I have never shot a scene without taking account of what stands behind the actors because the relationship between people and their surroundings is of prime importance.” ~Michelangelo Antonioni

Film enthusiasts find in Italian cinema a seemingly endless fount of artistic achievement. As much as Italian filmmaking is associated with its greatest practitioners (directors such as Giovanni Pastrone, Roberto Rossellini, and Federico Fellini, to name a few), it also tells a great deal about the history of Italy itself. As such, this revered cinematic legacy reflects not only the Italian land and people, but that culture’s politics and individual struggles as well.

Professor Joseph Luzzi, Bard College

Professor Joseph Luzzi, the director of Italian studies at Bard College and an award-winning author, offers a comprehensive look at Italian cinema in The Blessed Lens: A History of Italian Cinema from its inception in 1896 through its major periods and influences. Having altered the landscape of Italian art and society, as well as inspiring filmmakers the world over, Italian cinema proves a fascinating study. Major focuses of the course include neorealism, the Spaghetti Western, the Italian giallo, and Italian-style comedy.

This course will be available June 30, 2011.

When buying a used car, punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there’s a good chance the transmission is shot.” ~Larry Lujack

In Rock ‘n’ Roll and American Society, Part One (the first part of a three-part series on rock ‘n’ roll), author and university Professor William McKeen investigates the role of popular music in American culture. Beginning with the emergence of rock in the 1950s, and including the meteoric rise of artists such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly, McKeen examines the growth of the recording industry while incorporating the social and intellectual history of the country. The course provides a rare insiders view to the history of the rock ‘n’ roll genre from McKeen’s experience with not only those who have followed and written about it, but from personal knowledge from time spent with musicians, members of the recording industry, and a career in journalism covering modern American culture.

The course guide booklet includes a playlist of ten musical selections for each lecture that Professor McKeen recommends as the best examples of music from that genre or period.

Professor William McKeen, Boston University

William McKeen is a acting dean of the Department of Journalism and a professor of journalism at Boston University. He teaches courses in writing, journalism history, literary journalism, and the history of rock ’n’ roll.

Before beginning his teaching career, he worked for newspapers in Indiana, Florida, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. He has also been an editor for the American Spectator and the Saturday Evening Post and—in addition to his academic duties—serves as book editor for Creative Loafing, a weekly arts-and-lifestyle magazine in Tampa, Florida.

Professor McKeen is the author of several books. Outlaw Journalist has been widely hailed as the definitive book on the iconoclastic journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. Writing in the Times of London, critic Christopher Hitchens called it “admirable” and “haunting.” He has also published a memoir, Highway 61, of a six-thousand-mile road trip with his grown son. Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay is a massive history of rock’n’roll and part of the Norton Anthology series. He has written several other books including American popular culture, literary journalism, and music (The Beatles and Bob Dylan among them). He has two books forthcoming: Paradise Recalled and Mile Marker Zero.

McKeen is the father of seven children and lives with his wife and whatever children are home at the moment near Boston.

This course will be available on June 30, 2011.

Nanotechnology

Deborah G. Sauder, Georgia Gwinnett College

Deborah G. Sauder is an associate professor of chemistry in the School of Science and Technology at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Professor Sauder received her doctorate in physical chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Sauder is a member of the American Chemical Society and is the co-recipient of the Gustav Ohaus Award of the National Science Teacher’s Association for innovation in College Science Teaching and the Hood College Henry P. and Page Laughlin Award for Professional Achievement.

Understanding Nanotechnology: A Bridge to the Future will be released in March 2011.

Professor Robert C. Shaler

Professor Robert C. Shaler is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of the Forensic Science Program at Pennsylvania State University. He was the director of the Forensic Biology Department of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) of New York City from 1990 until his retirement in 2005. As director, Shaler was responsible for the scientific and administrative operation of the Department of Forensic Biology in New York. He conceived the strategy for the DNA testing of family and World Trade Center (WTC) disaster samples for the identification of WTC victims. Shaler managed the WTC DNA victim identification effort, which included the OCME Department of Forensic Biology, seven contract DNA testing laboratories, one public forensic laboratory, and three software vendors. He also established a crime scene reconstruction unit operating from within the medical examiner’s office. The unit responded to homicide crime scenes as secondary responders called by the district attorney, the New York Police Department (NYPD), and the medical examiner. The unit, now called FARU (Forensic Analysis and Reconstruction Unit), still operates.

Cover for CSI Part One

Part One of Crime Scene Investigation: Philosophy, Practice, and Science draws upon Professor Shaler’s many years of expertise in the CSI field. In this course and Part Two (scheduled for release in September), Shaler’s emphasis is on forensic science and the need for investigators to carry out their tasks at crime scenes with attention to detail, an overall philosophy of non-bias, and a positive attitude despite the immense pressures that often come to bear because of the tumultuous circumstances involved in many of these situations.

While working on the project, it became clear that the real life circumstances and details of crime scene investigations are far removed from those portrayed on television and in the movies. Professor Shaler makes his case for the need to put all the proper technology, all the possible training, and all the professionalism possible to discover as much as can be found at each and every scene. We believe this course and it’s expansion in Part Two will provide a valuable resource for students, criminalists, and investigators.

This course will be available in March 2011.

Professor Andrew Pessin

Professor Andrew Pessin, Connecticut College

Professor of philosophy and chairman of the Philosophy Department at Connecticut College, Andrew Pessin studied at Yale and Columbia and has spent two decades teaching liberal arts to undergraduates at Columbia University, the College of William and Mary, Kenyon College, Wesleyan University, and Connecticut College, and has given talks about philosophy to many non-philosophical audiences. Professor Pessin’s teaching and lecturing has had the goal of making philosophy entertaining, accessible, and, most of all, fun. He has appeared several times on the Late Show with David Letterman as “The Genius.”

Professor Pessin is the author of two best-selling philosophy books for general audiences: The God Question: What Famous Thinkers from Plato to Dawkins Have Said About the Divine (Oneworld Publications, 2009) and The 60-Second Philosopher: Expand Your Mind on a Minute or So a Day! (Oneworld Publications, 2009). He is the coauthor (with Sanford Goldberg) of two other books: Gray Matters: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (M.E. Sharpe, 1997) and The Twin Earth Chronicles: Twenty Years of Reflection on Hilary Putnam’s “the Meaning of ‘Meaning’” (M.E. Sharpe, 1996). Professor Pessin has also published many academic articles and in his spare time, composes and performs songs about philosophy. For more information, visit his website at www.andrewpessin.com.

Listen to an interview podcast for this course at the Modern Scholar Podcast tab above!

Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.                     ~Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Cover of "Detective Fiction: From Victorian Sleuths to the Present"

Origins of  detective fiction are difficult to define because all narrative contains conflict. For instance, oral tradition contains mysteries and problem solving, and often insight by the protagonists. Was the story of Cain and Abel the first murder case?

Early Arabic stories such as The Three Apples and Arabian Nights, told by Scheherazade, contain elements of the detective mystery genre. The Judge Bao stories in the Chinese tradition, along with medieval dragon-slaying knights, and some of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, contain murders.

Professor M. Lee Alexander provides the fascinating details of detective fiction from its mysterious past to its present bestseller popularity. While breaking down the genre into its many and varied subtopics such as “hard-boiled,” espionage and techno-thrillers, legal investigation, medical mysteries, historical detective fiction, women of mystery, international intrigue, and ethnic sleuths among them, Professor Alexander also tells the stories of the famous and not-so-famous authors on the way. Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Diane Mott Davidson, and Simon Brett are just a few among the many discussed.

Also explored are the media “spinoffs:” radio, movies, television, graphic novels, video games, and perhaps even things we haven’t yet thought about. If you’re a fan of detective fiction, or just looking for something good to read (or listen to), Professor Alexander’s lectures will give you plenty of resources to use, and plenty of reasons to enjoy them.

Listen to an interview about Detective Fiction with Professor Lee Alexander and Podcast Host Gretta Cohn by clicking the link for this course at the right of the screen.

This course will be available for purchase on June 30, 2010.

Professor M. Lee Alexander, The College of William & Mary

Dr. M. Lee Alexander is a visiting assistant professor of English at the College of William and Mary. She teaches detective fiction, creative writing, and “Tolkien and His Circle,” a course on the Inklings authors. She also teaches English as a second language courses for the graduate school. Professor Alexander is the author of numerous scholarly articles and poems, and a chapbook of poetry, Observatory (2007). Dr. Alexander has presented scholarly papers on the subject of detective fiction with an emphasis on links between modern popular culture and the classic tradition at international conferences, including “Mr. Monk Meets Sherlock Holmes: Disability and the Consulting Detective” at Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes: Their Cultural Afterlives Conference at the University of Hull, England (2009), and “To Make a House a Holmes: Sherlockian Subtext of House, MD” at Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His Worlds Conference, Bennington College, Vermont (2010). She has also taught “Detective Fiction as Art and Social Commentary” at the George Washington University. Dr. Alexander resides in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Senior Lecturer Allen D. MacNeill, Cornell University

Evolutionary thinking in evolutionary psychology.

This September, we’ll be releasing the first of a two-part lecture series on Evolutionary Psychology. Allen D. MacNeill is a senior lecturer at Cornell University where he teaches this course and another on Evolutionary Biology. Evolutionary psychology attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations. That is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system, is common in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychology applies the same thinking to psychology. Allen writes about the subject on his blog (http://evolpsychology.blogspot.com). He’ll be at our studio beginning May 17th to record the first 14 lectures. Some of the topics covered in these lectures will be Investigating the Unmentionable, Evolved Psychological Mechanisms, Deconstruction the Blank Slate, Monogamy and Polygamy, and Dominance and Social Status. It’s sure to be a very interesting course.

Listen to an interview podcast for this course at the Modern Scholar Podcast tab above!

Professor William McKeen, University of Florida

Cover of Professor William McKeen's "Stranger Than Fiction: The Art of Literary Journalism."

Our June 2010 releases include one of our favorite topics, Literary Journalism. Professor William McKeen, author of Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson that the Times of London hailed as the definitive book on the iconoclastic journalist, recently finished recording a Modern Scholar course Stranger Than Fiction: The Art of Literary Journalism. The course features notable journalists such as Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Lillian Ross, Norman Mailer, and many others. We’ll have a podcast out soon and will feature an audio outtake in the near future.

Our podcast interview with Professor McKeen is now available on our podcast page. It’s a great listen! (May 6, 2010)

The Edge . . . there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”

~ Hunter S. Thompson

Cover of William McKeen's "Outlaw Journalist"

Professor Michael Shelden, Indiana State University

Cover of Professor Michael Shelden's "Mark Twain: Man in White"

Pulitzer Prize finalist Professor Michael Shelden of Indiana State University has been a very busy scholar of late. His newest book, Mark Twain: Man in White was released by Random House this past January. Professor Shelden has been touring the country promoting the book and making guest appearances in various media along the way. Somehow he found time to record what we believe will be one of our more popular Modern Scholar courses—The Life and Times of Mark Twain—scheduled for release this fall. Shelden, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Orwell: The Authorized Biography (released in 1992), recorded both the Man in White book and this great Modern Scholar biography of Twain, which spans the writer’s life. Mark Twain: Man in White is now also available as an audiobook rental from Recorded Books. Visit www.recordedbooks.com.

We’ll post a podcast interview with Professor Shelden about the book and more on the upcoming course over the next couple months as we work on it. In the meantime, here’s one of the many quotes for which Twain is known and which continues to keep him at the forefront of American literature:

Mark Twain, 1909

The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. ~Letter to George Bainton, October 15, 1888

Stitcher Radio carries the Modern Scholar Podcasts so you can listen "on the go!"

The Modern Scholar is pleased to announce our partnership with Stitcher. Stitcher is Smart Radio for mobile phones. With Stitcher’s free mobile phone app, BlackBerry, iPhone and Palm webOS listeners have the ability to access their favorite audio content anytime, anywhere. By streaming the best in news, sports, talk and entertainment straight to mobile phones, Stitcher is the easiest way to stay connected to the world on the go—receiving only the information that’s most important, in a format that fits into people’s busy lives. The company was recently honored with the 2009 “People’s Voice Webby” award for Mobile News and a “Best of ‘09” award from San Francisco magazine. PCMag.com listed Stitcher among the best apps of the year, and Gizmodo.com named Stitcher one of the week’s best apps in early December. Smartphone users can download Stitcher quickly and easily at www.stitcher.com or at the iPhone, Palm, Android & BlackBerry app stores.

Click the Stitcher logo above and you will be taken to The Modern Scholar landing page on stitcher.com.

We’ll continue to post our podcasts on our blog podcast page. This is just another way to access them that we hope you’ll enjoy!

"The Egg" (The National Grand Theatre) in Beijing is featured on the cover for "The People's Dynasty: Culture and Society in Modern China."

The state-directed opening of the Chinese economy in 1979 led to a number of radical transformations within Chinese society, but Western understanding of these changes is often limited by erroneous assumptions. The People’s Dynasty: Culture and Society in Modern China offers a clear picture of the vast economic and social forces of modern-day China, Professor Robert J. Shepherd addresses U.S. investment in China, China’s startling economic growth, state vs. society issues in the vast republic, and the effect of social and cultural change on the Chinese people.

This course releases in May 2010. A podcast interview with Professor Shepherd is now available on our Podcast page and on iTunes and Stitcher Radio!

Professor Robert J. Shepherd, The George Washington University

Professor Robert J. Shepherd is an assistant professor of anthropology in the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, where he has been teaching since 2003. Before this, Professor Shepherd spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Nepal, three years teaching at a United Nations educational training institute in Beijing, and two years helping design and implement a national technical training program in Java, Indonesia. He also led study abroad programs in China and Tibet and the University of Virginia’s “Semester at Sea” program.

Professor Shepherd sent us a link to The Official George washington University Honors Program Blog where he also has more information on the subject and a link to our podcast with him:

http://theuhp.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/prof-shepherd-on-the-modern-scholar-blog/

Professor Michael D.C. Drout is pictured with the cover from the Audie® Award nominated "A Way with Words IV" and the three other titles in our "A Way with Words" series.

We’re very pleased to announce that our Modern Scholar course A Way with Words IV: Understanding Poetry by Professor Michael D.C. Drout of Wheaton College has been named as a finalist for a 2010 Audie® Award. The Audies, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA), is the premier awards program in the United States recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment. Through The Audies award competition, publishers are able to enter titles in 30 different categories for recognition of achievement. This year’s finalists in all categories were selected from 1,056 titles; one winner in each category is awarded.

Each year the entries continue to grow in number and improve in quality and production,” said Janet Benson, APA President. “This is an encouraging indicator of the health of the audiobook industry. Also, such strong participation in the competition has allowed the association to plan for more widespread initiatives to ultimately help our member companies increase sales despite the challenging economic climate.

The winners of the 2010 Audie® Awards will be announced at the annual Audies Gala on May 25 at The Museum of the City of New York in New York City. A Way with Words IV is up against four other outstanding nominees in the Original Works category.

Michael D.C. Drout is an associate professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts where he teaches courses in Old and Middle English, medieval literature, Chaucer, fantasy, and science fiction. Professor Drout has been one of our most popular Modern Scholar lecturers, having recorded a total of 9 courses for us. In addition to the Audie® nominated title—the fourth course in a series called “A Way with Words”—Professor Drout has recorded Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer; Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature; From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature; History of the English Language; and The Anglo-Saxon World.

Cover for Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology

With a little work on the computer, a pharoah’s head at the Luxor Temple in Egypt can be depicted as an alien.

Did aliens build the pyramids? Is Stonehenge an ancient observatory? Isn’t it true that the Maya predicted that the world would end in 2012? Eminent George Washington University archaeologist and anthropologist Susan A. Johnston looks at some of the ideas about the past that are part of popular culture in the United States today in her latest Modern Scholar course Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology.

Most people at some point in their lives think about the past—What was  it like? Would we like to have lived then? How different were they from us? This interest is illustrated by the popularity of books, movies, and TV shows on all aspects of the past. And there is a lot of information out there. Archaeologists, historians, and others are doing research all the time, and people, both professional and not, are taking that information and interpreting it in a huge variety of different ways. This has produced a sometimes bewildering array of material about our past that appears in books, websites, and various other media. Professor Johnston begins this fascinating course by asking how we know things, what science is and how it works, and the role of archaeology in exploring what the past was actually like. She then tackles the myths and mysteries that seemingly permeate popular culture—Indiana Jones, the likelihood of ancient aliens and astronauts, the many theories of the discovery of America, and the facts (and fictions) about Plato’s Atlantis. This is a course unlike most, and one we know you’ll find intriguing.

Listen to an interview between Professor Johnston and Podcast Host Gretta Cohn about Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology on our Podcast page!

This course will be available in March 2010.

Professor Susan A. Johnston, The George Washington University

Susan A. Johnston is a part-time faculty member in anthropology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She teaches a variety of courses in anthropology and archaeology, including the archaeology of the Celtic peoples, archaeological myths and mysteries, and the anthropology of religion.

Professor Johnston has carried out archaeological research in Ireland since the 1980s, when she did her Ph.D. dissertation on Irish rock art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. She has also done archaeological work in such varied places as India, England, and Rhode Island.

She is currently conducting research at the site of Dún Ailinne, County Kildare, Ireland. This site, which saw a variety of uses between 3500 BCE and 400 CE, was one of the royal sites of the Irish Iron Age, and in that period was the ceremonial center of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Leinster. She has published a number of articles and research reports, but her most recent publication, with Dr. Bernard Wailes, was on excavations carried out at Dún Ailinne, a book entitled Dún Ailinne: Excavations at an Irish Royal Site, 1968–1975.

Professor Johnston previously recorded two courses for The Modern Scholar:  Icons of the Iron Age: The Celts in History and Archaeology, and Religion, Myth, and Magic: The Anthropology of Religion.

Cover for "The Giants of French Literature: Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, and Camus"

The Giants of French Literature: Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, and Camus by Professor Katherine Elkins of Kenyon College. This course was originally scheduled for release in December 2009, but unforseen circumstances delayed it. That news wasn’t all bad, as it gave us a chance to apply our new look to her course, too.

A History of Venice: Queen of the Seas

Historian Thomas F. Madden‘s new course is a fascinating look one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Venice, Italy. Professor Madden’s scholarship on Venice is second to none. He has written a highly-acclaimed book about one of Venice’s most famous personalities, Doge Enrico Dandolo. This course explores the vast history of Venice (“Queen of the Sea”) from its founding by refugees to its heyday as one of the world’s foremost maritime powers, to its political decline and modern role as a primary tourist destination.

Cover for "Detective Fiction: From Victorian Sleuths to the Present"

Renown poet and English Professor M. Lee Alexander of The College of William & Mary is recording a course we know will be popular with anyone who enjoys a good detective story, mystery, or espionage thriller. Detective Fiction: From Victorian Sleuths to the Present explores the wide-ranging genre through the many periods of its existence. Explaining how modern detective fiction began in ancient times, through the era of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, and then into The Golden Age in the 1930s and 1940s, right up to today’s syndicated mysteries and thrillers, is a task few would be as well qualified to tackle. Professor Alexander’s thorough understanding of one of the most popular genres in all of literature gives this course the grounding one needs to make reading experiences even more entertaining.

Cover for "Alexander of Macedonia: The World Conquered"

Finally, the world’s foremost authority on Alexander the Great further expands our understanding of the legendary Greek leader by bringing his latest scholarship into Alexander of Macedonia: The World Conquered. Professor Robin Lane Fox, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at New College, Oxford since 1977 and University Reader in Ancient History since 1990, provides spellbindng narrative about the complex and fascinating times of Alexander.

We’ll be posting more information on all these courses and others we’ll be offering in the coming year. Stay tuned!

"Brewmaster's Art: The History and Science of Beermaking" by Professor Charles W. Bamforth is available now!

Professor Charles W. Bamforth’s entertaining and informative Modern Scholar lecture course Brewmaster’s Art: The History and Science of Beermaking is now available at www.modernscholar.com or by calling 1-800-636-3399. We have already received dozens of orders for this title and expect it to remain a popular course. Order yours today!

Excerpt from Lecture 13: Beer in the United States:

Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have malted corn in Virginia in 1587, but it was the Pilgrim Fathers in December 1620 who shipped the first beer into the country, landing at Plymouth Rock because, according to a written account: ‘We could no longer take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer, and it being now the nineteenth of December.’

Dutch explorer Adrian Block opened the first brewery (in New Amsterdam) in 1613. The Dutch West India Company opened the first public brewery in Lower Manhattan in 1632. Beer was considered a drink of moderation and a preferable alternative to the dubious alternatives made by the distillation of fermented corn . . .

Cheers!

Cover of "How to Listen to and Appreciate Jazz" by Professor Ted Buehrer

What is jazz? Louis Armstrong purportedly said: “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.” Music scholar and distinguished professor Ted Buehrer conducts a captivating series of lectures designed to help music enthusiasts become more astute, sophisticated jazz listeners. In these compelling lectures, Professor Buehrer introduces concepts common to nearly all forms of music before focusing on unique aspects of jazz appreciation from early jazz to Swing, Bebop, Fusion, and the contemporary jazz scene.

The two-CD compilation "Jazz: The First 100 Years" is included with this course.

This course includes the 2-CD compilation Jazz: The First 100 Years compiled by Henry Martin and Keith Waters. The music from this collection is used by Professor Buehrer to illuminate the style and skills of the many jazz musicians and music he discusses in the course.

“Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth, which flow through his instrument.”~Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival

Professor Ted Buehrer, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio

Ted Buehrer is an associate professor at Kenyon College. He teaches classes on music theory, jazz studies, and music technology. His research has been a study of the big band compositions of jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Mary Lou Williams.

Cover for "Empire of Gold: A History of the Byzantine Empire"

One of our fans on Facebook asked if we had a lecture on the Alexiad by Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius I Comnenas (1081–1118) of the Byzantine Empire. I’m happy to report that we do have some coverage of her history of her father, which is still considered one of the best. Professor Thomas Madden provided a lecture on the Comnenan Dynasty, (1081–1180) in his history course on the Byzantine Empire. We have posted a short audio clip (below) from that lecture and, of course, our usual blurbs about Professor Madden and this very popular history course.

In Empire of Gold: A History of the Byzantine Empire, esteemed university professor Thomas F. Madden offers a fascinating series of lectures on the history of the remarkable culture and state that developed out of the ancient Roman Empire, particularly its eastern portion, throughout the Middle Ages. The story here therefore begins at an ending, that of the Roman Empire, in the third century AD, and continues over the next one thousand years.
This new culture arising from the old will have a dramatic impact on western European culture and on the culture of the Islamic East, and most especially on the culture and modern history of Greeks, Greek Orthodox, and Russians, who were all very much affected by the Byzantine Empire. With incisive commentary, Professor Madden leads a discussion covering Justinian’s reconquest of the West, the great city of Constantinople, and the aftermath and influence of this extraordinary empire.

Professor Thomas F. Madden, Saint Louis University

Thomas F. Madden is a professor of history and director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University. His publications include Empires of Trust: How Rome Built—and America Is Building—a New World (Dutton, 2008), The New Concise History of the Crusades (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), and The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), coauthored with Donald E. Queller. He is a recognized expert on pre-modern history, frequently appearing in such venues as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, National Public Radio, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel. His scholarly awards include the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America and the Otto Gründler Prize of  the Medieval Institute.

Listen to an audio clip from Lecture 8: The Turn to the West: The Comnenan Dynasty, 1081–1180.

With the release date fast approaching (December 15) for our 4th Quarter 2009 courses, we decided to tantalize you with more information about beer that we learned while producing Professor Charles W. Bamforth’s (University of California, Davis) course Brewmaster’s Art: The History and Science of Beermaking. The image shown here is an adaptation of the Meilgaard Beer Flavor Wheel.  The Beer Flavor Wheel was developed in the 1970s by Dr. Morton Meilgaard, formerly director of research and development for the Stroh Brewing Company in Detroit, and is the flavor analysis standard for the European Brewery Convention, the American Society of Brewing Chemists, and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. We thought our blog visitors would enjoy downloading the image to show their wine-drinking friends that beer is equally enjoyable for its fine aromas and different flavorings as anything made from grapes.

A great use for the Beer Flavor Wheel can be found at the Chiff.com website (“What the World Is Looking for”). Chiff has a “Beer Tasting Score Sheet” with a copy of the Meilgaard wheel and descriptions of the various aromas and flavors to use in judging your favorite brews.

http://www.chiff.com/beer/score-sheet.htm

Finally (for now…) The New York Times ran an article way back on September 22, 1981 entitled Hints of Apple and Banana Found Playing a Role in Beer,” written by Richard Severo. It makes an interesting read.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/22/science/hints-of-apple-and-banana-found-playing-a-role-in-beer.html

Don’t forget to visit the course page for Brewmaster’s Art: The History and Science of Beermaking on our website at www.modernscholar.com.

Cover: Understanding Movies: The Art and History of Film

Why does the cinema have the power to move the heart, stimulate the mind, and dazzle the imagination? How did the art of film develop from its origins to the present day? This in-depth course from acclaimed professor Raphael Shargel of Providence College covers the history and aesthetics of the movies. It traces the experiments and innovations that gave rise to the modern cinema, developing a vocabulary that helps explain the variety of choices filmmakers make when they construct shots and edit them together. In each lecture, Professor Shargel introduces a period of film history, talks about its importance, covers aspects of cinematic technique, and illustrates his points by analyzing specific movies from the era under discussion. This course would make a great Christmas gift for the film buff on your list!

This great course was released in September 2008. At the time, we originally planned to include a Guide for Further Viewing in the back of the course guide booklet, but circumstances at that time prevented its inclusion. This GUIDE Understanding Movies Further Viewing is now available as a downloadable pdf for your enjoyment. Professor Shargel listed films that he believed would promote the student’s understanding of—and be an excellent additional learning resource for—the films discussed in his lectures.

Professor Raphael Shargel of Providence College

Raphael Shargel is an associate professor of English at Providence College, where he teaches film, drama, Shakespeare, and seventeenth-century literature. Passionate about teaching, he has conducted film and literature classes for students of all ages. Since 1996, Professor Shargel has been the film critic for The New Leader,  a journal of news analysis and opinion that has been in publication for over 85 years (now exclusively online: http://www.thenewleader.com/).

Through these lectures, you will come to a deeper understanding of why certain musical compositions touch a chord within us and become interwoven with the very fabric of our lives. From Frédéric Chopin’s nocturnes to Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, from Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose, the masterpieces of Western music await your exploration. They are an extraordinary gift to the world. It is our pleasure and honor to help you understand them more intimately and appreciate them more passionately.

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)

You can listen to a sample of Lecture 7: “How to Make a Piano Sing” from The Masterpieces of Western Literature below. In this clip, Professor Lependorf uses music to discuss the genius of Frédéric Chopin and how it relates to the work of Irish composer John Field.

Professor Jeffrey Lependorf

Jeffrey D. Lependorf received his undergraduate degree from Oberlin Conservatory and holds a master’s and doctorate in music composition from Columbia University. In addition to teaching, he served as the director of the Music Omni International Music Residency Program, a unique program through which exceptional musicians selected from around the world work together, collaboratively, toward exploring creative new directions for music-making. He has been published in scholarly publications, including Perspectives of New Music and Journal of Scholarly Publishing.

Professor Emeritus John Ramsden in 2004, on a visit to the Churchill Centre in Washington, DC.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Professor John Ramsden on October 16, 2009 in London. Professor Ramsden was educated at Oxford University and began teaching at Queen Mary, University of London in 1972. An eminent historian, he was considered an expert on the British Conservative Party, the life of Winston Churchill, and modern history since the early 20th century. Professor Ramsden recorded two courses for The Modern Scholar: World War I: The Great War and the World It Made, and Winston Churchill: Man of the Century.

Professor Ramsden’s love of history, his enthusiasm for his teaching, and his insistence on scholarly excellence will be sorely missed in the academic community on both sides of the Atlantic.

A description of his career is available on the Web from the London Telegraph newspaper site at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/6399885/Professor-John-Ramsden.html

A pastoral scene titled "The Cornfield" painted by John Constable in 1826, adorns the cover of "Heaven in a Wild Flower."

Award-winning scholar Adam Potkay (College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia) provides listeners with an enlightening course about the principal British Romantic-era poets. Robert Burns, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelly, Mary Shelly, and John Keats are presented by Professor Potkay through their poems and prose as you’ve most likely never heard before. While you may have been required to read their works (Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, Songs of Innocence, and Ode on a Grecian Urn, to name a few), it’s doubtful you received the insight and enthusiasm about these masterworks and their creators as articulated by Professor Potkay in Heaven in a Wild Flower: The British Romantic Poets. The writing of these poets has influenced generations of admirers and underscored their own tumultuous times by artistically breathing life into ideas and ideals that resonate still.

Available December 2009

Our interview podcast with Professor Potkay about Heaven in a Wild Flower is now available under The Modern Scholar PODCAST tab on this site! (November 9, 2009)

Adam Potkay during the recording of "Heaven in a Wild Flower" at our New York Studios.

Adam Potkay is a professor of English at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and a recipient of a Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence. In August 2009, he was designated William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Humanities. In 1996, Professor Potkay and his wife and fellow College of William & Mary professor, Monica Brzezinski Potkay were jointly honored with the College of William and Mary’s Alumni Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching.

A recognized scholar of eighteenth-century literature and culture, professor Potkay’s publications include, The Passion for Happiness: Samuel Johnson and David Hume (Cornell University Press, 2000) and The Fate of Eloquence in the Age of Hume (Cornell University Press, 1994). He is the coeditor (with Sandra Burr) of a collection of autobiographies and sermons by some of the earliest black writers in English, Black Atlantic Writers of the Eighteenth Century: Living the New Exodus in England and the Americas (St. Martin’s Press, 1995). He has published scholarly articles and more popular essays in a wide variety of journals, from 18th-Century Studies and Studies in Early Modern Philosophy to Philosophy Now and Raritan Quarterly.

Professor Potkay was recently named a co-winner of the Harry Levin Prize awarded by the American Comparative Literature Association for his book The Story of Joy: From the Bible to Late Romanticism. Published by Cambridge University Press, The Story of Joy outlines an intellectual and literary history of joy, especially the treatments of joy in works of literature, philosophy and religion. Emphasis is on British and German works from the Reformation through the Romantic period.

Adam and Monica Brzezinski Potkay coauthored a previous Modern Scholar course, The Bible as the Root of Western Literature: Stories, Poems, and Parables (2003).

Beer and Food: A Symbiotic Relationship

One of the reasons we decided to pursue a Modern Scholar course on beermaking, was that we knew beer had something else about it besides the fact that we liked its taste. Professor Charlie Bamforth gave us many reasons to sing the praises of beer, not the least of which is that beer can also be good for you. Here’s a quote from Professor Bamforth that appears in our course guide booklet to his forthcoming course Brewmaster’s Art: The History and Science of Beermaking.

“Beers used to be widely advertised on a health platform, but these days that is not allowed in many parts of the world. Remarkably, though, we know more than ever that beer is far from being empty calories. It is perhaps the richest source of assimilable silicate in the diet, which is one of the reasons why moderate consumption of alcohol counters the risk of osteoporosis.”

In addition, Professor Bamforth has this to say about his favorite beverage:

“Beer is the perfect accompaniment to so many foods: think Indian, Mexican, and Irish, for instance. We should expect it to be afforded the same menu space as wine.”

This last quote came to mind after a terrific conversation with Dave Sickert at A Million Cooks. (See the link on our Blogroll.) Located in Sonoma Valley, California, their website is literally a “feast” for the senses, at least those available over the Web. They have sound bites from authors and experts about food preparation and the many fabulous ways to enjoy it.  We highly recommend it!

Brewmaster’s Art will be available for purchase and in many public libraries in December 2009.

English Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson are shown on their way to the continuing negotiations at Versailles in 1919.

The world will never see another peace conference like the one that took place in Paris in 1919. For six months, the world’s major leaders met to discuss the peace settlements to end World War I. They faced huge issues and, as the weeks went by, their agenda grew. Because Paris saw such a concentratio of power, the world’s problems came before it and petitioners for political, social, and economic causes came from around the world to be heard. To understand what happened in Paris in 1919 is to understand our century. The burial requiems for the old world were sung there and the new world made its uneasy start. But, above all, it was about building a better world. Could there be a peaceful and just international order? The question is still with us today. You can listen to a short clip from Professor MacMillan’s lectures below.

Professor Margaret MacMillan, University of Toronto

Margaret MacMillan is the provost of Trinity College and professor of history at the University of Toronto. Her books include Women of the Raj (1988) and Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War (2001), published in the United States as Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2002). Dr. MacMillan appears frequently in the media commenting on both history and current international affairs.

audible.com features many of our Modern Scholar courses on their web site. They also have a regular page feature called 20 Authors We’d Invite to Dinner that gives a list of what they feel are some of the better offerings in their library. On their most recent 20 Authors, Six Months That Changed the World was prominently featured with the following write up:

“Margaret MacMillan: It’s always illuminating to learn about the events that shaped human history; however, it is especially revealing to learn about one event that had such enormous influence that its impact has been felt ever since. You make a convincing argument in identifying one of these moments in your brilliant lecture, Professor MacMillan. You pinpoint the events of that time and explain them so clearly that I felt as though I’d taken an entire semester’s worth of 20th century history in one sitting. For those looking for more insight, I’m recommending our listeners also try your multiple award-winning Paris 1919.”

A detail of "Pines at Sunrise" by Tallahassee, Florida photographer Charlie Sawyer provides a compelling scene for Professor Michael B. McElroy's "Fueling the Planet" course and Earth's primary energy source, our sun.

In Fueling the Planet: The Past, Present, and Future of Energy, esteemed professor and scientist Michael B. McElroy (Harvard University) provides an environmental expert’s knowledge toward understanding how and where the many types of energy we use today became available and what the future may hold for modern societies and their energy needs. Professor McElroy provides a realistic look at the primary sources of energy and a fact-based view of what practical alternatives to traditional energy exist and are being developed. Throughout, he pays close attention to the “human factor” involved in the energy equation.

Available in December 2009.

Harvard Professor Michael B. McElroy

Michael B. McElroy is the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard University. He was appointed Director of the Harvard University Center for Environment in 2001 and leads an interdisciplinary study on the implications of China’s rapid industrial development for the local, regional, and global environment. McElroy is also the author of numerous books including The Atmospheric Environment: Effects of Human Activity and Energy: Perspectives, Problems, and Prospects. Professor McElroy also recorded Global Warming, Global Threat for the Modern Scholar series in 2003.

Detail of Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas by Francesco Traini, ca. 1340

An enthusiastic admirer of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, professor and philosopher Peter Kreeft brings the full measure of his skill to these lectures. By providing examples of present-day situations as well as historical references, Professor Kreeft details the rational thought and precise literary talent that established  Aquinas as the foremost thinker of his time. Aquinas’s Summa Theologica has given theologians and philosophers much to discuss since the thirteenth century. Peter Kreeft explains why.

Professor Peter Kreeft, Boston University

Peter Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He has written over fifty books, including Fundamentals of the Faith, The Best Things in Life, Back to Virtue, The Unaborted Socrates, and Summa of the Summa. Besides writing, Kreeft contributes to Christian publications and speaks at numerous conferences. He received his bachelor’s degree from Calvin College and his Ph.D. from Fordham University. Before teaching at Boston College, he taught at Villanova University for three years. Kreeft has been at Boston University for forty years.

Available in September 2009.

Profssor Kreeft has previously contributed two other Modern Scholar courses: Ethics: A History of Moral Thought (2003), and Faith and Reason: The Philosophy of Religion (2005).

~Ed White, Modern Scholar Series Coordinator

The Venerable Bede (ca. 673–735), Anglo-Saxon scholar, theologian, historian, and Doctor of the Church, is illustrated in an initial “D,” from an early twelfth-century manuscript of his Life of Cuthbert (Digby 20, folio 194r).

Had the Angles and Saxons not purposefully migrated to the isles of the Britons and brought with them their already-well-developed use of language, Angelina Jolie may never have appeared in the movie Beowulf. Professor Michael D.C. Drout is at his best when lecturing on the fascinating history, language, and societal adaptations of the Anglo-Saxons. He not only presents their storytelling abilities using their own words; he does so in their own voice—the incredibly melodious Old English. One of the most fascinating cultures in medieval Europe, the Anglo-Saxons were an unusual blend of Germanic, Latin, and Celtic influence. In addition to the Anglo-Saxons’ status as ancestors to people in England, America, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, their language serves as the source for Modern English—thus shedding light on the culture of today.

Professor Drout  has posted translations of some of the major Anglo-Saxon poems that, for reasons of space, we were not able to include in the Course Guide booklet. There are also links on that page so you can listen to his Old English podcast and visit his home page and blog. The link is available on the Blogroll on the right hand side of this page.

An expert on medieval literature, Professor Michael D.C. Drout—with a linguistic base in the development of the English language from Old to Middle to Modern English—is eminently qualified to lead this quest to discover the “real” Anglo-Saxons (often far different than those depicted in popular culture). As the lectures progress, Professor Drout explores such illuminating topics as the Germanic past, the Viking Age, Anglo-Saxon literature, Anglo-Saxon religion, the Norman Conquest, and the influence of the Anglo-Saxons on today’s world.

Michael D.C. Drout, Wheaton College

Michael D.C. Drout is the William and Elsie Prentice Professor of English at Wheaton College, where he teaches courses in Old and Middle English, medieval literature, Chaucer, fantasy, and science fiction. In 2006, Professor Drout was chosen as a Millicent C. McIntosh Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Professor Drout was awarded the Prentice Professorship for outstanding and innovative teaching in 2005. He is editor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf and the Critics, which won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies for 2003. Drout is one of the founding editors of the journal Tolkien Studies and is editor of The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.

Available in September 2009.

One of our most popular lecturers, Profssor Drout has also recorded eight other Modern Scholar courses: Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (2005); From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature (2006); Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature (2006);  A History of the English Language (2006); A Way with Words I: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion (2006); A Way with Words II: Approaches to Literature (2007); A Way with Words III: Understanding Grammar for Powerful Communication (2008); A Way with Words IV: Understanding Poetry (2008).

~Ed White, Modern Scholar Series Coordinator

A colossal statue of Czar Alexander III that had been erected inside the Kremlin walls is shown being methodically dismantled by two workmen in April 1918 after the Soviets came into power.

During the Cold War from shortly after World War II until the fall of the Berlin Wall in late 1989, communism and the communist world was seen by most Westerners as the antipathy of how to live. Communism was evil. Generations educated over the nearly eighty years that communists were in power in Russia were seldom taught the true history and diverse reasons that had given the Bolsheviks the ability to wrest power from the Russian Tsar. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a key turning point in the history of modern Europe and the world. For much of the twentieth century, politics were defined by attitudes to what had taken place in Russia in 1917. To understand the Russian Revolution, then, is to understand a key building block of modern history and the contemporary world. Senior lecturer and renowned Russian researcher Dr. Jonathan Smele sheds new light on the many forces that came to bear in tsarist Russia, from the emancipation of the serfs in the mid-nineteenth century to the climactic revolutions of the early twentieth century that brought the small Bolshevik party to power.

Dr. Jonathan D. Smele, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London

Dr. Jonathan Smele is senior lecturer in history at Queen Mary, University of London. He received his BA at the University of Leeds and his master of philosophy in Soviet and East Euro­pean studies at the University of Glasgow. He was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Wales in 1991 for a thesis on the anti-Bolshevik movement in the Russian Civil War. Dr. Smele previously taught at the University of Edinburgh (1988–91) and the University of Aberdeen (1991–92). In 1998, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is a long-standing member of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution and since 2002 has been editor of its journal, Revolutionary Russia.

He is the author or editor of numerous articles and books, including The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives (with Anthony J. Heywood, Routledge, 2005), The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917–1921: An Annotated Bibliography (Continuum, 2003), Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak (Cambridge University Press, 1997), and Kolchak i Sibir´: dokumenty i issledovaniia, 1919–1926 (with David Collins, Kraus International, 1988).

Dr. Smele’s research interests focus on the political and international history of late Imperial Russia, the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and the Russian Civil War, Russian foreign policy, and the history of Siberia. He has also worked on Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Soviet relations in the revolutionary period and contributed an article entitled “War, Revolution, and Civil War in Russia: The Eastern Front, 1914–1921” to the BBC History website. He is currently writing a Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil War (The Scarecrow Press, release scheduled in 2010) and The Russian Civil War (OneWorld Publishers, release scheduled in 2011).

Available in September 2009.

~Ed White, Modern Scholar Series Coordinator

A young Huli Wigman from the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea is featured on the cover of "Relgion, Myth, and Magic" by Professor Susan Johnston.

George Washington University anthropologist Susan Johnston provides an in-depth look at one of mankind’s primary beliefs: that there is something beyond our everyday existence that affects our lives and compels our attention. At the beginning of Religion, Myth, and Magic: The Anthropology of Religion, Professor Johnston begins with what seems a straightforward question, “What Is Religion?” She explains that there is no simple answer. The archaeological record and present societies show that people have been fascinated with the unknown, the spiritual, the miraculous, and the inexplicable for as long as can be reasonably determined. Indigenous people from the mountains of Papau New Guinea to the Amazon River basin celebrate ceremonies to natural and mythical deities as much today as they did hundreds and even thousands of years ago. By analyzing human behavior in what are considered modern cultures as well as those in cultures steeped in their ancient traditions, Professor Johnston draws parallels between the symbolism, iconography, and vast range of belief systems that attempt in their unique way to understand the world around them. Through the lectures, Professor Johnston investigates a range of topics that we seldom think much about as we go about our daily routine: The rituals in which we participate, the symbols we use and see each day, how we celebrate births, marriages, deaths, burials, and even how we communicate with the nonhuman world. Other topics discussed are gender roles in our beliefs, what part magic and witchcraft play in many civilizations, and finally a look at new forms of religion and what those might mean for all of us. Religion, Myth, and Magic is a fascinating study sure to provide many hours of thoughtful discussion.

Professor Susan A. Johnston, The George Washington University

Susan A. Johnston is a part-time faculty member in anthropology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She teaches a variety of courses in anthropology and archaeology, including the archaeology of the Celtic peoples, archaeological myths and mysteries, and the anthropology of religion.

Professor Johnston has carried out archaeological research in Ireland since the 1980s, when she did her Ph.D. dissertation on Irish rock art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. She has also done archaeological work in such varied places as India, England, and Rhode Island.

She is currently conducting research at the site of Dún Ailinne, County Kildare, Ireland. This site, which saw a variety of uses between 3500 BCE and 400 CE, was one of the royal sites of the Irish Iron Age, and in that period was the ceremonial center of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Leinster. She has published a number of articles and research reports, but her most recent publication, with Dr. Bernard Wailes, was on excavations carried out at Dún Ailinne, a book entitled Dún Ailinne: Excavations at an Irish Royal Site, 1968–1975.

Professor Johnston has recorded two courses for The Modern Scholar:  Icons of the Iron Age: The Celts in History and Archaeology, and Religion, Myth, and Magic: The Anthropology of Religion. In early 2010, we will be releasing her third Modern Scholar course, Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology.

Available in December 2009.

~Ed White, Modern Scholar Series Coordinator

Cover image shows Jesus, Sermon on the Mount (left), and Mohammad, Last Sermon (right).

Jesus and Muhammad, the founders (in somewhat different senses) of the world’s two most populous religious traditions, have been the objects of veneration since their own lifetime and, since the nineteenth century, the subjects of intense historical scrutiny by both believers and unbelievers. The “quest for the historical Jesus” has become almost a laboratory experiment in historiography, and there has been an increasing confidence in the results. The same quest for the “Muhammad of history,” as opposed to the “Muhammad of faith,” though conducted in much the same way, and with much the same kind of evidence—the testimony of believers—has been somewhat less successful. This series of lectures attempts to investigate why, and in the process expose the listener to the basic tools of historical inquiry: source, form, and redaction criticism, all in a comparative setting, and as applied to two very similar and yet very different—and very important—figures of the past.

Esteemed professor emeritus F.E. Peters (New York University) compares the similarities and differences in the dual searches for the historical Jesus and the historical Muhammad. Using the primary tools of historical inquiry and the evidence discovered by both believers and unbelievers in the faiths established by Jesus and Muhammad, Professor Peters provides an insightful look into the results thus far found and the surprising truths uncovered.

Professor Emeritus F.E. Peters

F.E. Peters is professor emeritus of Middle Eastern studies and history at New York University, where he won a number of teaching awards. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Princeton University. Professor Peters’s research interests include comparative studies of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Muslim Spain. Peters has appeared on television as an expert analyst in Middle Eastern history and religion, and has published many books, including The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims (Princeton University Press, 2007); Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians (Princeton University Press, 2005); The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Volume II: The Words and Will of God (Princeton University Press, 2005); The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Volume I: The Peoples of God (Princeton University Press, 2003); The Hajj (Princeton University Press, 1995); Muhammad and the Origins of Islam (SUNY Press, 1994); A Reader on Classical Islam (Princeton University Press, 1993); Allah’s Commonwealth: A History of Islam in the Near East, 600–1100 A.D. (Simon & Schuster, 1973); The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton University Press, 2006, with John L. Esposito); a novel, The Two Hundred Dollar Look (L. Stuart, 1987); and his autobiography, Ours: The Making and Unmaking of a Jesuit (R. Marek Publishers, 1981).

Available in September 2009.

~Ed White, Modern Scholar Series Coordinator

An inviting beer surrounded by hops and barley shown on the cover of the forthcoming "Brewmaster's Art."

We can’t think of a better way to introduce this blog than by letting the world know about a college-level course on how beer is brewed that will be released in December 2009. Dr. Charlie Bamforth has been part of the brewing industry for more than thirty years and his expertise in the topic is only surpassed by his great voice and obvious bias toward one of the world’s most popular beverages.

In Brewmaster’s Art: The History and Science of Beermaking, Dr. Bamforth (in his own words) “…explores the wonderful world of beer!” He guides us through a brief overview of the history of beermaking, the ingredients and processes used to make beer, the different styles and qualities of beer, the pros and cons of beer on health, and the impact of science on the development of the brewing industry past, present, and future. This is a lecture course where you can sit back, put your feet up in your favorite chair, and enjoy a brew while you listen to an expert tell you how it was made and why it tastes so darn good. Learning was never this much fun when I went to college. You can listen to a short clip from Professor Bamforth’s lectures below.

Charlie Bamforth and brewing equipment at UC-Davis.

Charles Bamforth is the Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting & Brewing Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, is on the editorial boards of several other journals and has published innumerable papers, articles, and books on beer and brewing. His books include Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing (now into its third edition); Standards of Brewing; Scientific Principles of Malting and Brewing; Beer: Health and Nutrition; Essays in Brewing Science (co-authored with Michael Lewis); Grape versus Grain. Professor Bamforth was the editor of Brewing: New Technologies and Beer: A Quality Perspective. In 1984, he was awarded the Cambridge Prize of the Institute of Brewing. He holds B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry from the University of Hull (England) and was also honored by the award of a D.Sc. in Applied Biology from his alma mater in 1993.

Available in December 2009.

Gallagher's Beer Guide--a great app for the iPhone/iPod Touch

See the comment below about a handy iPod/iPhone app that goes great with this course!

~Ed White, Manager, Modern Scholar Series