A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

The People’s Philosopher

January 12, 2012 During the mid-60s, Noam Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar changed forever the debate about language acquisition and provided philosophers and psychologists a new way to think about the human mind. Chomsky’s work had political implications, too, and he has emerged as one of the left’s most implacable voices, challenging the often hidden structures that lie behind the abuse of power. Noam Chomsky will discuss the Occupy Movement in a talk at Rhodes College in Memphis on January 13 at 5 p.m.

The People’s Philosopher

Every Picture Tells a Story

January 10, 2012 The publication of the first edition of Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History in 2001 was met with great appreciation among fans of mid-century comic books and comic-book artists. In the second edition, William B. Jones Jr. has incuded more than a hundred additional pages of historical facts, interviews, photos, and illustrations from the original comics, including full-color plates of iconic covers in the series. Jones calls them “as much a part of growing up in postwar America as baseball cards, hula hoops, Barbie dolls, or rock ‘n’ roll.”

A Remarkable Life

January 9, 2012 In his new biography, Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman, Robert K. Massie (author of the bestselling Nicholas and Alexandra and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Peter the Great) follows the legendary Russian monarch’s splendid trajectory from powerless teenage girl to brilliant ruler. Massie, a former Nashville resident, recently spoke by phone with Chapter 16 about Catherine’s fascinating life—and even more fascinating character—prior to his Nashville appearance as part of the Salon@615 series. Massie will discuss Catherine the Great on January 15 at the Nashville Public Library. The event will begin with a reception at 2:15 p.m., followed by the author talk at 3. Both are free and open to the public.

A Remarkable Life

“A Biography Its Subject Deserved”

December 15, 2011 Despite the appearance this year of The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, and the imminent arrival of The Dead Witness, his two most recent forays as an editor, for Michael Sims 2011 was unarguably the year of The Story of Charlotte’s Web. This slim volume—a biography not so much of E.B. White as of the book for which he is best remembered—has found its way onto best-of-the-year lists all over the media, and inspired rhapsodic reviews. Today Chapter 16 surveys the praise:

The Woods Are Lovely

November 17, 2011 Southern Appalachian Celebration is not just a big book filled with pretty pictures. It’s also laced with big ideas that call for bold actions, a book that poses important questions, literally asking its readers to put themselves in the forest’s place when we consider our role as its custodian. Despite such sentiments, the book never feels like a hippie tree hug. The combination of Chris Bolgiano’s sober, clear text and James Valentine’s resonant images gives the book a Zen-like stateliness that affirms the seriousness of its intentions without insisting on its own seriousness.

The Woods Are Lovely

Adding On

November 9, 2011 In Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion, bestselling novelist and historian Robert Morgan tells the true stories of the men who added the territories from the Appalachians to the Pacific, thereby making a country out of a continent. Morgan will discuss Lions of the West at 7 p.m. on November 14 at the Hodges Library on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

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