Did you grow up fearing that the end of the world was nigh? In The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War and Our Call to Greatness, author and professor emerita of Hampshire College, Betsy Hartmann, sheds light on the way that apocalyptic thinking has shaped the American mindset. Tracing our nation’s fixation with doomsday from the Puritans to the present, Hartmann makes the case that apocalyptic fears are deeply intertwined with the American ethos and argues that this has contributed to some of our nation’s biggest problems. Although many might view these problems, like inequality, permanent war, and the exploitation of natural resources, as harbingers of the end times, Hartmann says that this fatalistic mindset restricts our capacity to imagine social change. She presents an optimistic position: that we have more control over the future of our planet than we think.
Doors open 6:30PM
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