Our next book is American Lion by Jon Meacham

American Lion illuminates one of our most significant yet dimly recalled presidents. Andrew Jackson was a battle-hardened warrior, the founder of the Democratic Party, and the architect of the presidency as we know it. His story is one of violence, sex, courage, and tragedy. With his powerful persona, his evident bravery, and his mystical connection to the people, Jackson moved the White House from the periphery of government to the center of national action, articulating a vision of change that challenged entrenched interests to heed the popular will–or face his formidable wrath.

We'll be meeting to discuss this book on July 8th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.

Some thoughts about Exiles

- Exiles is a hybrid of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Does this heterogeneous nature hurt or help the text?

- Hansen characterizes Hopkins' faith this one way (pg. 102):

His faith was a faith that found hope and sturdiness even in the face of mystery, paradox, and philosophical difficulties. Because he'd felt God's love and tenderness so often in the past, he knew there was no meanness in him. There was justice, yes, and authority, and an awesome power that was greater than weather, greater than worlds. But usually there was just an airy mystery, and on the bleakest occasions a sense of God watching with slack interest but resisting any temptation to intercede.

Do you think this is the sort of faith typical of someone who joins a religious order?

- Would Hopkins' life have been easier had he chosen not be a Jesuit?

- Was the childlike Sister Aurea (who was of questionable intelligence) the type of person who should enter a religious order?

- What did you think of the poem?

Here's a clip of Hansen reading from Exiles at Eastern Michigan University. Though is his performance leaves something to be desired, he reveals some interesting tidbits about his research process at the beginning and end of the segment:


In this segment, Hansen reads the section in which the Deutschland hits the sandbar:


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We'll be meeting to discuss this book on June 10th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.