Are the Humanities Dying?
It’s a tired topic by now that the humanities are dying. Some people say that this is because the humanities are an ossified way of looking at reality and at…
Poem: The Moon was a Full Moon
The moon was a full moon: heavenly flex. Full of itself and the light of the sun, The marble remains of a magnificent nude, A bare breast in the night…
The Danger of Algorithms
In a CNN interview on January 8, 2023, Ian Bremmer (president of the Eurasia Group, a global political risk research and consulting firm) sounded an alarm bell about algorithms. “At…
Was Homer a Fraud?
You will never appreciate Homer the same way again after reading this book. It deals with alternative readings of the Iliad and the Odyssey, as penned by Sophists some 2,000…
BEST BOOK OF 2022: Magnificent Rebels
This book is so delicious I did not want it to end. Andrea Wulf, who lives in London, has written the best book of 2022: Magnificent Rebels. Wulf is best…
Dictatorial Misrule
As the crimes of the former president become ever more obvious, we are reminded of the words of Shakespeare, who might have been describing the White House from 2017-2021: “Hell…
Demagogues in American Politics
At a recent talk at the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Charles Zug explained how he was led to a study of a particularly problematic element of American politics.…
EUROMISSILES: The Cold War Gambit
“In a somewhat unusual thing for a book, my central cast of characters are three types of missiles.” So stated Dr. Susan Colbourn in a recent talk at the University…
How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise
“Trump cabinet meetings eerily resembled high-level meetings in Beijing as, one by one, the senior officials praised the wisdom of their leader. The unpredictable interactions between the administrations of the…
MIDWAY: How America won the War in the Pacific
The Silver Waterfall has been written by Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor. McGregor, who gave a talk on the book in Austin (hosted by the Clements Center), is a US…