About us
We meet at the Draught house English pub and imbibe some beer and food while discussing history.
Titles range from more rigorous and scholarly works to lighter, more journalistic writing. Genres tend to include foreign policy, history, culture, science, politics, and area studies (e.g. The Middle East, Europe, South Asia, etc.) See our "Past Reads" page for titles.
Note to avoid scams: We will never contact you asking for money to read or review your book. If you have received an email claiming to be from us, please be aware that this is a scam. Please report it to your email provider.
Upcoming events
15
Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
Draught House Pub & Brewery, 4112 Medical Pkwy, Austin, TX, USJoin us over food and drinks to discuss the book, “Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism.”
Description of book:
From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the “Terrible Year” by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans―then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army after bloody street battles and the burning of central Paris. As renowned art critic Sebastian Smee shows, it was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist movement was born―in response to violence, civil war, and political intrigue. In stirring and exceptionally vivid prose, Smee tells the story of those dramatic days through the eyes of great figures of Impressionism. Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Edgar Degas were trapped in Paris during the siege and deeply enmeshed in its politics. Others, including Pierre-August Renoir and Frédéric Bazille, joined regiments outside of the capital, while Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro fled the country just in time. In the aftermath, these artists developed a newfound sense of the fragility of life. That feeling for transience―reflected in Impressionism’s emphasis on fugitive light, shifting seasons, glimpsed street scenes, and the impermanence of all things―became the movement’s great contribution to the history of art. At the heart of it all is a love story; that of Manet, by all accounts the father of Impressionism, and Morisot, the only woman to play a central role in the movement from the start. Smee poignantly depicts their complex relationship, their tangled effect on each other, and their great legacy, while bringing overdue attention to the woman at the heart of Impressionism. Incisive and absorbing, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the pressures of the siege and the chaos of the Commune had a profound impact on modern art, and how artistic genius can emerge from darkness and catastrophe.
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2024 • A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2024 • One of The Boston Globe's “20 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Fall” • A Next Big Idea Club “Must-Read Book for September 2024”
The Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic’s gripping account of the “Terrible Year” in Paris and its monumental impact on the rise of Impressionism.
Lecture with author:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPUe1CqCA8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOI2BHYnC2k
Look for the group with lights and a sign.22 attendees
Bolivar: American Liberator by Marie Arana
Draught House Pub & Brewery, 4112 Medical Pkwy, Austin, TX, USJoin us over food and drinks to discuss the book, “Bolivar: American Liberator”
by Marie Arana.
Description of book:
Simón Bolívar—El Libertador—freed six countries from Spanish rule and is still the most revered figure in South America today. He traveled from Amazon jungles to the Andes mountains, engaged in endless battles and forged fragile coalitions of competing forces and races. He lived an epic life filled with heroism, tragedy (his only wife died young), and legend (he was saved from an assassination attempt by one of his mistresses). In Bolívar, Marie Arana has written a sweeping biography that is as bold and as passionate as its subject. Drawing on a wealth of primary documents, Arana vividly captures the early 19th-century South America that made Bolívar the man he became: fearless general, brilliant strategist, consummate diplomat, dedicated abolitionist, gifted writer, and flawed politician. A major work of history, Bolívar not only portrays a dramatic life in all its glory, but is also a stirring declaration of what it means to be South American.
Lecture with author:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWie06yy7CY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2jdX5PAdjM
Look for the group with lights and a sign.18 attendees
Past events
336
Group links
Members
1,747
