January 14, 2014 In B.B. King’s Lucille and the Loves Before Her, lifelong blues fan and guitar collector Eric Dahl pays tribute to the regal bluesman and the close relationship he shares with Lucille, his guitar and trusted sidekick of more than sixty years. Dahl will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 16, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
January 13, 2014 It’s not easy to find a silver lining in the decline of local literary coverage across the country, but if there must be only a handful of full-time book critics working today, it’s good news, at least, that one of them is Dwight Garner, who writes for the daily New York Times. Prior to his appearance at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on January 16, 2014, at 7 p.m. in Buttrick Hall, Room 101, Garner answered questions from Chapter 16. The event is free and open to the public.
January 9, 2014 Nashville author Lisa Guenther, an associate professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, describes solitary confinement as “one of the simplest and most devastating” ways to destroy a person. In her exhaustive new book, Solitary Confinement: Social Death and Its Afterlives, Guenther gives an historical overview of solitary confinement in the U.S., discusses theories concerning its use, and examines the role of race in its application.
January 7, 2014 “The South began its move toward the modern Republican party in 1865,” writes Glenn Feldman in the opening sentence of his new book, The Irony of the Solid South: Democrats, Republicans, and Race, 1865-1944. Feldman, who earned a master’s degree in political science at Vanderbilt, spends the rest of the book backing up this surprising statement with overwhelming historical evidence.
Ronald A. Foresta
University of Tennessee Press
308 pages
$67
“From its promising launch to its ignominious relegation, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s controversial LBL recreation project attracted national and international attention. In Ron Foresta’s capable hands, readers are treated to so much more than a simple chronicle of an idea gone awry, Indeed, he shows us what can happen when we fail to adapt our thinking to changing circumstances. More important, he reminds us how terribly difficult it is to predict—let alone plan for—the future.”
–Geoffrey L. Buckley, author of Extracting Appalachia: Images of the Consolidation Coal Company, 1910–1945
Don W. Byerly
University of Tennessee Press
256 pages
$29.95
This book is the only comprehensive geologic history available on the market for Tennessee. … There are no other books like this that are close to being up to date.”
–Michael A. Gibson, University of Tennessee, Martin
