Homage to Americans
:
Mile-High Meditations, Close Readings, and Time-Spanning Speculations
Eva Brann
In Homage to Americans, her latest collection of essays and lectures, Eva Brann explores the roots and essence of our American ways.
In "Mile-High Meditations," her flight's late departure from the Denver airport prompts a consideration of her manner of waiting (i.e., "being"). As she looks around, she notes (and compares to her own) the ways her fellow travelers pass their time. These observations lead her to wonder how each of us lives with ourselves and how we live together—and put up with one another.
With these questions in mind, the next two essays carefully examine two famous political documents that have shaped American self-understanding: James Madison's "Memorial and Remonstrance," which is the essential argument for separation of church and state; and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which enlarged and refashioned our understanding of the American political character, first given formal expression in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
In "Paradox of Obedience," a lecture originally delivered at the Air Force Academy, Brann considers the puzzling character of obedience in a country dedicated to liberty.
The concluding piece, "The Empire of the Sun and the West," takes us to Aztec Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. What allowed Cortes and his handful of men to overcome a great empire? In pursuit of an answer, Brann describes a human type whose fulfillment she sees in the American Character.
Eva Brann has taught at St. John's College in Annapolis for more than fifty years.
Feeling Our FeelingsEva Brann
Trade Paper,
530 pp.,
$28.00 |
Retail: $35.00. BACKLIST SALE PRICE $28.00 In Feeling Our Feelings, Eva Brann considers what the great philosophers on the passions and feelings have thought and written about them. She examines the relevant work of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Adam Smith, Hume, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger, and also includes a chapter on cont . . . [read more] |
Homeric MomentsEva BrannAlso available in hardcover
Trade Paper,
326 pp.,
$19.95 |
Fifty years of reading Homer — both alone and with students — prepared Eva Brann to bring the Odyssey and the Iliad back to life for today's readers. In Homeric Moments, she brilliantly conveys the unique delights of Homer's epics as she focuses on the crucial scenes, or moments, that mark the high points of the narratives: Penelope and Odysseus, faithful . . . [read more] |
The Music of the RepublicEva Brann
Hardcover,
378 pp.,
$24.95 |
In this collection of essays, Eva Brann talks with readers about the conversations Socrates has with his fellow Athenians. She shows how Plato's dialogues and the timeless matters they address remain important to us today. From introductory pieces on the Republic, the Phaedo, and the Sophist, to an account of the less well known Charmides, each essay starts w . . . [read more] |
Open Secrets / Inward ProspectsEva Brann
Hardcover,
435 pp.,
$24.95 |
In her latest book, Eva Brann has collected observations and aphorisms written over more than thirty years. Open Secrets / Inward Prospects divides in a rough but ready way into two sorts: observations about our external world well known to all but not always openly told, and sightings of internal vistas and omens, wherein she looks at herself as a sample soul. Often the aphori . . . [read more] |
The Envisioned LifeEdited by Peter Kalkavage and Eric SalemAlso available in hardcover
Trade Paper,
383 pp.,
$24.95 |
To mark Eva Brann's fiftieth year on the faculty of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, twenty-three of her colleagues, friends, and former students have contributed essays, poems, and art to The Envisioned Life. They celebrate Eva’s "passion for learning and her deep love of books, her breadth of knowledge and interests, her boundless energy, her mastery of the spoken and . . . [read more] |