The Free World Wrap Up

Grab a coffee or tea and join in on our wrap up discussion of The Free World by Louis Menand. We'll discuss chapters 11-18 and look back on the book as a whole and share what ideas, moments, or voices stayed with us most. We'll also introduce our next book! See you there!

Reading is not required*. Our conversations flow naturally between the book’s ideas and our own perspectives on how culture, art, and politics shape the world around us.*
If you haven’t completed the reading, see the overview below for a sense of the topics and figures that appear in the chapters we’ll be discussing.
.
.
.
Key Figures:
James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Marshall McLuhan, Frantz Fanon, and Susan Sontag.

Together we’ll explore themes including*:*

• Cultural rebellion among younger writers and thinkers of the time
• How mass consumption and marketing reshaped ideas of individuality and freedom
• Cinema, criticism, and transatlantic cultural exchange
• Pop art and the blending of high and popular culture
• Civil rights, liberation movements
• Student activism, Vietnam era debates, intellectual dissent