http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/authors/6/joshua-r-keefe Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:52:43 -0400 Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:52:43 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/19/religion-commodity-or-escape-sports-in-modern-american-culture By Joshua R. Keefe - American sport has become far more than contests with rules played on fields, diamonds, or rinks. Our current conception of sport is more than just a ball moving between groups of athletes, or a struggle for a finish line, or an effort to impress judges, as various critical studies will attest. American sport has produced something more than just the usual trappings of sport that bleed into other aspects of society: the refereeing and record keeping, the public accounts of events, the hero worship of the victors, and the training of youth. American sport has produced, especially in the information... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:31 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/19/religion-commodity-or-escape-sports-in-modern-american-culture http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/15/redskin-and-all-american-jim-thorpes-malleable-symbolic-significance By Joshua R. Keefe - Jim Thorpe rose to fame on the heels of his prodigious athletic ability that translated into success in so many different sports nothing like it has not been seen since. And in the modern era of sports where athletes often specialize from an early age, it will most likely never be seen again. Thorpe, like many great athletes, rose to the public prominence because of his play on the field, but remained there because of what he represented and still represents today. He was a Native American, as current vernacular would describe him, or “redskin,” as contemporary discourse often labeled... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:24 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/15/redskin-and-all-american-jim-thorpes-malleable-symbolic-significance http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/12/invasion-of-the-invaded-nafta-and-the-rise-of-illegal-immigration By Joshua R. Keefe - On January 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement, the great neoliberal experiment that tested the economic waters of the post-cold war world went into effect, the southern Mexican state of Chiapas was under siege. They came from everywhere and nowhere, wearing ski masks and red, yellow and black bandanas (the colors of the campesinos, or subsistence farmers) and they took the world by surprise. They moved quickly, taking control of six towns, including the traditional capital of Chiapas, San Cristobal de las Casas, using their rag tag array of weapons, an AK-47 there, an old... Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:12 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/12/invasion-of-the-invaded-nafta-and-the-rise-of-illegal-immigration http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/10/the-american-military-and-the-press-from-vietnam-to-iraq By Joshua R. Keefe - “News is something someone wants suppressed,” British newspaper baron Lord Northcliffe once said. “Everything else is just advertising.” This point is especially true in war journalism where every story, be it a heart-warming depiction of troops handing out candy to local children or a gut-wrenching depiction of the horrors of war, can be construed as propaganda. Militaries of countries that protect the freedom of the press know that it is through the press that their performance, whether a success or a failure, will be conveyed to the people they represent. In today&rsquo... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:50 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/10/the-american-military-and-the-press-from-vietnam-to-iraq http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1684/stalin-and-the-drive-to-industrialize-the-soviet-union By Joshua R. Keefe - According to Marxist theory, only through a modern industrialized economy could a true proletariat class be developed as Marx makes no mention of a peasant class. Marxist theory aside, the need to industrialize was also a pragmatic matter of self-defense. Stalin, either as a result of paranoia or a simple distrust of the capitalist West, assumed his country would have to fight for its survival. He presented the need to industrialize as a life or death struggle. “Do you want our socialist fatherland to be beaten and to lose its independence?” he asked in a famous February, 1931 speech... Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:31 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1684/stalin-and-the-drive-to-industrialize-the-soviet-union