One branch of the electronic-music family tree—though a solid limb, more than a decade old—has never been fitted with an acceptable name. Entranced by a mingling of dance-oriented rhythms and experimental, ambient impulses, listeners called it “intelligent dance music”—I.D.M. for short. But they always used the term sheepishly: It was snobby, and the tunes it Read More
The Roads to Modernity: The British, French and American Enlightenments , by Gertrude Himmelfarb. Alfred A. Knopf, 272 pages, $25.
Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century thought of themselves as enlightened. Images of light and enlightenment sparkle through the philosophy, the sermons, the journalism, even the commercial prospectuses Read More
In a midtown Third Avenue office building, Robert Silman stood at one end of a conference table staring at some figures on an overhead screen. Balding and bespectacled, he had the serious and disheveled look of a scientist-which, in fact, he was. A neuroendocrinologist who had worked at London University’s St. Bartholomew Hospital, Mr. Silman, Read More
Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment, Edinburgh’s Moment of the Mind , by James Buchan. HarperCollins, 340 pages, $29.95.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the city of Edinburgh was little more than a filthy medieval backwater-as James Buchan paints it in his wonderful new book, Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment: Edinburgh’s Moment Read More
It is always a pleasure to go to The Frick Collection, where
great paintings can be leisurely enjoyed in an elegant and tranquil atmosphere.
Just now, however, there are several additional good reasons for revisiting The
Frick. First, from Edinburgh has come a marvelous exhibition of The Draftsman’s Art: Master Drawings from
the National Gallery Read More
