james joyce, the dead. i want you to comment on that. >> guest: that is a brilliant story that is highly evocative and tells us something very important about human memory and human regret and it is also beautifully written. if i had to pick just one thing that i would want to read and reread when i have doubts about the human condition i would read it. one of the reasons i think we read is for function and particularly academics. usually, what are you reading? i am reading what i am writing. that has to be part of our life, the business of that and i use james joyce in general and not to get too enmeshed in which i'm only reading things that are functional for me because they contain information i need to write intelligently. >> host: kathleen hall jamieson is currently reading eliza griswold's book amity and prosperity, one family and the fracturing of america. that is -- this is about fracturing. strike that. dan egan, the death and life of the great lakes. richard powers, the over story. you mentioned d

performance situation so that piece that we just heard yes was inspired by the famous final chapter of james joyce's ulysses the monologue of molly bloom this very life affirming monologue tell us what's going on there in also in terms of this this spatial concept well about here written 28 separate pieces of color according to a timeline so you could go about 20 different positions in space and you've got musicians moving from one position to to another so you're really working with density and the sound is really moving diagonals within the architectural situation so it's coming from behind me from the side from above for example so you really are within the sound the sound is moving through you and beyond you and i think it's very fascinating to be compelling this new situation i think when you can really follow how the sound is moving according to the architectural characteristics and amazingly despite this collage effect you give individual sounds their own space and even things like the intake of air or breath are actually part of the score yes that's right well particularly in us because we d

hemingway, spinoza, james joyce. he tells nothing much he read homer in greek.he said he did not know but can you imagine a drawl --dash trying on his. >> and one who has duty in his bones, he attributed his reading to the inability to shake the gospel of self-improvement absorbed in his youth in the eighties reading greek for the first time. to his friends he explained preparing for my final examination. he ruled book once started had to be finished. 's last secretary remembered the then retired justice would literally groan yet steadfastly refusing to abandon it neither of the secretaries could remember him giving up with a scandalous novel. he was then in his 90th year and had begun to have the secretary read aloud to him. the increasingly red-faced young man reaching one page 107 before he interrupted. we will not finish this book. it is not redeemed by the pornography. but his deep strain of phyllis cap one --dash will be an equally deeper since. >> average intelligence of what smile over the aspirations have you give the homespun? have you made up your min

yes, you will study james joyce. i think by a parent or something? yes, you will studyjamesjoyce.r something, let at the beauty of literature and the importance of it. all the other connotation, whether it is historic 01’ connotation, whether it is historic or whatever it is. put it altogether, would argue that this is one of the most important exams you can do. i think a lot of students might regret in years to come not studying english literature. might regret in years to come not studying english literaturem might regret in years to come not studying english literature. it is that point you make about now employers want more career —based learning, as well. i was doing a stop story this week about how my teenagers are doing more vocational courses. which is great. i had on radio shows coating in many times on this. coming from a working—class background as i do, too, that does not get mentioned enough. you do not hear that enough. if he looks like it could be a good hairdresser or whatever it happens to be, follow that dream, as well as there is nothing wrong with that. however

it's the mega-ton novel that james joyce would have written if he'd moved to iowa city and lived to be 100. okay? the 9/11 commission. likewise has occasionally gotten this sort of treatment. the great late harvard historian daniel aaron called at an epic, not in the sense of an epic hike, but in the sense of an epic narrative like bail woof. but the terrorist, and without the sort of miraculous intervention of bayo wolf to save the towers or the american people from the attack. and the lesson is very clearly the people themselves absent bay wolf, will have to come up with a response, and this is what the response should be. like, okay, two kinds of national literature. most literature, most books and poems are what publishers call mid lists. that is they may not have great circulations. they may not make great impact, but they sell year in, year out. the cumulative numbers are quite impressive. sometimes -- or the cumulative profits. they form the background against which the bail wolves type of commission or nonbail wolf type commission in the 9/11 case can stick out. they're the bas

favorite books, alice walker, "the color purple", james joyce the debt.i'll let you, on that one. >> i think that is a brilliant story, it is highly evocative and tells us something very important about human memory and human regret. it's beautifully written. if i had to pick just one thing that i would want to read and. reporter: , i would read it. one of the reasons i think we read is for function and academics. i'm reading the words i'm writing, there has to be part of our life and i used this internal, that piece in particular as a reminder not to get too enmeshed in a world in which i'm only reading things that are highly functional because they contain information i need. >> she is currently reading eliza griswold book and prosperity. she's being suggested to run for office now because of that book. i'm sorry, i got the wrong candidate there. strike that. the death and life of the great lake. richard powers, the over store. you mentioned david blight earlier. jeffrey stewart, the new, life of alan flock. >> one of my secrets about how to determine w

in the novel "libra," the author describes the warren commission as follows -- is the joyce wouldl james have written if the move to iowa city and lived to be 100. the 9/11 commission, likewise has occasionally gotten that sort of treatment. the late, great harvard historian called it epic, not in hike, butof an epic the sense of an epic narrative, like beowulf. the miraculous deus ex machina intervention of beowulf to's they the american people or the towers from the attack and the lesson is clearly, the people themselves will have to come up with a response and this is what the response should be. ok, two forms of national literature. they may not have great circulations. great impact,ake but they are in, they are out. there are accumulative profits. there's the background of the beowulf type commission or the at thewulf commission baseline. the basic processes of for the literature, researching it, riding it, editing it are part of a more ,echanical nitty-gritty sorts but the end with sort of unclear outcomes, but clearly positive ones, too. in most of the they come upcases, with the

joyce is the james duncan phillips professor of early american history at harvard university. her most recent works include "roundabout the earth: circumnavigating image land to orbit." and with allison bashford the new world of thomas robert mouthace rereading the principle of population. joyce has been kind enough to be a guest on backstory three times. >> three times. >> and she's going to talk to us a little bit about what it is to be like dropped into a show where people know each other pretty well and bring scholarship to bear on a topic that we hope will reach a broader public. not an easy thing to do and joyce has done it masterfully as a guest three times. so let me take five or ten minutes and just give you a brief history of backstory, considering that we're four historians, myself, nathan, joanne freeman at yale university and ed ayers president emeritus at the university of richmond, considering that we're four historians we know nothing formally about our own history. we can't tell you exactly when we started, we have no archives. i guess since you are all histor

i can't think of joyce's last name was. greg james. kathleen getwood. janice kennedy. later on there is people you don't know wiley brand. ishmael conway. [ inaudible ] >> yes, sir. >> hey, my brother. >> i'll mention him again. ishmael conway. linda powell colin powell's daughter. that's right she was we do the whole thing. shiel la bush. stan beatle. jeremy free. >> the late stand beatle too. kristinive lee. kim myoer. kim sellers. greg payne. lisa reed. mick nichols. bonnie bones. linda row, kevin kelly. shoma zwelley. eugene browns and the guides in the historic home historic buildings we couldn't do a lot without them. and then we have dendenny o'too. charlie brown gave the at&t grant. long-term weather a big supporter sharon randall jimmy kurtis pamela mendoza. and mary thank you, mary. michelle. diane kerry. and dave la forest. i just wanted to put their names out there because any accomplishment of the beginning and say the first ten years without those folks and others, because i ain't said linda rowe. >> you did. >> i did say linda row. >> betty. >> you didn'

james comey in the just released inspector general's report. he should be ashame of himself. that's trump talking. for more i'm joined by joyce vance, former u.s. attorney, joy ainsley, glenn kirschner, former federal prosecutor and eugene robinson, of course columnist for "the washington post." julia, is there anything in this thing? because i get the sense. i was a speech writer to a president. we were told don't even take copies of the speech you wrote home with you. okay. we generally honored that. is this kind of thing? is it that level of seriousness that he took memos from his own conversation home? >> that's part of it. the inspector general horowitz definitely slaps comey on the wrist for taking things home that he shouldn't have. but he also says he sets a bat precedent for fbi employees who now think they can leak information in order to set in progress some kind of official action. but for people who iowa been talking to, justice department employees and former justice department employees today, they say horowitz completely misses the context here. and it's like if he were to charge him and he referred it to the