Thank you to everyone who attended our April discussion of Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind’s Greatest Invention by Ben Wilson. This wide-ranging survey of the history of cities and the people building and residing in them spanned the world and cities from Uruk to contemporary times.
Please read on for and information for our May 22 discussion of How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America by Heather Cox Richardson, plus links and notes from our discussion of Metropolis and announcements.
Literary Announcements:
For book festival fans, the Bay Area Book Festival is back live and in Berkeley this coming weekend, May 7 and 8. Find all the details: https://www.baybookfest.org/2022schedule/
The New York Public Library recently held a World Literature Festival and shares videos of discussions (including Poetry Across Languages, Japanese Crime: How It Caught the World, and Cultures in Translation) here: https://www.nypl.org/spotlight/world-literature-festival.
Links & notes from the discussion:
National Geographic has a short video of the archaeological site, Mohenjo Daro (2500 BCE). (It includes footage of the sophisticated baths and sewage system that Wilson describes.) https://youtu.be/nD49hdyBaHU
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles by Mike Davis
Tokyo Waka, a 2012 documentary about the city (including its crows)
A local example of green spaces being added above street level: Salesforce Park.
“Social Cities” from Garden Cities of To-morrow by British urban planner Ebenezer Howard (1898)
“How South Korea Built a City Out of the Sea”: Video about Songdo, the model “smart city” described in the book
Excerpt from Georg Simmel’s The Metropolis and Mental Life
The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Andrew George
Video of Andrew George talking about The Epic of Gilgamesh, including the archaeology of the poem’s recovery
Wilson cited numerous films. These are links to just a few (special thanks to Ingrid for finding many of these):
Dead End (1937) With Humphrey Bogart, set in New York’s East Side
Scene of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, to which Wilson ascribes much deeper meaning (1933 King Kong)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Street Scene (1931) Life in New York city, all set in one summer evening
Thomas Edison’s 1903 documentary film, Skyscrapers of New York City
Our May Discussion
On Sunday, May 22, we will discuss How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America by Heather Cox Richardson.
About the book:
“How the South Won the Civil War traces the story of the American paradox, the competing claims of equality and subordination woven into the nation's fabric and identity. . . . Debunking the myth that the Civil War released the nation from the grip of oligarchy, expunging the sins of the Founding, it reveals how and why the Old South not only survived in the West, but thrived.”
The book is available at Books Inc. Opera Plaza at a discount for book group participants. Ask at the check-out desk. https://www.booksinc.net/book/9780197581797
(Books Inc. also sells the eBook edition.)
Discussion information:
Sunday, May 22, 2022
11:00 am to 12:15 pm (approx) Pacific Time
Zoom (For access information, sign up using the subscribe box below.)
Comments