David Ranney, Author

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    • Dear Rhoda – A Play In Two Acts
    • Living and Dying on the Factory Floor: From the Outside In and the Inside Out
    • New World Disorder: The Decline of U.S. Power
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Dear Rhoda – A Play In Two Acts

by Donna Russell & David Ranney

In chaotic bohemian Chicago of the 1920s, a powerful love affair is threatened by illness, a “red” scare and anti Semitic hatred.  Confined to a TB sanitarium, Rhoda corresponds with Jerry, a left wing Jewish bookseller. Their letters reveal that the challenges and hatred they face are countered by their mutual love for each other, their love of literature, poetry and music and the left wing political causes they fight for. Their struggles come to life in the counter culture of Chicago’s Dil Pickle Club, which is frequented by Rhoda, Jerry and their friends like poet Carl Sandburg, lawyer Clarence Darrow, labor leader Jack Jones, hobo and left wing debater Lizzie Davis and feminist “Red” Martha Biegler. The discovery of the letters nearly a century later in an abandoned trunk offers a message of hope by linking their past to the present.

PODCAST: SCENES FROM DEAR RHODA
A one hour reading of scenes from the play and a commentary by its authors is available at:
https://charleshkerr.com/podcast

David Ranney

David Ranney is Professor Emeritus in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago, author, lecturer as well as actor and director in a small community theater.

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Recent Essays and Videos

Eco-socialism or Annihilation: Toward A Green New Deal

Interview on “Wake Up KSFR” Santa Fe, NM

Interview with Allen Ruff on the show “APA” Today on WORT Madison, Wisconsin

Doug Storm Interviews David Ranney About His New Book “Living and Dying on the Factory Floor”

On Violence and the Value of Life

There ain’t no justice, just us

Foxconn: The Myth and Reality of the Welfare Queen

The Foxconn Con

Is “Human Nature” a Barrier to a World Without War, Environmental Destruction and Inequality?

Breaking Our “Mind Forged Manacles” In An Age Of Global Violence

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  • About David Ranney
  • Dear Rhoda – A Play In Two Acts
  • Events for David Ranney
  • Living and Dying on the Factory Floor: From the Outside In and the Inside Out
  • New World Disorder: The Decline of U.S. Power
  • Photo Gallery

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