Classics

Applied Classics: François Hollande and the Socialists of Golden-Age Athens

Lex Paulson | Posted 05.11.2012

Read More: Classics, Socialism, Europe, Athens, France, Eurozone, French Politics, French Election, Francois Hollande, World News

The French president-elect might find an interesting lesson on socialist leadership in the far distance of fifth-century B.C. Europe, and specifically from the two men who dominated left-wing politics in the twilight of Athens' golden age.

Read Post

The Loss of the Old

Carey Perloff | Posted 05.03.2012

Read More: Theater, Classics, Strand Theater, San Francisco, El Sistema, Charles McNulty, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, Arts News

Why do we assume classics are impenetrable and obsolete? Why do we imagine that an ecology that privileges "emerging artists" while all but abandoning mature ones, let alone historical ones, will have resonance in the long run?

Read Post

What Is a Literary Novel?

Warren Adler | Posted 05.29.2012

Read More: Huckleberry Finn, Authors, Literary, Writers, Books, Writing, Classics, Reading, To Kill a Mockingbird, Writing a Book, Literary Novel, Novels, Writing a Novel, Books News

Does durability, for example, constitute an important definition of what is or becomes a literary novel? How does a novel become a classic? Who determines what becomes a classic?

Read Post

Applied Classics: The Roman Romney: Why Rich Guys Fail at Politics

Lex Paulson | Posted 05.26.2012

Read More: Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, History, Classics, Republican Primary, 2012 Election, Republican Presidential Candidates, Mitt Romney 2012, Gop Primary 2012, 2012 Republican Primary, Gop Primary, Republicans, Politics News

How then can someone so successful at making money be so comically unskilled at managing his political brand? For three potentially revealing answers, consider the case of Marcus Licinius Crassus, ally and bankroller of Julius Caesar.

Read Post

Springtime for Picture Books

Jay Bushara | Posted 05.19.2012

Read More: Spring, Grandpa Green, Classics, Gardening, Children's Books, Books, The Carrot Seed, Slidepollajax, Parents News

Every few weeks, a book shoots briefly across the publishing firmament which restores and even enlivens my faith in the future of this often underesti...

Read Post

Applied Classics: Santorum, Herodotus and the Art of Political Fantasy

Lex Paulson | Posted 04.16.2012

Read More: Herodotus, Elections 2012, Rick Santorum 2012, Classics, 2012 Election, Rick Santorum, Culture News

Never underestimate the political power of a tall tale. Dog-headed men. The climate hoax. Super-sized, gold-digging ants. Class warfare. 300 Greeks against five million Persians. Pray away the gay.

Read Post

Reading As An Equalizer: What James Joyce, Shakespeare Can Teach Us Today

Rick Ayers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Declan Kiberd, Democracy, Critical Thinking, James Joyce, Education, Marilyn Monroe, Toni Morrison, Literacy, Chaucer, Ulysses, Miguel De Cervantes, Classics, Mark Twain, Reading, Shakespeare, Education News

Kiberd reminds us to hold on to, and honor, the truly democratic project that education must be.

Read Post

What Steve Forbes's Books Teach Us

Richard C. Morais | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Leadership, Classics, Book Publishing, Human Rights, Steve Forbes, Forbes, Capitalism, Books News

When two authors share a by-line, whose personality and style carries the day?

Read Post

SUNY Albany To Cut Language, Classics and Theater Departments (VIDEO)

Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: CBS 6, SUNY Albany Budget Cuts, SUNY Albany Cuts Language, Theater Departments, College News, Inside Higher Ed, Classics, The Northeast, SUNY Albany, George M. Philip, Video, College News

At the State University of New York at Albany, budget cuts mean saying goodbye to French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater. In town hall mee...

Read Whole Story

Apocalypse Now

Tamsin Smith | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Literature, Classics, Shakespeare, Poetry, Robinson Crusoe, Books, Books News

Couldn't we, shouldn't we, be applying a bit of mouth-to-mouth to bring the great literary works, these beautiful creatures back to life for ourselves and for each other?

Read Post

Poetry: Can You Write A Poem In Sapphic Form?

The Guardian | Billy Mills | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Classics, Greek Literature, Sappho, Swinburne, Ezra Pound, Allen Ginsberg, Poetry, Books News

There aren't many verse forms that are named after their originators; poetry doesn't seem to work much like biology in that respect. There's the Cleri...

Read Whole Story

Wussferatu

Laurence Hughes | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Classics, Vampires, Dracula, Bram Stoker, Halloween, Books, Gothic Horror, Horror Novels, Books News

Dracula has turned into many things in his time -- a bat, a wolf, a mist. Exactly when did he turn into a wuss?

Read Post

Books are Good for Toothache

Alan Black | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Classics, Kindle, Books, Dentist, Literature, E-Books, Classic Books, Toothache, Books News

The first pages I stuffed into my tooth were from Crime and Punishment, and once they had reached a soggy end, I rammed in The Idiot. But Dostoevsky failed to dull the pain.

Read Post

To Tweet or Not To Tweet: That is the Question

Maggie Van Ostrand | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Abraham Lincoln, Classics, Twitter, Hamlet, Tweet, Texting, Gettysburg Address, Comedy News

We've prepared a time-saver for those hipsters, geeks, and Twitteristas who haven't the time to reduce the classics to Twitter's required 140 characters, counting spaces.

Read Post

Does the Ivy League Turn You Into a Moron? Walter Kirn Critiques Princeton in "Lost in the Meritocracy"

Anis Shivani | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Ivory Tower, Deconstruction, Postmodernism, Aphasia, Derrida, Ivy League, Mormonism, Lost in the Meritocracy, Intellectuals, Meritocracy, Yale, Harvard, Walter Kirn, Education, Keasbey Scholarship, Wall Street, High Schools, Princeton, Western Canon, Competition for Ivy League, Rhodes Scholarship, Theory, Schools, Academia, Education Reform, Higher Education, Public Education, Henry Louis Gates, Henry Louis Gates Arrested, Postmodern Theory, Learning, Elite, Oxford University, Class, Oxford, Minnesota, Ruling Elite, Income Inequality, Great Books, Classics, Humanities, Politics News

Walter Kirn, author of the novels Up in the Air and Mission to America, has written the most enticing recent indictment of education in this country.

Read Post

Bringing Crime And Punishment Back To The NYC Commute

The Huffington Post | Stephanie Harnett | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Literature, Community Service, All for Good, Donate, Donate Books, Choose What You Read NY, Service, Subway, Books, Classics, Commute, Donations, New York, New York News

When was the last time you saw Mark Twain on the Q train? Or Faulkner on the F? If you've noticed that great literature has lost out to throw-away t...

Read Whole Story

Original Meaning of the Olympic Games

Alex Pattakos | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Ancient Greeks, Olympics History, Sichuan Earthquake, Olympics, Classics, Russia Invasion, Russia Georgia War, Olympics Peace, Politics News

Even though the ancient Olympic Games were fiercely competitive, their peaceful nature was always a distinguishing characteristic that made them unique.

Read Post