New York Council for the Humanities: Reading Groups: Adult Reading Groups

The Individual in a World Gone Global

This series looks at how life on the individual level is shaped by our inheritance of a post-colonial world. The four books each approach the theme of global/local from a different perspective: historical, literary, political and economic. Each session centers on a book selected by Kate Hallgren, a graduate student at the City University of New York.

The series opens with a discussion of African Queen: The Real Life of the Hottentot Venus, by Rachel Holmes. A biography of Saartje Baartman, an African woman exhibited as a curiousity in early nineteenth century London and Paris, this book explores the long history of colonial trade, military conflict and racial distinctions between Europe and its colonized peoples.

This session focuses on Zadie Smith's White Teeth, continuing the conversation of the heritage of colonialism in the late twentieth century by bringing readers into the smells, sounds and feel of immigrant London, an intense intersection of the local and global.

A conversation about The 9/11 Report:A Graphic Adaptation, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, prompts consideration of the moment when the global violently and concretely imposed itself on local life for New Yorkers. Exceptionally well-reviewed, this book uses images to discuss the role of the individual in history.

The series concludes with Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, a clear presentation of international economic policy and its effects on local life in developing nations, encouraging a consideration of our own roles and responsibilities as individuals and how we hope to address the future of the world.