt this collection would delight Bailey, dandelions and all. Selecting and anthologizing the work of a writer-scholar as prolific as this is a labor of love as…
Catalonia Could Happen Here
As a scholar of Regional and Place Studies and a historian of secessionist movements I believe Catalonia’s brand of separatism could come to the United States, and sooner than Americans…
A Call for a Politically Inclusive Classroom
Teaching Tolerance in a Time of Trump sounds like a short-course a firebrand professor might offer, though I mean it in a more comprehensive way than one might imagine. While…
As North Korea Goes Nuclear Far East Ambassadors Must Speak Up
I lived much of my adult life under Terry Branstad’s multiple tenures as governor of Iowa, and I think he did a “pretty fair job,” as farm families are wont…
Trump: America’s Father-in-Chief?
Donald Trump has been called many things in the press in the first six months of his presidency, yet the media have thus far missed his most overlooked calling card:…
Trump: America’s First Black Friday President
Like many Americans I’ve struggled to put the election of 2016 in proper perspective the last few weeks, only to arrive at an unexpected conclusion: Trump may be America’s first…
Professor-in-Chief
After the second, town hall-styled presidential debate pundits raved, and perhaps rightly so, about Hilary Clinton’s ability to handle the format. The former first lady received high rankings from observers…