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Monday, February 6, 2006
Commonwealth Club, 6pm
595 Market Street, San Francisco
In English
$8 AFSF members $15 others
Reservations: 800/847-7730 |
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"[BHL is] superman and prophet: we have no equivalent in the
United States."-Vanity Fair
For the past year celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy has been traveling
in the tracks of another Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, who in 1831 wrote what
remains the most influential book about America: Democracy in America.
The result is American Vertigo, a fascinating new look at a country we sometimes only
think we know. From Riker's Island, to Chicago mega-churches, Lévy investigates issues
at the heart of our democracy: the special nature of American patriotism; the coexistence
of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball); our sense of the law; immigration,
the "return of ideology," and much more. He revisits and updates Tocqueville's most
important ideas, like "the tyranny of the majority," explores what Europe and America
have to learn from each other, and interprets what he sees with a novelist's eye and a
philosopher's depth. Above all, Lévy is a sympathetic foreign observer, arriving at a time
when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them. American Vertigo will
garner major attention and will spark a new conversation about the meaning of America
today. |
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