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Classic Modern: The Art Worlds of Joseph Pulitzer Jr.

Classic Modern: The Art Worlds of Joseph Pulitzer Jr.

For the May 13 centennial of Joseph Pulitzer Jr.’s birth, Marjorie B. Cohn, author of Classic Modern, the first biography of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. to focus on his art collecting—arguably his greatest passion—and his role in bringing modernism to the American Midwest, writes here about one of the pleasures of writing the biography of a man whose life ended only […]

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Ambition, A History

Questioning Ambition

Read William Casey King’s “Three Things All Ambitious People Should Know” on the Wall Street Journal‘s “Speakeasy” blog! In credo of “life, liberty, and the pursuit  of happiness,” there seems an implicit acknowledgement of ambition–should one’s desires take you so far. This picture in American life is particularly central to our own understanding of national […]

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Sister Citizen pbk

Sister Citizen Now Out in Paperback!

Follow @MHarrisPerry Follow @MHPShow “Citizenship is more than an individual exchange of freedoms for rights,” writes Melissa V. Harris-Perry, professor, writer and television host, in Sister Citizen. “It is also membership in a body politic, a nation, and a community.” In Sister Citizen, now available in paperback, Harris-Perry looks at what it means for black […]

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Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand Photo Contest!

Follow @yaleARTbooks The vision of America that photographer Garry Winogrand (1928-1984) captured in his lifetime has evolved since his death, but his photographs capture a timeless essence of the nation.. One of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century, Winogrand left behind over sixty-five hundred rolls of film that he never processed, or that […]

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City: Urbanism and Its End

The Rise and Fall of Urbanism: Douglas W. Rae’s City

Settled by Puritans in 1638, New Haven, Connecticut was the first planned city in America. A few weeks ago in New Haven, a group of citizens met in the basement of a middle school to discuss the well-being of their town. Issues like “food deserts,” street crime, and health problems came to the forefront as dozens […]

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Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds

Francis Bremer on John Davenport and Puritanism at the Founding of New Haven

Francis J. Bremer, author of the recently published biography, Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds, discusses the fervent Puritan world of religious politics that led to the founding of the New Haven Colony, as today we celebrate John Davenport’s 416th birthday, and the 375th anniversary of New Haven for the month […]

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Societe Anonyme

Curator Jennifer Gross on the Société Anonyme

Follow @yaleARTbooks Following the post on the exhibition catalog, a Q&A with Jennifer Gross, Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Yale University Art Gallery and editor of The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America. What specifically prompted Dreier and Duchamp to found the Société Anonyme?  What are some similarities and differences […]

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Eslanda

Barbara Ransby on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show

Last week, Yale University Press author Barbara Ransby appeared on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry show to discuss her new book, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson. The interview discusses Essie’s many humanitarian and intellectual pursuits— as a writer, chemist, academic, activist, celebrity and world traveler. When Harris-Perry asks “What do we need […]

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The Great Agnostic

The Great Agnostic and First American Male Feminist

Susan Jacoby, author of the new biography, The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought, here reflects on the significance of Ingersoll as a religious and philosophical thinker, considering women’s and human rights in nineteenth-century America and arguing that he was a man well ahead his times—more like twentieth-century feminists than his own contemporaries on the […]

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Arcadian America

Of Garden Cemeteries and Global Warming: Arcadian America

There is no shortage of suggestion solutions to today’s environmental energy crisis. People call for alternative sources, for new government legislation, for a decrease in oil drilling. But Aaron Sachs, environmentalist, professor, and author of Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition, has a simpler plan in mind. His new book speaks to […]

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