University of Michigan Press Blog

'Lost Eagles' author Blaine Pardoe honors Pearl Harbor at UM Press event

An airman, veteran and hero, Frederick Zinn is the focus of military historian Blaine Pardoe's latest book, "Lost Eagles: One Man's Mission to Find Missing Airmen in Two World Wars." In a special event hosted by the University of Michigan Press Author Series on Tuesday, December 7th, Pardoe honors Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day by celebrating the late Michigan hero and discussing the book.

Blaine Pardoe weaves together the complex story of a man who brought peace and closure to countless families who lost airmen during both world wars. His lasting contribution to warfare was a combination of his methodology for locating the remains of missing pilots (known as the Zinn system) and his innovation of imprinting all aircraft parts with the same serial number so that if a wreck was located, the crewman could be identified. The tradition he established for seeking and recovering airmen is carried on to this day.

The event will be held at 7 p.m. in Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery/Room 100, on the diag in University of Michigan's central campus. Pardoe's talk will be followed by a book sale and signing. For more information, call (734)-615-6477.

New Journal of Electronic Publishing issue edited by UM Press director lays out the digital future of university presses

University presses will have to collaborate more instead of competing, must employ digital processes and digital distribution throughout the publishing cycle, may produce interactive digital products that look nothing like books, and will have to engage closely with many more venues both within their home institution and beyond than they have in the past if they want to survive, according to the November issue of the Journal of Electronic Publishing, available today at http://www.journalofelectronicpublishing.org.

The issue is organized around the theme of “Reimagining the University Press” and guest edited by Phil Pochoda, Director of the University of Michigan Press.

“In the broadest sense, these essays can be read as attempts to discover how or even whether the presses will continue to play a valued leadership role in scholarly publishing, or if the most powerful publishing wave since Gutenberg will leave the presses stranded on an abandoned shore,” Pochoda writes in the Editor’s Note. “Most of the contributors to this issue seem persuaded that the presses can and will persist in more or less recognizable form by making substantial, digitally driven, adaptations in their traditional publishing functions and publishing processes, though some feel that the presses as a whole will be transferred to or even disappear entirely from a radically transformed (but still inchoate) system of scholarly and popular communication.”

The all-star roster of contributors to the issue includes:

"Lost Eagles" Author Blaine Pardoe Honors Admirable U-M Alumnus in Book

Blaine Pardoe, author of the new book Lost Eagles: One Man's Mission to Find Missing Airmen in Two World Wars, explains his growing interest in the inspirational story of an unrecognized war hero: Fred Zinn.

"When I was working on Terror of the Autumn Skies, the story of Frank Luke Jr., I started coming across references to Frederick W. Zinn.  I was intrigued because he seemed to be involved with the recovery of missing airmen which was fascinating, mostly because at the time I didn't know anything about it.  When I found out he was from Battle Creek/Galesburg I was even more shocked.   I live in Virginia but grew up in Battle Creek and my parents owned an antique mall in Galesburg, but I had never heard of Fred Zinn.  There were no statues to him, no streets named after him.

"Zinn, or as my researcher and I started to refer to him, OBZ (Our Boy Zinn) became something of an obsession with me.  When I visited my parents antique store in Galesburg, I figured out where his family business, the old A.K. Zinn mill was…a mere 100 feet from my father's store.  Two brick buildings remained as well as the faint impression of the mill race. A check at the Galesburg Public Library yielded a wealth of material, including a photo album with childhood snapshots.

"The more I researched the more interesting I found Fred Zinn to be.  His story was remarkable.  When he graduated from the University of Michigan, he went to Paris only to be there at the outbreak of the Great War.  He became a member of the French Foreign Legion, then the French Air Service (and the infamous Lafayette Flying Corps), then the American Air Service -- actually he was the first American transferred from the French to the U.S. Air Service.  He was America's first aerial combat photographer.  He served from the very start of the war and when the war ended he proposed doing something unique -- staying behind to look for the 200 missing airmen.

Author and First Gentleman Dan Mulhern to Speak at UM event, Workplace 2010

Author and First Gentleman Dan Mulhern is due to speak at Workplace 2010, a University of Michigan sponsored event with speakers and workshops focusing on developing leadership skills. The event is on November 11 at the Four Points Sheraton in Ann Arbor.

Mulhern, who is the husband of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, is also an author, business consultant and motivational speaker. His book Everyday Leadership offers his own experiences and ideas for building leadership skills and accomplishing goals from the board room to everyday life. He offers practical steps to achieve the goal of leading well in our lives through creating a vision, communicating that vision, and living it in simple yet powerful ways.

UM Press authors predict moderate losses for Democrats in this week's elections

With the major news sources predicting a landslide victory for Republicans in Congress in four days, only the most cautious observers have predicted anything less. Yet, the model created by David Jones and Monika McDermott in their book Americans, Congress, and Democratic Responsiveness falls on the side of smaller losses for the Democratic Party.

Real Clear Politics is predicting 47 Congressional races may change from Democrat to Republican, with 40 seats being a toss up. The statistician Nate Silver, who blogs through The New York Times, predicts a 52 seat loss for the Democrats. Many commentators have predicted losses even greater than 50 seats, some saying a 70+ seat gain for Republicans isn't impossible.

Meanwhile, Jones and McDermott are predicting a modest losses. According to a review in Congress and the Presidency, "Jones and McDermott present estimates of a standard congressional seat change forecasting model... A quick calculation based on current values of the predictors indicates that the standard model predicts that Democrats will lose just 14 House seats in 2010. Jones and McDermott’s updated model, including congressional approval as a predictor, forecasts that Democrats will lose 46 House seats (and majority control of the House) in November of 2010."