Youre welcome to our event series. Before i start, i want to mention real quick, if you have questions tonight, you ask us in the chat box or comments on the youtube page, and well get to as many as we can. If youre interested in purchasing the book, and i hope that you do, you can find it at most major retailers, but we like to point people toward bookshop. Org where you can find just about any book youre looking for and support independent booksellers across the country. Again, thats bookshop. Org. Please give them a look. I mentioned to someone the other day that i was reading the senates words in preparation for the event tonight, and they said, oh, thats the new faulkner biography. I said, well, you got the faulkner part right. The best way i can describe this book is equal parts. Literary history, social commentary and literary criticism. I think it will band to either of those subjects. What the book really did for me was force me to give serious thought on where faulkner stands
Please give them a look. I mentioned to some of the other day, i was reading the words in preparation for tonight and thats the new faulkner biography. You have the faux fur part right. The best way i could describe this book is equal parts. Military history social commentary and literary criticism. I think all appear equally to fans many of those subjects. What the book really did for me, was forced me to get some serious thought to his fans where at the time we are asking ourselves difficult questions about our countrys history on issues of race. Was he a pioneer it was another white wire that was profiting off of the characters of black americans. Is a professor englishman literature at Smith College in massachusetts sits which was a finalist for the pulitzer prize. Is essays have come up in the New York Times book review. Thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you very much for having me. I want to thank the library for hosting and my friends that live right for putting us togethe
President s it established and the legacies that left. There is a strong case to be made that november 11, the day that a battered square rigor called the mayflower made safe harbor in a place near what is today in massachusetts. That day should be one of the greatest moments in our national theory, comparable to fourth of july, independence day, and september 17, constitution day. But let me qualify that statement a little bit. As ourk of the pilgrims forebears and we are right to do so but it is important to remember they and the other new puritans that were selling new england at the time did not imagine they were settling establishing the United States of america. Nothing could have been further from their minds. They were doing something entirely different. They were about the business of establishing a place where they could enjoy a pure and uncorrupted church. The early settlers of virginia were motivated by material considerations they wanted, what the spaniards wanted from the
Preparation for the event tonight and they said that is the new faulkner biography. I said well, you got the faulkner part right. The best way i can describe this book is equal parts military history, social commentary, and literary criticism. And i think it will appeal equally to fans of any of those subjects. What the book really did for me is force me to give some serious thought to where faulkner stands at a time when we are asking ourselves some difficult and longoverdue questions about our countrys historic difficulties when it comes to matters of race. Was he something of a pioneer on those issues or was he or another white writer profiting off of racist caricatures of black americans . Dr. Michael gorra, as you might imagine, has some thoughts on that. He is a professor of English Literature at Smith College in massachusetts. He is the author of several books including portrait of a novel, the making of an american masterpiece, which was a finalist for the pool surprise and bio
We think of the pilgrims as our forbearers and we have a right to do so but it is important to remember they and the other new englanders settling at the time did not imagine they were settling United States of america. Nothing could have been further from their minds. They were doing something entirely different. They were about the business of establishing a place where they could enjoy a pure and uncorrupted church. The settlers of virginia were motivated by material considerations, gold, wealth, material wealth. The settlers of new england were driven by religious zeal. Most of them were puritans, men and women of a company spent who believed the church of england had not gone far enough to purge itself of its corrupt aspects and would despair of a cleansing renewal ever coming in their lifetimes, and hence their decision to emigrate to the new beginning. In particular were not only calvinists but separatists, meaning they had separated themselves from the aurch of england as they