History

For the Card-Carrying Shopper: Kenneth Ames on Christmas Cards

Kenneth Ames, author of American Christmas Cards 1900-1960 and organizer of the exhibition on view at the Bard Graduate Center through the end of the year, writes on his fascinating study of the artistic and cultural energy that was poured into the imagery, emotions, and stories of these seemingly simple

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Nigel Warburton on Immanuel Kant

An excerpt from Nigel Warburton’s A Little History of Philosophy, a lively and accessible introduction to Western philosophy, bringing the ideas of the world’s greatest thinkers into focus. from Socrates’ questions about reality to Peter Singer’s thinking on the moral status of animals in our own times.   Nigel Warburton—

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Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

The National Gallery’s “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” opened this fall, and is the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held. Today we look at this landmark event, and the beautiful exhibition catalogue that accompanies it, which has been described by the UK Telegraph

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For (In)Decency’s Sake

Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer has long been famous for its sexual content and explosive style. First printed in 1934 by a Parisian publisher known for soft-core pornography, Tropic of Cancer was banned in the United States, with the only available copies making their way across the Atlantic under the

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To London, with Love: An Island Changes the World

Ivan Lett— Continuing my reading on World War II, it’s almost a needless point to make that December 7 was arguably the turning point of conflict. The morning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has been recreated and dramatized many times over as one of the most identifiable moments

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For Those Who Never Tire of Words

“Language is different from every other subject you’ll ever study, because language is a part of everything you’ll ever study,” David Crystal writes in A Little Book of Language, now available in paperback. Written to appeal to readers in their early teens and late 50s alike, Crystal’s book is a

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For the Un-Occupied

Follow @yaleSCIbooks What with the tents that have been pitched in parks all over the country and the slogans to be found on everything from Twitter feeds to t-shirts, it is starting to seem like everything in America is occupied. Yet for those of us far from Wall Street, the

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To London, with Love: For the Fashionably Late

Ivan Lett— It has been observed many times, many ways, how late the United States entered World War II, much to the chagrin of its European friends fighting the Axis Powers. My favorite recap comes from Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill, where he imitates the arrival of a US cavalryman,

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Center of Influence: Alfred Stieglitz

It’s hard to imagine what American art today would look like without Alfred Steiglitz. A photographer in his own right, Steiglitz was also the gallery owner who first exhibited Rodin and Picasso in the United States, the husband who championed Georgia O’Keeffe as the first truly American modernist, and the

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Free “Crooked Room” Excerpt from Melissa Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen

Melissa Harris-Perry must be busy. A professor of political science at Tulane University, a columnist for The Nation, and frequent guest and host on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show, she has spent the last few months giving interviews—on everything from her take on the new movie The Help to her politics—in

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