Associate Professor of History, George Mason University
6 December 2011 1 Comment
I have a chapter on transportation in the forthcoming book, To Promote the General Welfare: The Case for Big Government, edited by Steven Conn. The book is scheduled for July 2012.
28 November 2011 Leave a comment
On November 21 I had the pleasure of joining Jerry Menikoff of OHRP and Kathy Hudson of NIH on an episode of the Kojo Nnamdi Show entitled, “Rethinking the “Common Rule”: The Ethics of Research with Human Subjects.” We received many thoughtful, informed comments and questions.
3 November 2011 Leave a comment
My colleague Mike O’Malley graciously gave me the chance to argue with him on his own blog, the Aporetic. My post, “More Babies in That Bathwater,” appeared on Monday, and Mike’s reply, “There Can Be More Than One,” appeared yesterday. To sum things up, Mike thinks that the questions facing scholarly publication are whether they will be print or digital, and whether peer review will by anonymous or signed. I think the real issue is whether editors will be paid or unpaid.
25 October 2011 Leave a comment
I am quoted in Patricia Cohen, “Questioning Privacy Protections in Research,” New York Times, 24 October 2011.
3 October 2011 Leave a comment
Dana Hedgpeth, “Wary eyes on Dulles rail project’s bottom line,” Washington Post, 1 October 2011.
The original Metro system was estimated to cost $2.5 billion in 1969, but it came in at $3.8 billion — not counting inflation, according to Zachary M. Schrag, associate professor of history at George Mason University and author of “The Great Society Subway,” a history of Metro.
“It would be somewhat surprising for a major rail transit project to be completed on budget,” Schrag said. “Most major projects of any kind go over budget, that includes road projects, weapons systems, space programs, stadiums.”
Typically, overruns hit because it is hard to predict the cost of such expenses as materials and the relocation of utilities in a construction area, Schrag said. “It is kind of a vicious spiral where people low-ball the estimates to get their project approved,” he said.
21 September 2011 Leave a comment
Thanks to John Kelly for a nice mention of The Great Society Subway: “Could D.C.’s Metro stations be prettier? Or do they reflect the city perfectly?,” Washington Post, 19 September 2011.
6 September 2011 Leave a comment
I am quoted in Dana Hedgpeth, Metro gets to work on ‘transition’ map Washington Post, 5 September 2011.
1 September 2011 Leave a comment
I am cited in Mollie Reilley, “Washington’s Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales—Some of Which Are True,” Washingtonian, 29 August 2011.
25 August 2011 Leave a comment
Published: Review of Robert C. Post, Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. Transfers: New Mobility Studies 1 (Spring 2011): 155-157. The blurb: “Though the book questions the concepts of progress and success, it is an example of both.”
12 August 2011 Leave a comment
Am quoted in Nick Desantis, “The Social Subway,” Washington City Paper, 12 August 2011.
