intellectual life

The Enlightenment was a transformative philosophical period in European and America during the eighteenth century. Also known as the Age of Reason, the movement emphasized the supremacy of reason, empiricism, rationalism, and individualism in all areas of human life, including religion, politics, science, and the arts.

A critical guide to the works of Seamus Heaney that covers his prose, poetry, and translations and discusses predominant themes, including aesthetics, politics, language, and more.

Examines the life and literary career of nineteenth-century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, discussing the author's personal trials and triumphs, and looking at how the times in which he lived influenced his writing.

Profiles the lives of three hundred notable African-American authors, artists, and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance; and features information on Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, the Scottsboro Boys, and others.

Explores the web of influences that shaped the generation of experimental and outsider artists working in Downtown New York from 1974 to 1984.

Contains an overview of the history of Asbury Park, New Jersey, chronicling 130 years of this seaside town's musical and social history, and describes how it presents a metaphor for American greed, corruption, and elitism.

Recreates the daily lives of Carson McCullers, W.H. Auden, Benjamin Briteen, Jane and Paul Bowles, and Gypsy Rose Lee during the year they spent living together in 1940s Brooklyn.

An exploration of art and culture in mid-twentieth-century New York City that profiles the artists and movements that influenced the city's art scene.

The author compares the intellectual understanding of the Enlightenment of Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, and shows how the personal experiences and regional cultural traditions of each man shaped his interpretation of that movement and how those ideals played into the birth of the new nation.

Chronicles the eighteen years Albert Einstein spent in Berlin, discussing the tumultuous events of his life and how the city's history influenced Einstein's work.