So said the New York Times headline when geologist Marie Tharp discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the gash in the earth that proved the theory of continental drift and helped establish the field of plate tectonics. Tharp made this discovery while producing the first comprehensive maps of the ocean floor. Author Hali Felt, who chronicled Tharp’s life in her book, Soundings, spoke to LQ about this remarkable and overlooked scientist.
Lewis Lapham talks to Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918. More
Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of Churchill’s Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill. More
Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773–1783. More
Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the co-editor of Who’s Black and Why? A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race. More
Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing. More
Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self. More
