By N. Katherine Hayles (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) A visible presence for some two decades, electronic literature has already produced many works that deserve the rigorous scrutiny critics have long practiced with print literature. Only now, however, with Electronic Literature by N. Katherine Hayles, do we have the first systematic survey of the field and an … Continued
By Ian Barbour (NHC Fellow, 1980–81) The Gifford Lectures have challenged our greatest thinkers to relate the worlds of religion, philosophy, and science. Now Ian Barbour has joined ranks with such Gifford lecturers as William James, Carl Jung, and Reinhold Neibuhr. In 1989 Barbour presented his first series of Gifford Lectures, published as Religion in … Continued
Edited by Matthew Rubery (NHC Fellow, 2018–19) and Leah Price What does reading mean in the twenty-first century? As other disciplines challenge literary criticism’s authority to answer this question, English professors are defining new alternatives to close reading and to interpretation more generally. Further Reading brings together thirty essays drawing on approaches as different as formalism, historicism, … Continued
By Sally Smith Hughes (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) In the fall of 1980, Genentech, Inc., a little-known California genetic engineering company, became the overnight darling of Wall Street, raising over $38 million in its initial public stock offering. Lacking marketed products or substantial profit, the firm nonetheless saw its share price escalate from $35 to $89 … Continued
Edited by Timothy D. Taylor (NHC Fellow, 1999–00), Mark Katz, and Tony Grajeda This unique anthology assembles primary documents chronicling the development of the phonograph, film sound, and the radio. These three sound technologies shaped Americans' relation to music from the late nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War, by which time … Continued
Commercial radio broadcasting, a technological innovation in the 1920s, transformed American culture and politics. Whether those transformations were a boon or bane to society provoked as compelling a debate then as do the changes wrought by social media and the Internet today. The debate reflects the worry and hope with which Americans greeted new technologies … Continued
The airplane offered a potent symbol of man’s innovative thrust into the future. In the 1920s, artists depicted the airplane in canvases that, while creating quite different visual impressions, reflected the shared drive to depict the modern.
Two themes frequently dominate textbook treatments of American popular culture after World War I: the enthusiastic embrace of motor vehicles and the explosive growth of big cities. But many Americans did not have cars and almost half did not live in any kind of urban center. How did cars and trucks, deliverers of mobility and … Continued
This webinar will explore what the emerging field of sound studies has to offer high school teachers. It will examine a variety of resources, including the website “The Roaring Twenties,” an interactive exploration of the soundscape of New York City developed by the webinar leader Prof. Emily Thompson of Princeton University.
While we often think about aviation in terms of heroes such as Charles Lindbergh or Amelia Earhart, an equally important story to tell is the role that the Federal government has played in shaping the American aviation industry. In this talk, we’ll look at the origins of flight, the creativity of the Wright Brothers, and … Continued