Humanities West

Roger Hahn talking about Galileo on July 18th

2009-07-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Roger Hahn, UC Berkeley historian of science and our keynote speaker for the Astronomy program on Oct. 2nd, is delivering a talk on "A Troublesome Pioneer: Galileo Galilei" (July 18th, 11:00-12:00, at the Genetics and Plant Biology Building, Room 100 on the Berkeley campus).

"Galileo revolutionized astronomy by turning his telescope to the heavens in 1609. The full story of his achievements is replete with complications that make it difficult for modern man to realize how troublesome his discoveries were in his own times. Many of them stem from Galileo's personality which was calculated to upset the established order; others from the changes his pioneering work forced upon traditional astronomers, and more especially upon the Catholic Church. 400 years later we picture him as a critical link in the progress of our understanding; but in his own times he was soundly criticized and properly condemned."

This talk is part of a monthly series of talks sponsored by the UC Berkeley Astronomy Department in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The talks take place on the third Saturday of every month at 11:00-12:00, and are open to the public and free of charge. Videos of previous talks as well as logistical details and maps are available at the web site for this program series.

Make a Weekend of it: Special hotel deal for Humanities West attendees

2009-07-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Don't like the idea of driving back and forth to San Francisco for our programs? Consider pampering your body as well as your mind by enjoying a luxurious weekend in the City. Take advantage of a special offer from the new Fairmont Heritage Place Ghirardelli Square.

The Fairmont Heritage Place, located within Ghirardelli's former chocolate factory at 900 North Point Road in San Francisco, overlooks San Francisco Bay, combining contemporary urban design with a landmark setting. Its 43 spacious residences include an open concept living space with fireplace, a large plasma screen TV, and a kitchen and dining area designed for interactive entertaining (with 24-hour butler and concierge sevice available). Many also have outdoor view terraces.

For the Friday and/or Saturday nights of our 2009-10 programs, Humanities West attendees are eligible for the following special room rates:

One Bedroom City View Residence = $299.00 per night
One Bedroom Bay View Residence = $369.00 per night
Two Bedroom City View Residence = $419.00 per night
Two Bedroom Bay View Residence = $485.00 per night
Three Bedroom City View Residence = $535 per night

The rates also include transportation to and from Herbst Theatre as well as continental breakfast and a daily wine reception served in their lounge.

To reserve, Humanities West attendees must contact the property directly, and not use the website for their reservations. Ask for Michael Klein, the property Revenue Manager, at 415-268-5706, and request the Humanities West rate.

If you take advantage of this offer, we would love to hear about your experience. Please leave a comment to tell us how it went.

Galileo's Telescope

2009-07-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

The instrument that revolutionized astronomy 400 years ago was relatively simple, and underwent rapid evolution and refinement as its usefulness was demonstrated. To learn more about the origins of the first telescope, check out this article by Albert van Helden or listen to this 15 minute segment from NPR. A Nova website also contains some useful background information about the invention of the telescope.

If you are going to be in Philadelphia this summer, you can see one of only two surviving Galileo telescopes at The Franklin Institute (through Sept. 7, 2009). This is the first time that one of these instruments has left Italy.

If you would like to explore the full history of the telescope up to today, check out the PBS documentary, 400 Years of the Telescope, which is readily available through Netflix

A Star is Named....for Humanities West

2009-06-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

In honor of our upcoming Astronomy program and of the International Year of Astronomy, a star has been named for Humanities West. According to the official certificate:

This is to register the Star designated as 21048
with Magnitude 8, type K0,
located at the coordinates: RA 0H 4m 8.3s, and Declination 56° 55m 15.88s, to be known and named:
Humanities West
Dedicated to illuminating and elevating the human spirit
through exploration of
the many sources of modern culture.

You can see the star by going to Google Sky. We're the one right in the center of the image.

Thanks to Monika Collins, our tireless assistant to the Executive Director, for ensuring our little slice of immortality.

Celebrating the International Year of Astronomy

2009-06-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical observations with a telescope. Humanities West is joining the celebration with the first program of our 25th Anniversary season: Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler: Redefining our Place in the Universe (Oct. 2 and 3, 2009). Details of the program can be found here on our website.
Please join us for this unusual and exciting program which combines our usual focus on historical context with a look at the current state of astronomical knowledge as well as a specially commissioned dance performance by Danse Lumiere, inspired by the scientific and philosophical work of past and present astronomers.

If you would like to find out more about the International Year of Astronomy, and the associated activities being held in 140 different countries, you can visit their official web site. This short (3 minute) video clip from the European Space Agency provides an interesting and visually arresting introduction. For a more local focus, check out the activities being organized by the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, whose Executive Director, Alexander Zwissler, will be our moderator for Friday night.

If you know of other local events tied to IYA2009, please share your information by adding a comment below.

Join us for a Commonwealth Club Salon discussion on April 30

2009-04-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

This session will focus on the themes of our recent program about Napoleon's impact on Europe and Europe's reaction to Napoleon. The event is being hosted by the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco (595 Market Street, 2nd Floor, the Gold Room). Refreshments will be served starting at 4:45pm, with the discussion starting at 5:15pm. The cost is $8 for members and $15 for non-members. Details may be found here.

What is a salon? A salon is a gathering of stimulating people under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host partly to amuse one another, partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings. Intellectual salons have been around practically as long as there have been intellectuals.

Questions and Comments on the Napoleon program

2009-04-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Our 2008-09 season has ended with the Confronting Napoleon program. Although we always have evaluation forms and question cards at the event, sometimes it's good to have an opportunity to comment after a day or two of reflection.

What did you think about the program? Did you come away with some new ideas or new perspectives on familiar historical events? Do you have any lingering questions that you wish you had asked?

This is your chance to continue the discussion. It's easy to enter comments. Just click on the "__ comments" line right below this item and you will be taken to a screen where you can enter your own thoughts.

Juan Cole at Confronting Napoleon program

2009-04-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Juan Cole has recently published an important new book about Napoleon's invasion of Egypt entitled Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East and his talk at the upcoming Humanities West program will focus on aspects of this topic. (If you purchase the book through our link to Amazon, a small percentage of the purchase price will go to Humanities West, at no additional cost to you.)

However, Cole is also one of America's leading experts on the Middle East, and is a frequent commentator on Middle Eastern issues. If you are interested in seeing how he combines historical insight with contemporary issues and lessons, you might want to watch his hour-plus talk ("Lessons from Past Western Incursions in the Middle East") on YouTube, which compares the French experience with America's experience two centuries later. There is also a four-minute segment from YouTube in which Cole answers five questions about current political issues in the Middle East. Cole also publishes a blog, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion, which you can follow.

Napoleon in Egypt

2009-04-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

One of our talks in the upcoming Confronting Napoleon program (April 17-18) focuses on Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. Although militarily a failure, the French invasion triggered a wave of scientific and cultural interest in Egypt that influenced French and European attitudes for decades after the fall of Napoleon.

This 5 minute clip from YouTube is a nicely illustrated summary of the lasting impact of Napoleon's attempt to conquer Egypt.

What did Napoleon really look like?

2009-04-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

We've all seen some of the famous portraits of Napoleon by leading artists of the day, but how accurate are they?

Independent art historian Simon Abrahams writes: "Anyone interested in Napoleon may be intereted in how the most well-known portraits of the Emperor (by Ingres, David, Gros and Delaroche) look as much like the artist as the man himself. Indeed the discovery raises questions as to what Napoleon really looked like. See the visual comparisons for yourself at my website: www.artscholar.org."

Web site devoted to Napoleon

2009-03-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

In addition to thousands of books about Napoleon, you can find a lot of background material on the web. Napoleon.org is a web site devoted to all things Napoleonic (including the Second Empire of his nephew, Napoleon III). You can find a wealth of on-line material covering every possible aspect of Napoleon, although it is clearly aimed at admirers of Bonaparte. It also has material aimed at children. It is regularly updated, and includes monthly highlight topics.

It is sponsored by the Foundation Napoleon, which describes itself as "a registered charity committed to the encouragement of the study of and interest in the history of the First and Second Empires and the preservation of Napoleonic heritage."

One of the most interesting features of the web site is an animated time line covering the period from 1769 (Napoleon's birth) to 1879 (the death of Napoleon III's heir). You can very easily browse through the dates and get more details on events in four categories: politics, battles, economy & society, and arts & sciences. Very well implemented.

Do you have a different favorite on-line resource? Share it by entering a comment to this post.

Audience Survey Results

2009-03-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

We received 138 responses to our on-line Audience Survey. 41% came from regular Humanities West attendees, 33% from occasional attendees, 12% from first or second time attendees, and 14% from people who have never been to a program.

The clear winner among the 14 programs proposed was Queen of the Adriatic: The Venetian Republic and Empire. The next four highest ranking programs were tightly clustered in the scoring:

Uncovering the Past: The Rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum
Henry VIII's London: The Birth of Modern England
Toledo and the Triumph of Cultural Coexistence in Spain
Isle of the Minotaur: Minoan Crete and the Dawn of European Civilization

Since our 2009-10 season is already fully defined and scheduled, the results of this Survey will influence our 2010-11 season. The Humanities West Board is currently fleshing out some of these program ideas to determine the feasibility of putting on a stimulating, but cost-effective program. We expect three of these top five candidates to be selected for the 2010-11 season.

In addition to these voting results, we received 98 suggestions for future programs from 46 different people, as well as 51 general comments about Humanities West. Many of the suggestions and comments were very thoughtful and interesting, and all of the inputs have been consolidated and distributed to the entire Board of Directors for their review.

We would like to thank all of those who participated in the Survey. If you have any feedback about either the process or the results, please enter your comments by clicking on the word "comments" just below this entry.

Short resource list for "Confronting Napoleon" program.

2009-03-06T13:50:00.001-08:00

The next program, coming up in just a few weeks, deals with Napoleon's impact on European culture.

It has been said that more books have been written about Napoleon than about any other man, except for Jesus Christ, and our extended reading list contains a number a massive biographies and histories that could keep the average reader busy for years. If, on the other hand, you are simply looking for relatively quick and painless ways to broaden your understanding of Napoleon and his impact on Europe, you might want to start with D. G. Wright's Napoleon and Europe (Seminar Studies in History series, Longman, 1984; 137pp), which combines 95 pages of balanced and concise narrative with a section of short document excerpts, an extensive bibliography, and a chronology. Alexander Grab's Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe (European History in Perspective series, Palgrave, 2003; 249pp; also available in Kindle format) provides separate chapters for each major country, clearly showing how Napoleon's impact was always a mixture of modernizing reform and Franco-centric exploitation.

For those who want to know more about the central figure of the age, Vincent Cronin's Napoleon (Harpercollins, 1995; 400pp) offers a balanced, but basically positive account of his life, without dwelling on the minutiae of his military exploits. Paul Johnson's short biography, Napoleon: A Life (Penguin Lives series, paperback 2006; 208pp; also available in Kindle format and as an audiobook) challenges the hero-worshiping view of Napoleon, seeing him as an essentially negative precursor to the traumatic era of European conflicts in the 20th century. PBS Home Video also has a four-hour documentary Napoleon (2000; re-released 2006 as part of the Empires series) available from Netflix or Amazon.

Two of our speakers have also made significant contributions of the history of Napoleonic Europe, with Steven Englund's Napoleon: A Political Life (Harvard U. Press, pb 2005; 600pp) and Juan Cole's Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave, pb 2008; 304pp; also available as an audiobook).

If you purchase any of these books (or any other items) through our Amazon link, a small percentage of the purchase price is donated to Humanities West, at no extra cost to you. A painless way to give.

Review of Humanities West and India Rising

2009-03-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

Another enthusiastic review of Humanities West in general and India Rising in particular has been posted on The Irascible Chef web site. One brief excerpt:

"I am lucky enough to have been the guest at several Humanities West productions at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

The interesting things I’ve learned, the energy that has been exposed, the pondering and thinking that has ensued—all of it, inspirational, on the learning front.

I have heard experts speak on subjects like Genghis Khan and his Empire, Benjamin Franklin and his letters, and recently India Rising Tradition meets Modernity. (Napoleon is up next)

Humanities West has brought together the people who have made these subjects their life’s work and gotten them to share their knowledge with the world."

India Rising: Tradition Meets Modernity

2009-03-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

We hope you found India Rising: Tradition Meets Modernity both informative and entertaining.

Please use the comment section to share your thoughts on this past weekend's program.

Help spread the word with HW logo merchandise

2009-02-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

You can help give Humanities West a little more public exposure by purchasing and using some new logo merchandise available from our on-line store on the Cafe Press website. These handsome golf shirts, tote bags, mugs and magnets are imprinted with Humanites West logos.

The tote bags and golf shirts also have the attention-getting phrase "What do Ben Franklin, Bollywood, and Bonaparte have in common?" printed on the back. When my wife wore the shirt to our local farmers' market and to the new San Francisco Academy of Sciences, a half-dozen people stopped to ask what the three had in common. The answer, of course, is that all three were featured in the Humanities West 2008-2009 season. It was a great way to introduce a few more people to our unique entertainment/education offerings.

So help spread the word and show your devotion to the Humanities by ordering your own. A small markup on the price also helps support our ongoing programs.

Do you have your own way of spreading the word and increasing public awareness of Humanities West? Share your experiences by adding a comment to this post.

Help us choose future programs

2009-02-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

Feedback from our annual Audience Survey is an important part of the process we use to select future programs. It is a chance for you to tell us which of the proposed topics you would be most interested in, and also a chance for you to suggest your own favorite ideas for a potential Humanities West program.

This year, we are taking a somewhat different approach to our Audience Survey. Instead of just handing it out in hard-copy form to those people who happen to be attending our February program, we are using an on-line survey tool which you can easily access by clicking on this link. This approach allows us to reach a broader audience, save time and money, and reduce paper use.

If you have not already done so, please fill out the Survey by March 7th. A summary of the results will be published in our newsletter and on this blog.

India Rising program featured in India Currents

2009-02-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

India Currents: The Complete Indian American Magazine has published a feature article (Feb. 1, 2009) highlighting the upcoming Humanities West program about India.

"In keeping with its theme, “India Rising: Tradition Meets Modernity” is structured as a presentation on the colorful kaleidoscope that India presents: literature and cinema with rural village scenes competing with urban landscapes, Indian-American cultural fusion, and the seductive joys of Bollywood. The event explores present-day India, which is rooted in ancient themes that intermingle with contemporary modes of expression: Modern artists incorporating gods and legendary heroes in their work, musicians fusing jazz and Western classical with Indian traditional."

Read the entire article here.

MAKE A WEEKEND OF IT: special hotel deal for Humanites West attendees

2009-01-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

Don't like the idea of driving back and forth to San Francisco for our programs? Why not turn it into a great weekend in the City by taking advantage of our special arrangement with the new, luxurious Fairmont Heritage Place Ghirardelli Square?

The Fairmont Heritage Place, located within Ghirardelli's former chocolate factory at 900 North Point Road in San Francisco, overlooks San Francisco Bay, combining contemporary urban design with a landmark setting. Its 43 spacious residences include an open concept living space with fireplace, a large plasma screen TV, and a kitchen and dining area designed for interactive entertaining (with 24-hour butler and concierge sevice available). Many also have outdoor view terraces.

Fairmont Heritage Place is offering a generous promotionally-priced package for Humanities West attendees for the evenings of Feb. 27 and/or 28 (India Rising) and April 17 and/or 18 (Napoleon). The cost is $229 per night for a One-Bedroom City View Residence or $329 per night for a One-Bedroom Bay View Residence, including daily continental breakfast and complimentary shuttle service to and from Herbst Theater on Friday and Saturday. (The hotel tax of 14% is additional.)

To book this offer, contact the Fairmont Heritage Place Ghirardelli Square directly by phone at 415-268-5706, and ask for the special Humanities West rate. Rooms at this promotional rate are limited, so call early to avoid disappointment.

If you take advantage of this offer, we would love to hear about your experience. Please leave a comment to tell us how it went.

The Story of India on PBS

2009-01-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

Want to do some relatively painless homework before our India program in February? Starting Jan. 5th, PBS is broadcasting a series of six hour-long programs by Michael Wood about the history and cultural heritage of India. It's called The Story of India. It looks like there will also be a companion book to the series, but the book and the DVD are not yet available for purchase, so you will have to catch the TV broadcast or Tivo it. Fortunately, each episode is being broadcast multiple times in different time slots. Check your TV listings.

If you catch one of the early segments, let us know what you think of it, and whether you would recommend it to others.

India Rising speakers in Wall Street Journal

2008-12-27T21:11:00.000-08:00

As we approach the new year, the Wall Street Journal asked some 32 influential people three questions: "What professional project do you plan to complete in 2009? What personal resolution do you finally hope to keep next year? And what problem should your industry or professional community tackle more effectively?"

As it happens, two of the respondents, Vikram Chandra and Shashi Tharoor, are featured speakers at our upcoming Indian Rising program on Feb. 27-28. Here are their responses the Journal's questions.

Vikram Chandra, 47

Author, Mumbai and Berkeley, Calif.

PROFESSIONAL: I just started a new novel a couple of months ago, and in a magical, perfect world I'd finish it in 2009. But my last novel came in at 900 pages, so I'll settle for slow, steady progress.
PERSONAL: I'm the father of a 7-month-old baby, so I think it's time for me to get done with my driving lessons and face the terrors of the DMV.
INDUSTRY: I'd love the publishing industry the world over to accept fully and without further complaint that electronic publishing is here to stay, and to provide innovative, sophisticated and, above all, low-priced competition for the Kindle and Sony Reader.

Shashi Tharoor, 52

Associated Press

Shashi Tharoor

Former under-secretary-general of the United Nations, author, Trivandrum, India

PROFESSIONAL: I have been immersing myself more and more into Indian public life. With the terror attacks having brought the country to a crossroads and national elections due in the spring, I will have to decide whether and how far to involve myself in my country's political future.
PERSONAL: To take a real stab at beginning work on a novel -- my last was in 2001. Though there have been three nonfiction books since, I haven't been able to find the time or the space inside my head to create my own fictional world.
INDUSTRY: We need in 2009 to tackle the task of reinterpreting America to the world: post-Bush, post-9/11, and post the historic election that has galvanized Washington-watchers on every continent.

(from Wall Street Journal, Dec. 27, 2008, pp. W1-W3)

Vikram Chandra presenting at India Rising (2/28/08)

2008-12-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

Vikram Chandra, an award-winning Indian author who currently divides his time between Mumbai, India, and the Bay Area, will be a featured presenter at the India Rising program on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009. Chandra's latest novel, Sacred Games, is set in Mumbai, which was so recently in the headlines as the target of terrorist attacks.

For those of you who would like to review some additional background material about Chandra, the following web sites may be of interest:

A half-hour interview from NPR's Bookworm show
The transcript of an interview conducted by Jai Arjun Singh, a New Delhi-based journalist and blogger
An hour-long YouTube segment from the University of California of Chandra reading a selection from Sacred Games

Which of these sources do you find most useful? Which would you recommend to others?

A Short Resource List for India Rising

2008-11-30T13:37:00.000-08:00

India is a land of staggering complexity and diversity, so it is not easy to come up with a short list of accessible resources for those who have lots of curiosity, but only limited time to devote to the topic. If you are looking for a brief introduction to the grand sweep of Indian history, try India: An Illustrated History by Prem Kishore and Anuradha Kishore Ganpati (2003, 200 pp, paperback).

Our keynote speaker, Shashi Tharoor, has recently published a collection of essays about the tensions between tradition and modernity in today’s India: The Elephant, The Tiger, And the Cell Phone: Reflections on India, the Emerging 21st-Century Power (2008, 498pp, paperback). Another interesting collection of essays dealing with India’s cultural diversity is Gita Mehta’s Snakes and Ladders (1998, 320pp, paperback; also available in audio book format from Amazon or Audible.com).

During the program, Vikram Chandra will be reading from his massive award-winning novel, Sacred Games; he has also published a book of short stories and novellas called Love and Longing in Bombay (1998, 272pp, paperback), which might provide a more accessible introduction to his work. For fans of Indian cinema, Netflix offers 8-10 movies by Satyajit Ray, and a separate genre category devoted to the "Best of Bollywood."

If you buy any of these items through the link provided, Humanities West will receive a small dividend at no extra cost to you. If anyone has any additional suggestions to recommend, please enter them as a comment to this posting.

Shashi Tharoor coming to Humanities West

2008-11-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

India Rising: Tradition Meets Modernity (Feb. 27-28, 2009) will feature a keynote address by Shashi Tharoor, a world-famous UN diplomat and author. For some interesting insight into Tharoor's background and upbringing, watch this eleven minute interview on YouTube.

Tharoor has written a book called The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone, which directly addresses many of the themes of our program, and which is on our short list of recommended reading for those who would like to do a little homework before attending the program. (If you buy the book through our link to Amazon, Humanities West gets a small share of the price at no extra cost to you.)

In addition, there are two short clips on YouTube that show Tharoor discussing themes from the book. In this first one, he relates an incident that reveals the immense cultural and linguistic diversity of India. In the second one, he uses the example of the cell phone to show how modern technology has directly impacted traditional Indian society.

Based on these clips, I think we are in for a real treat on Friday night, Feb. 27th. Don't miss it!

Next up: India Rising

2008-11-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

India Rising: Tradition Meets Modernity
February 27-28, 2009
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

India's artists, in pace with their country's rapid modernization, have adopted many contemporary techniques; but past traditions remain strong, and a fruitful creative tension has developed in the interplay of familiar themes and modern modes of expression. Rural village scenes in the novels of R.K. Narayan, or the films of Satyajit Ray, compete with the urban landscapes of Robinton Mistry and Vikram Chandra, with Indian-American cultural fusion in Mira Nair's films, and with the insidious joys of Bollywood. Abstract and surrealist artists incorporate images of legendary gods and heroes in their work, and musicians create exciting new sounds in collaboration with western jazz and classical performers. The result: unique new delights for the eye, the ear, and the spirit.

In Partnership with the Consul General of India in San Francisco, Center for South Asia Studies, University of California Berkeley and the University of California Santa Cruz.

For the program details, visit our web site.