Essay The irrationality of 2020 December 16, 2020 Irrationality聽was published in 2019, but the real subject of the book, it turns out, is the year 2020. The book now seems to me to be describing a world that had been gestating for some years, but that only came out kicking and screaming, loud enough for all to hear and for none to deny, in the pandemic era, which coincides, significantly, with the final year of Donald Trump鈥檚 ignominious presidency.聽 Read More
Essay The mountain memories that fuelled Tolkien鈥檚 epic tales December 14, 2020 鈥業t鈥檚 a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door.鈥� Bilbo Baggins is thinking of adventure, of course, not pandemics. 鈥榊ou step into the Road, and if you don鈥檛 keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.鈥� Yet The Lord of the Rings is a lesson in how far you can travel without leaving home. Read More
Essay Reaffirming human rights December 10, 2020 On December 19, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It took more than two years of intense, difficult negotiations, but the members of the drafting committee understood that they could not fail. Read More
Essay 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.聽On surface it seems simple enough:聽Buy something nice, wrap it in colorful paper, present it to your giftee. Read More
Interview By Design | 快色直播 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
Essay Can logic be fun? November 24, 2020 Many people have tried to define logic. James Thurber wrote, 鈥淪ince it is possible to touch a clock without stopping it, it follows that one can start a clock without touching it.鈥� Read More
Essay 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
Essay 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鈥檚 belligerent governing style his most serious liability in the 2020 election. Read More
Essay Six impossible things November 12, 2020 In the Wonderland of her mind, Alice laughed. 鈥淥ne can鈥檛 believe impossible things,鈥� she said to the White Queen. The Queen observed that Alice simply lacked discipline and practice, boasting that she sometimes believed 鈥渁s many as six impossible things before breakfast.鈥� Read More
Essay T.M. Luhrmann on small acts of real鈥憁aking November 11, 2020 The most important question to ask about religion is not why but how. 鈥淲hy鈥� is a skeptic鈥檚 question鈥攁 puzzle around the seemingly absurd ideas (a talking snake, a virgin birth) that we find in religions. Read More
Essay 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鈥攁 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
Essay 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
Essay 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.聽Maybe you鈥檝e already sent in your ballot, but you feel somehow unsatisfied. Read More
Essay A look inside The Queens Nobody Knows October 30, 2020 Of the sixty-five million or so visitors to New York City every year, the overwhelming majority spend their time only in Manhattan. Because of Brooklyn鈥檚 cachet as a destination, a certain number will also include it in their itinerary. Queens remains something of a mystery to most visitors, a place that they know is part of the city, but that might not be of particular interest. Read More
Essay In the mood for art in India鈥檚 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
