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Lapham's Quarterly Recommends
BOOKS
Rameau's Nephew, by Denis Diderot
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One of the key figures of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot was a passionate critic of conventional morality, society and religion. Among his greatest and most well-known works, these two dialogues are dazzling examples of his radical scientific and philosophical beliefs. In Rameau's Nephew, the eccentric and foolish nephew of the great composer Jean-Philippe Rameau meets Diderot by chance, and the two embark on a hilarious consideration of society, music, literature, politics, morality, and philosophy. Purchase at Amazon.com
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The Hundred Years, by Philip Guedalla
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"Newspapers measure history in daily doses. Weeklies can take it in more concentrated form. Historians often swallow a century at a gulp. In The Hundred Years, Philip Guedalla, historian with a fine journalistic palate, combines these time-tasting methods. In 400 pages he has arranged the savoriest moments of the last 100 years in a bill-of-fare to suit the taste of journalistic historians, history-minded journalists and plain readers." --from Time Magazine's review, Feb. 15, 1937. Purchase at Amazon.com
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The Year of Decision, 1846, by Bernard DeVoto
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Year of Decision 1846 tells many fascinating stories of the U.S. explorers who began the western march from the Mississippi to the Pacific, from Canada to the annexation of Texas, California, and the southwest lands from Mexico. It is the penultimate book of a trilogy which includes Across the Wide Missouri (for which DeVoto won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes) and The Course of Empire. DeVoto's narrative covers the expanding Western frontier, the Mormons, the Donner party, Fremont's exploration, the Army of the West, and takes readers into Native American tribal life. Purchase at Amazon.com
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A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman
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The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear and the Plague. Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived. Purchase at Amazon.com
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The Discovery of France, by Graham Robb
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The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered. Purchase at Amazon.com
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At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, by A. Roger Ekirch
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Bringing light to the shadows of history through a “rich weave of citation and archival evidence” (Publishers Weekly), scholar A. Roger Ekirch illuminates the aspects of life most often overlooked by other historians—those that unfold at night. In this “triumph of social history” (Mail on Sunday), Ekirch’s “enthralling anthropology” (Harper’s) exposes the nightlife that spawned a distinct culture and a refuge from daily life. Purchase at Amazon.com
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They Marched Into Sunlight, by David Maraniss
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In a seamless narrative, Maraniss weaves together the stories of three very different worlds: the death and heroism of soldiers in Vietnam, the anger and anxiety of antiwar students back home, and the confusion and obfuscating behavior of officials in Washington. To understand what happens to the people in these interconnected stories is to understand America's anguish. Based on thousands of primary documents and 180 on-the-record interviews, the book describes the battles that evoked cultural and political conflicts that still reverberate. Purchase at Amazon.com
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SITES WE LIKE
The Nation
Arts & Letters Daily
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From the Chronicle of Higher Education, a virtual glimpse inside every discussion at every student union at every university in the world. Arts & Letters Daily
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Newseum: The Interactive Museum of News
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You may not find every single headline from the day you were born, but Newseum does offer daily front pages from over 450 global newspapers. It's Romenesko for the tourist set. Newseum
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The Walrus
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Canada's general interest magazine with an international outlook.
The Walrus
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OTHER
In Our Time, with Melvyn Bragg
The American Ruling Class
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This film, “the first dramatic documentary musical,” follows LQ Editor Lewis Lapham and two recent Yale graduates as they make the rounds of Pentagon briefings, the World Economic Forum, philanthropic foundations, law firms, corporations banks, and New York society dinners as they attempt to answer the question, “Who rules America?” "The American Ruling Class"
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