The 18-hour documentary series “The Vietnam War” opens with Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” setting the tone of casual American optimism at the outset of the ’60s. But it transitions to an admission of defeat: “America’s involvement in Vietnam began in secrecy,” the narrator intones. “It ended, 30 years later, in failure, witnessed...
In the last scene of her film memoir, the camera centers on Joan Didion’s hands: gnarled, veined, gripping the hands of her friend as she once held the pen that made her one of the master craftsmen of fiction and nonfiction since the 1960s. In “The Center Will Not Hold,” Didion holds the reins. The...
It’s a morning ritual for many: boil some water, grab a favorite mug, and puzzle over the tea box — is this a morning for black tea or green? Or what about chamomile? Tazo or Twinings? The search for the perfect cup of tea was the fuel for — and the focus of —...
Debates about Christian doctrine during the Reformation didn’t play out only on church doors at Wittenberg and in lecture halls at Marburg; they led to distinct ways of practicing the faith for all Christians. In the second installment of the semester-long “Reformation at 500” lecture series Tuesday and Wednesday, theologians and historians from Hillsdale to...
“The fair!” These were the first words I heard from novelist and short story writer Joy Williams as John Somerville, professor of English and director of the Visiting Writers Program, introduced her at Monday night’s reading for her visit Sept. 25 and 26. Joy’s list of accolades is long — she was nominated for the...