Harvard University Press

Book Review: “Suzuki — The Man and his Dream to Teach the Children of the World”

November 14, 2022
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Eri Hotta’s biography of Shinichi Suzuki is about optimism, gentleness, doggedness, belief in children, humanity, and the affirmative properties of art in the face of violence and ignorance.

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June Short Fuses – Materia Critica

June 2, 2022
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Book Review: Through a Text, Too Darkly — The Life and Oration of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

March 15, 2022
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Overall, the ITRL is an improvement over earlier efforts, but it falls short of expectations, particularly when it comes to providing a way into the world of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola for those beginning the journey.

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Author Interview: David Livingstone Smith on Dehumanization and “Making Monsters”

November 11, 2021
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“Making Monsters is a wake-up call. We need to seriously address the phenomenon of dehumanization if we are to have any hope of constraining it when things get really difficult.”

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May Short Fuses – Materia Critica

May 9, 2021
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Book Review: “Burning the Books” — The Never-ending War on the Preservation of Knowledge

January 25, 2021
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Burning the Books sometimes turns into  a disturbing chronicle of mankind’s elemental hostility to learning: barbarians often first targeted libraries and archives.

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Book Review: “Urban Legends: The South Bronx in Representation and Ruin” — Naked City

August 27, 2020
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Peter L’Official has written an important book that speaks with powerful relevance to the state of Black life in America today — and the demands of Black Lives Matter.

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Book Review: “Accounting for Slavery” — Plantation Roots of Scientific Management

May 14, 2019
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In this valuable study, Caitlin Rosenthal isolates an assortment of business practices and technologies that reflect the sophistication of New World plantation economies — dispelling myths of their romantic crudeness.

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Commentary/Interview: “Du Bois’s Telegram” — Restricting Literary Resistance

February 27, 2019
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Is there a disconnect between artists and meaningful resistance movements?

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Book Review: “After Ireland” — An Insightful Survey

July 21, 2018
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The critic settles too comfortably too often on a familiar trope — Ireland’s sense of promise squelched.

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