Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Et tu, Aristophanes?

Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

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My very Catholic and moderately conservative auntie gave me this book for Christmas, since I’m the loud feminist in the family, and I actually think it’s really sweet of her that she thought of me when she saw that. I do feel like I’m cheating a bit for including this here though, it’s a very very short book, it’s the printed version of two speeches Mary Beard gave (I’ve heard of her through cultural osmosis but have never really come across any of her writings?) on […]

“That’s an excellent suggestion, Miss Triggs. Perhaps one of the men here would like to make it.”

Women & Power by Mary Beard

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What do the Odyssey‘s Penelope and Elizabeth Warren have in common? One was told to shut up, the other to sit down, and thus both were denied the right to power and leadership in the form of public speech. Based on two of her lectures concerning women’s relationship with power, Mary Beard demonstrates in this book that attitudes from the Greco-Roman world are still prevalent. This is a really short book, but there is so much thought-provoking information in it, and Beard is so succinct […]

There Are Always Two Sides to Every Story

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

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In 63 BCE, the politician and lawyer Cicero gave four speeches against the senator Catiline whom he accused of being the instigator of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. Historically and probably unfairly, Cicero came out of this as a famous and brilliant orator who saved the republic while Catiline ended up dead and branded a traitor and a villain. This particular episode in the history of Rome, covered in the first chapter, sets the tone of the book and illustrates the problems that often […]

Good quick read

How Do We Look by Mary Beard

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When the more recent Civilization was shown on PBS, they edited it a bit from the British version because we can’t have nice things in America since we elected an orange. But they edited out much Mary Beard which is so not right. Really not right. So if you are wondering why Mary Beard wrote a book that functions as a companion to the series that’s why. The book is a look at how the viewer interacts with art. She focuses on ancient and religious […]

When other people keep making your point for you.

Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

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I follow a ton of art historians, museums and academics on Twitter, and Mary Beard is one of my favourites. I genuinely love her tweets and have been surprised to see how many people are willing to troll her, and ignore her academic bona fides because she dares discuss sexism and diversity in the ancient world, not to mention being an older woman in an academic field (Classics) where almost all well-known presenters are male. Beard, a Cambridge University Don, was most recently involved in a tempest about the distinct […]

We have no template for what a powerful woman looks like, except that she looks rather like a man.

Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

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This would be a fan favorite here I feel. Mary Beard’s book is slim by its very nature because it’s a transcription of two speeches given before and after Brexit/Trump. And you can feel that difference when you read them. Mary Beard is apparently a public intellectual and fixture in British television. Being American, I didn’t know this, but I did know her as a prominent historian. I read SPQR and I maybe reviewed it here (I forget what year I read it), and thought it […]



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