Timeless wisdom on generosity and gratitude December 01, 2020 The approach of the winter holidays invites us to wrestle once again with the complexities of giving. On surface it seems simple enough: Buy something nice, wrap it in colorful paper, present it to your giftee. Read More
By Design | Books about books, or the cataloging of ideas November 27, 2020 Sales catalogs have a noble lineage, one that an academic press would gladly embrace. The first catalog was published in Venice in 1498 by Aldus Manutius, founder of the Aldine Press. Read More
Can logic be fun? November 24, 2020 Many people have tried to define logic. James Thurber wrote, “Since it is possible to touch a clock without stopping it, it follows that one can start a clock without touching it.” Read More
Looking at medieval objects November 17, 2020 A few years ago, I was in the Medieval Collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City examining one of the objects I was writing a book about when a father came by with two children, a boy of about 10 and a girl of 7 or 8. He was taking them to see the medieval armor in the next exhibit room. Read More
Leadership in a time of crisis: Nero and the Great Fire of Rome November 13, 2020 There is one political failing that people seem unable to forgive. In the case of George W. Bush it was not the bitterly divisive invasion of Iraq that blighted his presidential image, nor was Donald Trump’s belligerent governing style his most serious liability in the 2020 election. Read More
Six impossible things November 12, 2020 In the Wonderland of her mind, Alice laughed. “One can’t believe impossible things,” she said to the White Queen. The Queen observed that Alice simply lacked discipline and practice, boasting that she sometimes believed “as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Read More
T.M. Luhrmann on small acts of real‑making November 11, 2020 The most important question to ask about religion is not why but how. “Why” is a skeptic’s question—a puzzle around the seemingly absurd ideas (a talking snake, a virgin birth) that we find in religions. Read More
Eric Cline on Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works November 10, 2020 To be perfectly honest, this is the book that I wish had been available when I was just starting out in archaeology and before I went on my first dig as a sophomore in college—a book small enough that I could slip it into my back pocket and pull out whenever I had a spare moment to read a couple of pages or a whole chapter. Read More
Our (Un)Civil War November 09, 2020 To say that our nation is politically divided between Democrats and Republicans could not be more of an understatement. How did we get to this point, and is there anything that ordinary citizens can do to reduce or manage the rift? Read More
Voting freely in a rigged election November 02, 2020 Can a person act freely in a system that is completely rigged, in which every action is determined from the outset? Maybe you are haunted by this question as you slog off to Town Hall to vote. Maybe it is so bothersome that you just stay home. Maybe you’ve already sent in your ballot, but you feel somehow unsatisfied. Read More
In the mood for art in India’s eighteenth century October 29, 2020 In the long eighteenth century, artists from Udaipur, a city of lakes in northwestern India, specialized in depicting the vivid sensory ambience of its historic palaces, reservoirs, temples, bazaars, and durbars. Read More
The fight for the Right: Conservatives have always argued with each over who owns their tradition October 28, 2020 The political era through which Americans and Europeans are living is dominated at present by the right. But which right is that? Read More
Piranesi, maker of books October 27, 2020 One of the central ideas that we explore in Piranesi Unbound is how a book comes together as the product of collaboration. As an artist, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) worked in many forms and materials. Read More
By Design | Setting A Series of Fortunate Events in motion October 26, 2020 In a world governed by chance, one book peers into the randomness of existence. From cosmic collisions and tectonic shifts to the infinitesimal accidents of biology, Sean B. Carroll’s A Series of Fortunate Events ranges across time and space, showing how chance occurrences brought us to where we are, fashioned us as we are, and contributed to all the beauty and diversity we see around us. Read More
Democracy counts: On sacred and debased numbers October 22, 2020 Democracy depends on numbers. This was recognized from the founding of the American republic. The US Constitution defined terms for periodic elections and for the reapportionment of representatives among the states as their populations grew. Read More
