Gordon S. Wood

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture

The Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, Gordon S. Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for The Radicalism of the American Revolution and the Bancroft Prize for The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. His other books include The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin and The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History. Empire of Liberty offers a comprehensive account of the pivotal era between 1789 and 1815 when the United States took its first shaky steps as a new and growing nation.

Central Library 
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a TICKETED event; $14 General Admission, $7 Students.

For tickets and more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

David Sax

From corned beef to knishes, Save the Deli is the story of David Sax's quest to observe and preserve a defining element of Jewish culture--and the sandwiches he loves. Diving deep into the world of the Jewish delicatessen, Sax explores the histories of immigrant countermen and kvetching customers, examines the trouble that many delis face today to stay in business, and, of course, delights in one-of-a-kind food. A freelance journalist, Sax is a frequent contributor to Toronto Life, New York magazine, and Portfolio.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide: Common Sense Principles for Troubled Times

Robert H. Frank

An internationally renowned economist, Robert H. Frank, Professor of Management and Economics at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, is an expert on the ways emotions, values and consumer behavior affect markets and economics. Frank is widely recognized for his monthly contributions to the "Economic View” column in The New York Times and is an acclaimed author.

Join the GPCC as FOX 29’s Bruce Gordon uncovers Frank’s observations on the current state and future of our economy. Frank will also field questions from the audience.

In his most recent book, The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide: Common Sense Principles for Troubled Times, Frank shows how behavioral economics can illuminate some of the most important issues of our times, such as tax policy, financial investment, and everyday decisions about saving and spending. This book as well as his previous bestselling book, The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas, will be available for purchase at the program.

The Hub, Cira Centre
2929 Arch Street, Suite 200
Philadelphia, PA 19103

This is a TICKETED event; for registration and additional information, please click here

David Plouffe

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture

President Barack Obama's chief campaign manager David Plouffe is credited with crafting the strategy that helped secure Obama's win of the Democratic primary--and presidency--in 2008. In his acceptance speech on election night, Obama called Plouffe "the unsung hero of this campaign." A partner in the consulting firm AKP&D Message and Media, Plouffe also worked on Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's successful campaign in 2006. Filled with stories from the campaign trail, The Audacity to Win explains the strategy of Obama's historic campaign.

Central Library 
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a TICKETED event; $14 General Admission, $7 Students

For tickets and more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis

Al Gore

Our Choice is an inspiring call to action for those ready to fight for solutions that really work—including some bold initiatives that were deemed impossible only a short time ago but are now gaining support around the world. Since the publication of the New York Times bestseller An Inconvenient Truth and the release of the Academy Award–winning film of the same title, Mr. Gore has led more than 30 "Solutions Summits" with top scientists, engineers, and policy experts to examine every solution to the climate crisis in depth and detail. Our Choice draws on conclusions developed through those summits as well as on extensive independent research, describing how the bold choices necessary to save the earth’s climate should also be the foundations of policies worldwide to create new jobs and stimulate sustainable economic progress.

Former Vice President Al Gore's presentation will be one of many featured during The New Global Dynamic: Critical Security Issues in the 21st Century, a full day conference hosted by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. The conference will include lectures and panel discussions focusing on some of the great challenges and even greater opportunities to achieving a more secure and prosperous global society, and national security will be examined through the prism of energy independence, climate instability, global health, and international terrorism. Other featured speakers include Kathleen Sebelius, Admiral Dennis Blair, and Tom Ridge, among many others.

For the full conference schedule, program discriptions, and admission costs, please visit www.wacphila.org

Loews Philadelphia Hotel 

1200 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19107

This is a TICKETED event; for conference admission options and full price information, please visit www.wacphila.org, email info@wacphila.org, or call 215-561-4700

National Bookstore Day

This fall, we invite you to join us and Publishers Weekly in celebrating the first annual National Bookstore Day, a day devoted to celebrating bookselling and the vibrant culture of bookstores.

This year's day will take place on Saturday, November 7, and to make it a success we need your help and participation.

Watch this space for updates on how you can celebrate National Bookstore Day with the Joseph Fox Bookshop!

Joseph Fox Bookshop

1724 Sansom Street

Philadelphia, PA, 19103

Travel as a Political Act

Rick Steves

An outspoken advocate of "thoughtful" travel, popular travel writer and PBS host Rick Steves encourages travel as an opportunity to both engage in citizen diplomacy and deepen our understanding of our global community . Known primarily for his books and TV series on European travel, Steves recently produced and hosted a ground-breaking public television travel special about Iran, going beyond the politics to highlight the country's history, culture and people. He joins us to discuss the concept of "travel as a political act" and share how his travels have broadened his perspective of the complexities of living in an interdependent global society.

Loews Philadelphia Hotel

1200 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19107

This is a TICKETED event; for registration and additional information, please visit www.wacphila.org, email info@wacphila.org, or call 215-561-4700

Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer published his award-winning first novel, Everything Is Illuminated, at the age of 25. "Rarely does a writer as young as Foer display such virtuosity and wisdom," raved the Washington Post. His next novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, became a national bestseller. Synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and Foer's own detective work, Eating Animals explores the fictions that we use to justify our eating habits--from folklore to family traditions--and reveals how such tales can justify an ignorance of the realities of the food industry.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

The Los Angeles Times Book Review calls Lydia Davis "one of the quiet giants of American fiction." The author of several short-story collections, she won the Whiting Award with Break It Down and was nominated for the National Book Award for Varieties of Disturbance. In addition, she is a noted French-to-English translator of novels, biographies, and scholarly writing, including a new edition of Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is the first definitive collection of her entire short story oeuvre.

Chronic City

Jonathan Lethem won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his bestselling crime novel Motherless Brooklyn, and his next novel, Fortress of Solitude, was a New York Times bestseller. A writer whose work crosses the border of many literary genres, Lethem has penned a sci-fi short story collection (The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye), a comic novel (You Don't Love Me Yet), and has written for the New Yorker, Paris Review, and Harper's. Set in Manhattan, Chronic City is part sci-fi, part comedy, and entirely Lethem.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

Kate DiCamillo

Kate DiCamillo is a critically acclaimed, bestselling author of novels and stories for children. Her books include the Newbery Award winner The Tale of Despereaux and the Newbery Honor book Because of Winn-Dixie--both of which were adapted into successful feature films. She is also the author of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Tiger Rising, a National Book Award finalist. Her much-anticipated new novel, The Magician's Elephant, follows Peter Augustus Duchene's search for his missing sister on the advice of a mysterious fortune-teller.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

David Wroblewski

The most successful debut novel of 2008, David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle remained on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 39 weeks, was an Oprah Book Club Selection, and garnered widespread critical acclaim. Born mute, speaking in a sign language of his own invention, Edgar Sawtelle led an idyllic childhood on his parents' remote farm, where, for generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a highly intelligent fictional breed of dog. But Edgar’s life is soon marked by tragedy when his father is found murdered and—in a modern retelling of Hamlet— his uncle begins to insinuate himself into the absent man’s place. Moving beyond the simple story of boy and dog, Wroblewski brilliantly examines the limits of language and the elemental forces of love, loss and revenge. Stephen King praised, “I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It’s over, you think, and I won’t read another one this good for a long, long time.”

Uwem Akpan

Say You're One of Them

Uwem Akpan’s debut collection of short stories, Say You’re One of Them, has earned rave reviews from dozens of major authors and critics; was featured on many “Best of 2008” booklists; and was recently chosen as a 2009 Oprah Book Club Selection. Entertainment Weekly proclaimed “Awe is the only appropriate response to Uwem Akpan’s stunning debut…a collection of five stories so ravishing and sad that I regret ever wasting superlatives on fiction that was merely very good.” Inspired to write by the “humor and endurance of the poor,” Akpan captures with grace and dignity the horrors of modern Africa as seen through the eyes of children. Impossible to forget, the collection renders lives of unimaginable deprivation into stories that are nothing short of transcendent.

Central Library 
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event, no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click here

The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered the Casual and the Modern Home Began

Co-sponsored with Alliance Francaise

 Joan DeJean discusses a colorful cast of visionaries--legendary architects, the first interior designers, and the women who shaped the tastes of two successive kings of France: Louis XIV's mistress Madame de Maintenon and Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour. Their revolutionary ideas would have a direct influence on realms outside the home, from clothing to literature and gender relations, changing the way people lived and related to one another for the foreseeable future.

Athenaeum of Philadelphia

219 South Street 6th Street

Philadelphia, PA, 19106

This is a FREE event, but reservations are required. Please call Susan Gallo at 215.925.2688, or email sgallo@philaathenaeum.org

American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

In this first full-scale biography of the Supreme Court justice, veteran Supreme Court correspondent Joan Biskupic introduces us to Justice Scalia, a conservative with a vengeance, a man who seeks to roll back abortion rights and affirmative action and who declares that he has never met a condemned prisonor who was wrongly sentenced to die. Marcia Coyle, Chief Washington correspondent for The National Law Journal, moderates.

 F.M. Kirby Auditorium
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA, 19106 

This is a FREE event, but reservations are required. Please call 215.409.6700, or click HERE

Dare To Be a Man: The Truth Every Man Must Know...And Every Woman Needs to Know About Him

Bishop David G. Evans

David G. Evans, the bestselling author of Healed Without Scars, presents life-changing insight, encouragement and advice for men and the women in their lives in Dare To Be a Man. Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey, Evans has touched the lives of millions as host of the nationally broadcast television show Power of Revelation and the radio show OnPointe.  This acclaimed public speaker now addresses one of the most critical issues of contemporary life - what it means to be a real man, and how changing conceptions of manhood have sown confusion and damaged relationships between men and women.

African American Museum of Philadelphia

701 Arch Street

Philadelphia, PA, 19106

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required. For more information, please visit http://www.aampmuseum.org/

George Packer

New Yorker staff writer George Packer was honored with two Overseas Press Club awards in 2003, for his coverage of the war in Iraq and his reporting on the civil war in Sierra Leone. His books include the bestseller The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq and Blood of the Liberals, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Packer's new essay collection, Interesting Times, offers a wide-angled account of the past decade's historic events from September 11 to the election of President Barack Obama.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

A Heart to Serve: The Passion to Bring Health, Hope, and Healing

Bill Frist

From town hall meetings to unprecedented coalitions among the medical, business, workforce and advocacy communities, Americans are talking about one topic: the potential impact of health care reform. 
Please join the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce for a timely discussion with former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. As a Harvard-trained heart transplant surgeon, professor of medicine and business at Vanderbilt, and author, Sen. Frist is regarded as one of the most influential leaders in national healthcare.

A panel discussion and Q&A session will follow to delve into rising healthcare costs, industry challenges, and the current impact on the business community.
Panelists will be listed shortly.

Loews Philadelphia Hotel
1200 Market St
Philadelphia, PA 19107

This is a TICKETED event; for registration and additional information, please click HERE

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Ken Burns

An American filmmaker who revolutionized the documentary film genre, Ken Burns is the award-winning creator of the documentary series Baseball, Jazz, and Unforgivable Blackness. His landmark film, The Civil War, was the highest-rated series in public television history, boasting an audience of 40 million viewers when it first aired and going on to win more than 40 prizes, including two Emmy and two Grammy awards. Airing this fall on public television, Burns’s new work, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, tells the story of the creation and evolution of the National Parks System using archival photographs, first-person accounts, and some of the most breathtaking new images of our national parks ever captured on film. In his review of the companion book to the series, historian Joseph J. Ellis writes, “the book permits the eye and mind to linger over the truly breathtaking pictures in a more meditative way that film does not allow. The result is almost elegiac, producing the same kind of goose bumps that Burns created in his early work on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Civil War.”

 Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a TICKETED event; $14 General Admission, $7 Students

For tickets and more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

Adam Gopnik

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture
Co-sponsored by the American Philosophical Society Museum

Adam Gopnik's Angels and Ages is a study of the cultural impact of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Time magazine calls the book "a succinct, convincing, and moving account of how two men ripped mankind out of its past unreason and thrust it into a more enlightened age." Gopnik appears at the Free Library to speak of these celebrated thinkers--who were born on the same day in 1809--on the 150th anniversary (to the day!) of the publication of On the Origin of Species.  A contributor to the New Yorker for more than two decades, Gopnik is a three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award.

Central Library 
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a TICKETED event; $14 General Admission, $7 Students.

For tickets and more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Amy Goodman

The host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, an award-winning independent news program airing on over 800 stations throughout the world, Amy Goodman has a passion for truth in journalism. She is a recipient of the first Right Livelihood Award, a preeminent commendation for personal courage and social transformation that is known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” She is also the co-author of New York Times bestselling books Standing up to the Madness, Static, and The Exception to the Rulers. In her new book—a collection of investigative reports on topics scarcely covered by corporate media outlets—Goodman talks about the inordinate control these media giants exert over public opinion and the role that grassroots activists and independent media can play in the struggle for a better world. Cornel West proclaims, “Amy Goodman is a towering progressive freedom-fighter in the media and the world. Breaking the Sound Barrier is another expression of her vision and courage.”

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click here

Lidia Bastianich

Carole Phillips Memorial Lecture

Renowned chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich is co-owner of Felidia and Becco, two of Manhattan's finest restaurants. As host of her own PBS television show, Lidia's Italy, she travels her native country to visit the farmers, shepherds, foragers, and artisans who produce the local cheeses, meats, olive oils, and wines that define regional Italian cuisine. In her new cookbook, these wonderful, uncomplicated dishes--from Molise, Abruzzo, Calabria, and more--are translated for the home cook.

Central Library 
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a TICKETED event; $14 General Admission, $7 Students

For tickets and more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

Leslie Caron

A beloved film star of MGM's Golden Era, Leslie Caron has appeared in such classic movies as An American in Paris, Gigi, Daddy Long Legs, and Lili. More recently she acted in the film Chocolat and won an Emmy Award for her performance in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Offering an intimate view of the characters and settings of old Hollywood, Thank Heaven is a candid account of Caron's life from her discovery in Paris by Gene Kelly to her successes in Hollywood and her personal struggles with alcoholism and depression.

Ms. Caron will be interviewed by Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey.

Sue Grafton

Published in 26 languages, Sue Grafton's bestselling Kinsey Millhone mysteries feature "a heroine with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive," writes the New York Times Book Review. "As this master of suspense continues to demonstrate ... there are more ugly twists in the human heart than there are letters in the alphabet," praises Entertainment Weekly. Grafton has received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award and was named a co-Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. U is for Undertow is the latest Millhone mystery.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra

Walton Ford

The Academy of Natural Sciences presents famed artist Walton Ford, who will discuss his artwork and sign copies of the recently published retrospective of his work, Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra.

Ford's artwork, described by New York Magazine as "Audubon-as-Viagra", features large-scale and highly detailed watercolors of animals and reveals a complex universe full of symbols, sly jokes and allusions to the "operatic" nature of traditional natural history themes.

The Academy of Natural Sciences Auditorium 
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event, but reservations are required. Please call 215-299-1060, or email reservations@ansp.org to RSVP.

Mary Karr

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture

Poet and memoirist Mary Karr is the Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005 and has won Pushcart Prizes for both her poetry and essays. Her bestselling memoir, The Liars' Club, won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award and was named best book of the year by many publications. Her follow-up memoir, Cherry, was also a bestseller. Filled with the dark humor that suffuses much of her work, Karr's new memoir Lit chronicles her descent into alcoholism and her conversion to Catholicism with an unlikely tribe of gurus and saviors.

Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

Gordon S. Wood, Brown University Professor of History and Chair of the National Constitution Center’s Distinguished Scholars Advisory Panel, discusses the Founders’ attitudes and beliefs about aristocracy in America, where “titles of nobility” are prohibited by the Constitution, but where aristocratic elements of privilege and power nevertheless have survived. The men who espoused the radical idea that all are created equal shared the tradition of British aristocracy, and Wood will examine how their beliefs differed from or mirrored those held in England, which beliefs have lingered, and what their effects have been.

F.M. Kirby Auditorium
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA, 19106 

This is a FREE event, but reservations are required. Please call 215.409.6700, or click HERE

Deborah Willis

A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, Deborah Willis--a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2000 MacArthur Fellow--chairs the Photography Department at New York University. Dedicated to sharing visual representations of the African American experience, Willis authored the groundbreaking and highly praised book Reflections in Black, a collection of photographs of African American life from 1840 to the present, as well as The Black Female Body and VanDerZee: The Portraits of James VanDerZee. Her new book, Posing Beauty, was inspired by a realization she had as a student in the 1970s: that images of black beauty did not exist in the mainstream culture. This arresting new collection of photographs of African Americans, from Billie Holiday to Muhammad Ali to Michele Obama, redefines what it means to be "beautiful."

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

The Architecture of Community

Leon Krier

Leon Krier is one of the best known and most provocative architects and urban theoreticians in the world, and a leading influence on today's generation of classical and traditional architects and planners. In The Architecture of Community, Mr. Krier refines and distills forty years of thinking on the making of sustainable, humane, and attractive villages, towns, and cities, and shares thoughts on how to make today's communities more vibrant. The book includes drawings, diagrams, and photographs of his built works, which have not been widely seen until now.

This is a unique opportunity to hear and meet Mr. Krier at his only appearance in Philadelphia, and it promises to be a lively evening.

Carpenter's Hall

320 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA, 19106

This is a TICKETED event; $20 General Admission, $10 for ICA & CA members, FREE for students. Advance registration is requested; please call 215-790-0300, or email icacaphila@verizon.net

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

Terry Teachout writes about literature and the arts for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, among many other publications. The Washington Post described his biography, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, as "a balanced, judicious assessment, flecked with sharply critical insights." Drawing on several previously unavailable sources, including hundreds of hours of backstage recordings, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong offers new insight into the life of the legendary jazz musician.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

How Capitalism Will Save Us

Steve Forbes

Can democratic capitalism still be effective in improving our lives? In the wake of the nation's worst recession in decades, people's faith in our capitalist system has been deeply shaken.

In his newest book, How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People and Free Markets are the Best Answer in Today's Economy, Forbes Media chairman and CEO, Steve Forbes, posits that when free people in free markets have energy to solve problems and meet the needs and wants of others, they turn scarcity into abundance and develop the innovations that are the foremost drivers of economic growth. Join us to hear his thoughts on why capitalism is the world's greatest economic success story.

The Crystal Tea Room

Wanamaker Building

100 East Penn Square

Philadelphia, PA, 19107

This is a TICKETED event; for registration and additional information, please click here

Julie Powell

Julie Powell, tired of working dead-end jobs, decided to try something new. What she started was a year-long odyssey cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging about it. The resultant book, Julie and Julia, spent weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list, earned a 2006 Quill Award, and was adapted into a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep. Her new book, Cleaving, chronicles a new chapter in Powell's personal life and offers another facet of her fascination with food and a new fixation: butchery. Described as "hilarious and ferociously articulate" by Entertainment Weekly, Powell brings a fresh new voice to the art of biography and cooking.

Central Library
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required.

For more information, call 215.567.4341, or click HERE

The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name

Toby Lester 

For millennia Europeans believed that the world consisted of three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They drew the three continents in countless shapes and sizes on their maps, but occasionally they hinted at the existence of a "fourth part of the world," a mysterious, inaccessible place, separated from the rest by a vast expanse of ocean. It was a land of myth -- until 1507, that is, when Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure scholars working in the mountains of eastern France, made it real. Columbus had died the year before convinced that he had sailed to Asia, but Waldseemüller and Ringmann, after reading about the Atlantic discoveries of Columbus's contemporary Amerigo Vespucci, came to a startling conclusion: Vespucci had reached the fourth part of the world. To celebrate his achievement, Waldseemüller and Ringmann printed a huge map, for the first time showing the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, and in Vespucci's honor they gave this New World a name: America.

The Fourth Part of the World is the story behind that map, a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, full of outsize thinkers and voyages. Taking a kaleidoscopic approach, Toby Lester traces the origins of our modern worldview. His narrative sweeps across continents and centuries, zeroing in on different portions of the map to reveal strands of ancient legend, Biblical prophecy, classical learning, medieval exploration, imperial ambitions, and more.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

219 South 6th Street

Philadelphia, PA, 19106

This is a FREE event, but reservations are required; please contact Susan Gallo at 215.925.2688, or email sgallo@philaathenaeum.org