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Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store is an independently run bookstore serving the greater Cambridge area. The bookstore is located in Harvard Square and has been family-owned since 1932. We are known for our extraordinary selection of new, used and remaindered books and for a history of innovation. In 2009, we introduced same-day "green delivery" and a book-making robot capable of printing and binding any of millions of titles in minutes. Find out more about us at www.harvard.com.

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Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis

Tue, May 8, 2012

As the reach of financial markets extends across the U.S. and the globe, interest rates, debt, and debt crises become the dominant forces driving the rise of economic inequality almost everywhere. The "super-bubble" that investor George Soros identified in rich countries for the two decades after 1980 became a super-crisis for the majority of the population, not just in the U.S. but the entire world. Economist James K. Galbraith discusses his book, *Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis*. In it he argues that finance is the driveshaft that links inequality to economic instability. The book challenges the viewpoint that technology is behind rising inequality. It also challenges those who have placed the blame narrowly on trade and outsourcing. *Inequality and Instability* presents evidence that the rise of inequality mirrors the stock market in the U.S. and the rise of finance and of free-market policies elsewhere.

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La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life

Mon, May 14, 2012

"Food writer and photographer Béatrice Peltre discuses her new cookbook, *La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life*. For Béatrice Peltre, author of the award-winning blog LaTartineGourmande.com, to cook is to delight in the best of what life has to offer ' the people and places she loves. With nearly 100 gluten-free recipes and anecdotes, *La Tartine Gourmande* takes the reader on a journey, not only through the meals of the day but around the world, as Peltre revisits her inspiration for each dish. Though her style is largely inspired by her native France, other influences include places as diverse as New England, Denmark, and New Zealand. Here she discusses the inspiration behind her book, her blog, her photography, her favorite cuisines and ingredients, and more."

Food and Wellness

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Theda Skocpol - Obama and America's Political Future

Tue, Sep 4, 2012

**Theda Skocpol**, Harvard Professor of Government and Sociology, discusses her book, "Obama and America's Political Future". Barack Obama's victory in 2008 opened the door to major reforms. But the president quickly faced skepticism from supporters and fierce opposition from Republicans. What happened to Obama's "new New Deal"? Why have his achievements enraged opponents more than they have satisfied supporters? How has the Tea Party's ascendance reshaped American politics? What are the possible consequences for both parties, and the U.S. public, after the 2012 election?

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Ishmael Beah: Radiance of Tomorrow

Thu, Jan 9, 2014

"When Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone's civil war and the fate of child soldiers that 'everyone in the world should read' (The Washington Post). Now Beah, whom Dave Eggers has called 'arguably the most read African writer in contemporary literature,' has returned with his first novel, an affecting, tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone. At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they're beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town's water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they're forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike. With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable, Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times."

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Slavoj Zizek: The Monstrosity of Christ

Mon, Apr 20, 2009

Philosopher and sociologist Slavoj Zizek discusses his new book, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?, and explains how the Christian concept of the "toxic neighbor" impacts political, economic, sexual, and cultural thought. This event is presented by the Harvard Book Store, in cooperation with the Brattle Theatre and the MIT Press.

Pop Culture

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The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson

Tue, Mar 9, 2010

Novelist and Finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner Award Jerome Charyn reads from his new novel, *The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson*. Emily Dickinson's older brother, Austin, spoke of her as his "wild sister." Jerome Charyn, author most recently of *Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution*, continues his exploration of American history through fiction in this new novel about Emily Dickinson, in her own voice, with all its characteristic modulations that he learned from her letters and poems. The poet dons a hundred veils, alternately playing wounded lover, penitent, and female devil. We meet the significant characters of her life, including her tempestuous sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert; her brooding father, Edward; and the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, who may have inspired some of her greatest letters and poems. Charyn has also invented characters, including an impoverished fellow student at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, who will betray her; and a handyman named Tom, who will obsess Emily throughout her life.

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Christopher Ricks: True Friendship

Fri, Apr 23, 2010

Christopher Ricks, a distinguished professor and director of the Editorial Institute at Boston University discusses his new book, *True Friendship: Geoffrey Hill, Anthony Hecht, and Robert Lowell Under the Sign of Eliot and Pound,* an in-depth exploration of the nature of artistic influence in the work of several important poets. *True Friendship* looks closely at three outstanding poets of the past half-century--Geoffrey Hill, Anthony Hecht, and Robert Lowell--through the lens of their relation to their two predecessors in genius, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. The critical attention then finds itself reciprocated, with Eliot and Pound being in their turn contemplated anew through the lenses of their successors. Hill, Hecht, and Lowell are among the most generously alert and discriminating readers, as is borne out not only by their critical prose but (best of all) by their acts of new creation, those poems of theirs that are thanks to Eliot and Pound. "Opposition is true Friendship." So William Blake believed, or at any rate hoped. Hill, Hecht, and Lowell demonstrate many kinds of friendship with Eliot and Pound: adversarial, artistic, personal. In their creative assent and dissent, the imaginative literary allusions--like other, wider forms of influence--are shown to constitute the most magnanimous of welcomes and of tributes.

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Anna Lappe and Frances Moore Lappe: Diet for a Hot Planet

Tue, Apr 27, 2010

Anna Lappe and Frances Moore Lappe, a mother and daughter pair who have revolutionized the way we think about food, hunger, and climate change discuss Anne Lappe's new book, *Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It*. In 1971, Frances Moore Lappe's *Diet for a Small Planet* sparked a revolution in how we think about hunger, alerting millions to the hidden environmental and social impacts of our food choices. Now, nearly four decades later, her daughter, Anna Lappe, picks up the conversation. In her groundbreaking new book, the younger Lappe exposes another hidden cost of our food system: the climate crisis. While you may not think "global warming" when you sit down to dinner, our tangled web of global food--from Pop Tarts packaged in Tennessee and eaten in Texas to pork chops raised in Poland, with feed from Brazil, shipped to South Korea--contributes to as much as one-third of the global warming effect. Livestock alone is associated with more emissions than all of the world's transportation combined. Move over Hummer. Say hello to the hamburger. If we're serious about the climate crisis, says Lappe, we have to talk about food. In this groundbreaking book, Lappe exposes the interests resisting this conversation and the spin-tactics companies are employing to defuse the heat. She also offers a vision of a food system that can be part of healing the planet--and the climate. Lappe explores how food can be a powerful entry point for tackling our most pressing environmental problems. With seven principles for a climate-friendly diet and success stories from sustainable food advocates around the globe, Lappe offers strategies and inspiration to bring to life food that's better for people and the planet.

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Edward O. Wilson: Anthill

Wed, Apr 28, 2010

Pre-eminent biologist and naturalist Edward O. Wilson reads from his first novel, *Anthill*, a book equally inspired by his scientific passion and his boyhood in Alabama. Colin Murphy moderates this discussion. *Anthill *follows the adventures of a modern-day Huck Finn, whose improbable love of the "strange, beautiful, and elegant" world of ants ends up transforming his own life and the citizens of Nokobee County. Battling both snakes bites and cynical relatives who don't understand his consuming fascination with the outdoors, Raff explores the pristine beauty of the Nokobee wildland. And in doing so, he witnesses the remarkable creation and destruction of four separate ant colonies, whose histories are epics that unfold on picnic grounds, becoming a young naturalist in the process. An extraordinary undergraduate at Florida State University, Raff, despite his scientific promise, opts for Harvard Law School, believing that the environmental fight must be waged in the courtroom as well as the lab. Returning home a legal gladiator, Raff grows increasingly alarmed by rapacious condo developers who are eager to pave and subdivide the wildlands surrounding the Chicobee River. But one last battle awaits him in his struggle. In an ending that no reader will forget, Raff suddenly encounters the angry and corrupt ghosts of an old South he thought had all but disappeared, and learns that "war is a genetic imperative," not only for ants but for men as well.

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Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed a Dominican Town

Tue, Apr 20, 2010

Best-selling historian Mark Kurlansky discusses his newest book, *The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris.* In the town of San Pedro, baseball is not just a way of life. It's the way of life. By the year 2008, 79 boys and men from San Pedro have gone on to play in the Major Leagues--that means one in six Dominican Republicans who have played in the Majors have come from one tiny, impoverished region. Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez, and legions of other San Pedro players who came up in the sugar mill teams flocked to the US, looking for opportunity, wealth, and a better life. Because of the sugar industry, and the influxes of migrant workers from across the Caribbean to work in the cane fields and factories, San Pedro is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the Dominican Republic. A multitude of languages are spoken there, and a variety of skin colors populate the community; but the one constant is sugar and baseball. The history of players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many men who sought freedom from poverty through playing ball. The story of baseball in San Pedro is also that of the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries and on a broader level opens a window into our country's history.

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