Richard Gilman, noted theater critic and former professor at the Yale School of Drama, passed away last fall at his home in Kusatsu, Japan at the age of 83. Yale University Press published three books by Mr. Gilman: Chekhov’s Plays, winner of the Choice 1996 Outstanding Academic Book Award, The
William Safire dubs Fred Shapiro “Quotationeer Shapiro” in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine: On the analogy of “Dictionary Johnson,” we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), “Quotationeer Shapiro.” Like that harmless drudge, as Sam defined “lexicographer,” Shapiro does original
The New Republic has printed an insightful appraisal of famed historian Hugh Trevor-Roper’s capstone work, Europe’s Physician. Reviewer Peter Miller points out that doctors can provide a unique historical window into politics because of their trusted status, proximity to power, and necessary philosophical balancing of science, religion and humanity. “[I]t
Listen to Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, author of Why Arendt Matters, discuss Hannah Arendt, her examination of totalitarianism, and the “banality of evil,” on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Saturday, October 14, marks the centennial of the birth of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), the German-born political philosopher whose analysis of the nature of power, totalitarianism, and the “banality of evil” still resonates powerfully in our own time. “So it is no accident,” says Edward Rothstein in the New York Times,
Only rarely in biblical scholarship does a book come along that topples a monolith of scholarly consensus. Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life, a new book by Harvard professor Jon D. Levenson that explores the origins of the Jewish notion of the
“Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment.”—Will Rogers In a world where more and more people are voluntarily “going under the knife,” it is hard to imagine a time when anesthesia was frowned upon. In the late nineteenth
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced on July 18 that I’m Still Here, a documentary based on the diaries of young Holocaust victims, has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. The first category is Outstanding Historical Programming (Long Form), and the second is Outstanding Individual Achievement in
“With [Thomas] Jefferson I conversed at length on the subject of architecture — Palladio, he said, ‘was the Bible — you should get it and stick close to it.’” – Colonel Isaac A. Coles, 1816 Andrea di Pietro della Gondola (1508-1580)–better known by the name Palladio, after the Greek goddess
“The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he.” – Karl Kraus If you’ve never heard of Karl Kraus, the Austrian satirist who inflicted withering and witty critiques on the mass media, the military-industrial complex,