Lloyd Bowers | Discover Thrilling Stories: Divide the Country, Freedom as Public Utility, The Results of Polar Bear Research & Keep These In the Family

About the Author

Lloyd Bowers was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1952, graduated from Furman University in 1976, and has lived in Charleston, South Carolina since 2002.

The Results of Polar Bear Research is Lloyd's first novel and was published in 2007. Lloyd's next book, Keep These in the Family, is a collection of twelve stories and was published in 2010.

"I grew up in the South," says Lloyd. "The Southern Appalachians is a sort of fixed foot in my life, and the summer-time is a great time to gravitate unpredictably in social settings."

"Freedom is a Public Utility, published 2014, developed from the discovery of a stash of old family letters, dated 1812 to 1857, mailed to my great-great-grandfather John Siegling, who emigrated from Erfurt, Germany, and settled in Charleston in 1820. That he was en route, or 'unterwegs,' for five years impressed me.

"Divide the Country! was published February, 2020. It reflects my concern about the disunity, and even partisan hatred, that plagues the U.S."

Latest Posts

12 Mar 2025

Precarious

This article "Kampf um Begriffe" (A Battle over Political Terms) appeared in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper on February 9th, during my last visit to Germany. It refers to the efforts of Right- and Left-wing political parties in Germany to tar each other with the "Nazi" or "Commie" brush. The Nazis during World War II slaughtered millions of people; likewise the Communists in the Soviet Union. Only a fool In Germany would advertise himself openly as one or the other. That such terms linger for so long in the media culture of Germany interests me, since the Germans use them mostly for their defamatory value.

07 Mar 2025

A Planned Economy Again?

This article appeared in the February 16th Sunday-edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper during my last trip to Germany. "PLAN-Wirtschaft in Kalifornien" describes the homeowner's insurance situation in California, which the spate of devastating fires has thrust into the limelight. The California Department of Insurance places limits on the amount that insurance carriers can charge homeowners to insure their homes, which means that most insurance carriers cannot make a profit. They had already left the state before the fires started. They would only lose money, if they tried to play by the Department's silly rules.

05 Mar 2025

The Petty Straws of War

Like many Americans, I like to sample the opinions of average citizens from the comments they leave on social media, and feel dismay at the growing hostility and ideological gulf that separates the opposing sides. The Democrats take wealthy Republicans to task for their greed, hypocrisy, and racism. Republicans criticize the Democrats for their faith in discredited systems like Socialism and Egalitarianism. America does not need enemies. We are our own worst enemy! It makes me wonder why none of our leaders have suggested that we divide the country to create new countries, one for each side, that embody the different value systems.

03 Mar 2025

The Tea Party Revisited

Years ago, longer than I care to remember, I wanted to skip a semester at college and remain in the Boston area. I applied for different jobs, pestering old friends to put me up for extra nights while I continued to search for a job. I applied at the Boston Tea Party Museum and must have made an indifferent job-candidate, since the object of my remaining in Boston was a girl, not history, at all! The person interviewing me picked up on my indifference quickly and sent me away without a job. As I stood at the pier, I watched the Museum employees in period costumes show their guests how to throw a tea-chest into Boston Bay. It had a rope attached to it that the employees used to haul the chest from the Bay, for the next guest to throw.

27 Feb 2025

Germany Made a Mistake?

This article "Deutsche Irrtümer" (Germany's mistakes) appeared in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on the 24th of February. The Frankfurter Allgemeine apparently allowed a guest-author to publish an editorial on the first page of its "Feuilleton" section, where German newspapers typically publicize cultural events and explore public curiosities. Ayata does not work for the newspaper. He is an ethnic Turk born in Germany who runs a travel agency in Berlin and writes fiction on the side. The German-language article on Wikipedia, however, does not mention a travel agency, only his writing.

26 Feb 2025

Coaching Students on How to Vote

The article "Jede Parole hat eine Folge" (Any political slogan can gain a following.) appeared in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on February 16th of this year, written by a pair of staff writers, Julia Schaaf and Anke Schipp. The authors report that high-school teachers in the former East Germany have a concern that their students simply parrot the opinions of the poorly-informed parents and their prejudiced media sources.

22 Feb 2025

Disruptions to the Status Quo

The Democrats hate the Republican/Trumpist perception of themselves as the status-quo party. Rather than simply opposing the Republican revolutionaries with a defense of the status quo, the Democrats need to publicize their own program of innovation. Otherwise, the only left-wing challenge to the status quo will come from Facebook bloggers, who have little sense of real innovation and reform, except to soak the rich and dish out payback.

20 Feb 2025

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

I purchased Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, by Peter Biskind, from a local bookstore, one of the last books that I remember purchasing from a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Since then, I get them almost exclusively from the Internet. I can hardly cruise through Wikipedia or Amazon without wanting to stop and look at the books.

17 Feb 2025

The Salzburger Exulanten (Exiles)

I first read about the "Salzburger Exulanten" in a book titled Evening in the Palace of Reason, by James A. Gaines. Gaines chronicles the history of Prussia's rise to power from the ashes of the Thirty-Years War, through the forward-looking leadership of King Frederick William. The War had caused the destruction of entire cities in Germany during bloody battles and led to atrocities against civilians that rivals anything in the World today. Despite the tremendous losses, relations between Protestant and Catholic leaders remained tense and hostile.

14 Feb 2025

Democrats Worry about American Democracy

This article in the Washington Post first appeared in my news-feed in 2022, during the middle of President Biden's term of office. The title speaks for itself. The Democratic Party worries about the future of American Democracy, without actually saying outright that the Republican Party will engage in dirty-work in order to take over the government and institute a dictator-for-life, namely Donald Trump.

12 Feb 2025

The Social Organization

I can give parents a very good reason for sending their kids to college. You meet a lot of different people there, and they can change your life. The relationships that develop in college, and the influence they have, often linger longer in the memory than the schoolwork does. You will likely never again experience such a variety of people.

10 Feb 2025

Therapeutic Approaches to Solitude

This article appeared in the Sunday-edition of the Welt newspaper in Germany, back in the Fall of 2022, not long after the travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had been lifted. The lifting of restrictions could not come soon enough! My last trip to Germany before the Lockdown occurred in May, 2019. I did not get to return to Germany until late August 2021; so more than a two-year gap.

Click here to view all blog articles