A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

A Cruel and Compassionate Hero

William Tecumseh Sherman FIN jacket.inddWilliam Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life is James Lee McDonough’s detailed look at a brilliant, multi-faceted soldier who never hesitated to visit the hell of war on his enemies. McDonough will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.

Vive la Résistance!

May 31, 2016 Alan Furst’s new novel, A Hero of France, portrays the dangers faced by the brave souls who elected to fight the Nazi occupation of France from the inside, where enemies were many and friends could not always be trusted. Furst will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 6, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

Seeking Salvation in the Shadows

May 12, 2016 Redemption Road proves once again that John Hart is a master of the literary thriller. His flawed and haunted characters must work in the shadows of modern-day North Carolina to find their way to salvation. Hart will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 19, 2016, at 6:30 pm.

The Measure of a Man

December 2, 2015 Distrusted by liberals who saw him as Reagan’s lap dog and by conservatives who thought him too soft, George H. W. Bush is generally viewed as a genial but inconsequential president. But, as Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham points out in Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, that dismissal is wrong. Meacham will discuss the book at three different Tennessee events in December.

Finding Fame in Defeat

November 18, 2015 Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown’s new book, Inventing Custer: The Making of an American Legend, tells the story of George Custer’s transformation from Civil War hero to legendary symbol of the American frontier. That legend has served the purposes of many points of view, making Custer still relevant 139 years after his death at the Little Bighorn.

Touching Past, Present, and Future

October 19, 2015 In The Tangled Web of the Civil War and Reconstruction: Readings and Writings from a Novelist’s Perspective, David Madden illustrates the difficulty inherent in unraveling the various narratives and ongoing effects of America’s defining conflict. He will discuss the book at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on November 10, 2015, at noon.

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