How to Become an American
Excerpted from How to Become an American: A History of Immigration, Assimilation, and Loneliness, by Daniel Wolff, published December 2022 by University of South Carolina Press.
Invasive Species as Delicacy
I think that's a huge part of chowing down on Copi. You're an eco-warrior, someone making a difference, eating one invasive fish at a time.
Gordon Lightfoot’s Great Lakes’ Lives
No song better captures the terrifying power of the Great Lakes than Lightfoot’s tragic, captivating rendering. It is a sonic and literary achievement, translating the sudden confusion, fear, and despair as the Edmund Fitzgerald is unable to weather a November storm.
Wind Resistance
Wind turbines are being built in ocean waters off the east and west coasts. But why don’t we see any in the Great Lakes?
Home/Lands
Indigenous diasporas and making 'home' in the Rust Belt.
The Bird Patrol
Chicago is the most dangerous city in the country for birds. Meet the people who want to change that.
Grasping at Shifting Sands
On the eroding shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron, a buried eighteenth-century lumber port, and the stakes of inaction.
Around Lake Michigan on the Circle Tour
Sixty years ago, my parents took us on a driving tour of Lake Michigan, the quintessential Midwest road trip.
Ode to Olcott
Olcott, New York—"The French Riviera of Lake Ontario"—has sunk and rebounded in a way so minor, yet major enough to feel like a triumph.
The Rust Belt is Indigenous Land
A land acknowledgement, plus ten stories from the archives on Indigenous life in the region.
Buffalo’s Vanished Maritime Past
The city was once a bustling and infamous Great Lakes port. How should it be remembered?
The Fight Over Wind Power in Lake Erie
The contested case of the Icebreaker Wind Farm has implications for renewable energy in the region.