ife of the Mind Program
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, offers an exciting program for first-year students called "Life of the Mind." Each year all first-year students (and many others on campus) will read and discuss a common book as part of "Welcome Week" academic orientation.
The book for 2007 is Norman Cantor's In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World It Made, a "brief but elegantly written" overview of what one 14th century witness called "the exterminating of humanity."
Putting a human face on such a catastrophic event, Cantor illustrates the profound changes in class structure, agriculture, economics, law, literature and art, and, not least of all, medical practice that occurred as consequences of the plague, changes that still affect us today. Cantor also describes the social scapegoating that too often accompanies catastrophes.
Cantor's book will appeal to students of all areas of study.
As part of the Life of the Mind program, the Marco Institute has invited Dr. Lester K. Little of Smith College to give a lecture on epidemics and history. The date and time will be announced. For more information on Dr. Little's areas of study, please go to http://www.smith.edu/history/fac_llittle.htm .
For more information about the Life of the Mind Program, CLICK HERE.