By Mi Gyung Kim (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) The hot-air balloon, invented by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, launched for the second time just days before the Treaty of Paris would end the American Revolutionary War. The ascent in Paris—a technological marvel witnessed by a diverse crowd that included Benjamin Franklin—highlighted celebrations of French military victory … Continued
By Patricia Leighten (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) The years before World War I were a time of social and political ferment in Europe, which profoundly affected the art world. A major center of this creative tumult was Paris, where many avant-garde artists sought to transform modern art through their engagement with radical politics. In this provocative … Continued
By James L. W. West, III (NHC Fellow, 1981–82) The story of how Fitzgerald wrote and published the book is fascinating. In The Making of "This Side of Paradise", James West studies the inception, composition, publication, and textual history of the novel. He traces its growth from its earliest version, entitled "The Romantic Egotist," to its … Continued
By Daniel Horowitz (NHC Fellow, 1984–85)
Edited by Richard Lim (NHC Fellow, 2002–03) and Carole Ellen Straw
By Dale K. Van Kley (NHC Fellow, 1989–90) Although the French Revolution is associated with efforts to dechristianize the French state and citizens, it actually had long-term religious—even Christian—origins, claims Dale Van Kley in this controversial new book. Looking back at the two and a half centuries that preceded the revolution, Van Kley explores the … Continued
By W. Fitzhugh Brundage (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) Since the Civil War whites and blacks have struggled over the meanings and uses of the Southern past. Indeed, today’s controversies over flying the Confederate flag, renaming schools and streets, and commemorating the Civil War and the civil rights movement are only the latest examples of this ongoing … Continued
Edited by W. V. Harris (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) and Javier Arce
By Deborah McGrady (NHC Fellow, 2010–11)
Edited by Lydia H. Liu (NHC Fellow, 1997–98) The problem of translation has become increasingly central to critical reflections on modernity and its universalizing processes. Approaching translation as a symbolic and material exchange among peoples and civilizations—and not as a purely linguistic or literary matter, the essays in Tokens of Exchange focus on China and its interactions … Continued