Front Table Newsletter 1/6/25

In this week’s Front Table, explore the multi-faceted and sometimes contradictory nature of the world's most famous scientist, Paul McCartney's legacy beyond Beatlemania, and the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire over three centuries. Rediscover Giroux's call for radical social change in society and education and a newly translated philosophical novel about the nature of consciousness. Dive into a family saga in 20th century Lebanon and the vast variety of colors in loss and rejuvenation. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com. 

Einstein in Time and Space
(Scribner)
Samuel Graydon

Most of us would agree that Albert Einstein's name is synonymous with "genius" and that his likeness is often used as a shorthand for all scientists. He has become more myth than man. That being the case, how best to capture his essence? In Einstein in Time and Space, talented young science journalist Samuel Graydon answers that question with an illuminating mosaic--99 intriguingly different particles that cumulatively reveal Einstein's contradictory and multitudinous nature. Glimpsed among these shards: a slacker who failed every subject but math and a job seeker who couldn't get hired. He was loved by many, known by few, and inspirational to a generation of young physicists. Graydon reveals every corner of Einstein's world: the false reporting that rocketed Einstein to fame nearly overnight, his effect on people he met merely in passing, even the remarkable posthumous journey of the famed physicist's brain.

The McCartney Legacy, Vol. 2
(Day Street Books)
Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair

By 1974 the Beatles were a distant memory, and Paul McCartney had already gone on to release a solo album and form a new band, Wings. By the end of the decade Wings would be the bestselling band of the 1970s. The McCartney Legacy, Vol. 2 begins in 1974 at the height of Wings popularity and the beginning of McCartney's next chapter. Arguably the most authoritative text on the life of Paul McCartney,  Vol. 2, follows McCartney the man, establishing himself as a musician beyond Beatlemania and his legacy throughout the 20th century through the present day.

Emperor of Rome
(Liveright Publishing)
Mary Beard

Drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar and taking us through the nearly three centuries--and some thirty emperors--that separate him from the boy-king Alexander Severus. Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard tracks the emperor down at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven.

Theory and Resistance in Education
(Bloomsbury)
Henry A Giroux

Reissued with a new introduction from Henry A. Giroux, this classic work provides theoretical and political tools for addressing how pedagogy, knowledge, resistance, and power can be analyzed within and across a variety of cultural spheres, including but not limited to the schools. This edition includes four new chapters covering critical pedagogy and resistance, cultural politics and public intellectuals, challenging gangster capitalism and the lies and violence of fascist politics. These new chapters show how the calls for radical social change made in the previous edition are needed now more than ever in the struggle against fascism, authoritarianism, racism and other systems of oppression that are still built into society and our education systems. 

Monsieur Teste
(New York Review of Books)
Paul Valery

Middle-aged Monsieur Teste lives on modest speculations on the stock market. He resides in a greenish room smelling of mint, takes a daily stroll with his wife, and would be entirely unremarkable, were it not for the fact that he is a being made up of pure consciousness, a Cartesian creature of pure rationality, intellect, and self-control. Teste is old French for "head," and detached from senses and emotions, Monsieur Teste feels skepticism for all received wisdom while also refusing to hold any opinions of his own. What would such a man make of his own thought processes? And what would he make of human relationships and the world?

A History of the Big House
(Other Press)
Charif Majdalani, Ruth Diver, trans.

At the end of the 19th century, a man is forced to flee his village after a quarrel. Starting over with nothing, the banished, audacious Wakim Nassar will create orange plantations on the outskirts of Beirut and become the head of a large clan, feared and respected. The great house he builds at their center will become a powerful symbol of the Nassars' glory, admired from afar. But this decadence is short-lived, battered by the First World War, illness, family tragedy, and the shifting regimes that control Lebanon. As circumstances compel Wakim's descendants, one by one, to leave the house, it falls into ruin.

The Widow's Crayon Box
(W.W. Norton)
Molly Peacock

After her husband's death, Molly Peacock realized she was not living the received idea of a widow's mauve existence but instead was experiencing life in all colors. These gorgeous poems--joyful, furious, mournful, bewildered, sexy, devastated, whimsical and above all, moving--composed in sonnet sequences and in open forms, designed in four movements (After, Before, When, and Afterglow)--illuminate both the role of the caregiver and the crystalline emotions one can experience after the death of a cherished partner. With her characteristic virtuosity, her fearless willingness to confront even the most difficult emotions, and always with buoyancy and zest, Peacock charts widowhood in the twenty-first century.