Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or Classical Civilization) is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world (Bronze Age ca. BC 3000 – Late Antiquity ca. AD 300–600); especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity (ca. BC 600 – AD 600). Initially, study of the Classics (the period's literature) was the principal study in the humanities.

History of the Western Classics

The word “classics” derives from the Latin adjective ''classicus'': “belonging to the highest class of citizens”, connoting ''superiority'', ''authority'', and ''perfection''. The first application of “Classic” to a writer was by Aulus Gellius, a 2nd-century Roman writer who, in the miscellany ''Noctes Atticae'' (19, 8, 15), refers to a writer as a ''Classicus scriptor, non proletarius''(“A distinguished, not a commonplace writer”). Such classification began with the Greeks’ ''ranking'' their cultural works, with the word ''canon'' (“carpenter’s rule”). Moreover, early Christian Church Fathers used ''canon'' to rank the authoritative texts of the New Testament, preserving them, given the expense of vellum and papyrus and mechanical book reproduction, thus, being comprehended in a ''canon'' ensured a book’s preservation as the best of a civilisation. Contemporarily, the Western canon defines the best of Western culture. In the ancient world, at the Alexandrian Library, scholars coined the Greek term ''Hoi enkrithentes'' (“the admitted”, “the included”) to identify the writers in the canon.

The method of study in the Classical World was “Philo’s Rule”: μεταχάραττε τὸ θεῖον νόμισμα (lit.: "strike the divine coin anew")—the law of ''strict continuity'' in preserving words and ideas. Although the definitions of words and ideas might broaden, ''continuity'' (preservation) requires retention of their ''original'' arete (excellence, virtue, goodness). “Philo’s Rule” imparts intellectual and æsthetic ''appreciation'' of “the best which has been thought and said in the world”. To wit, Oxford classicist Edward Copleston said that classical education “communicates to the mind…a high sense of honour, a disdain of death in a good cause, [and] a passionate devotion to the welfare of one’s country”, thus concurring with Cicero that: “All literature, all philosophical treatises, all the voices of antiquity are full of examples for imitation, which would all lie unseen in darkness without the light of literature”.

Legacy of the Classical World

The Classical languages of the Ancient Mediterranean world influenced every European language, imparting to each a learned vocabulary of international application. Thus, Latin grew from a highly developed cultural product of the Golden and Silver eras of Latin literature to become the ''international lingua franca'' in matters diplomatic, scientific, philosophic and religious, until the 17th century. In turn, the Classical languages ''continued'', Latin evolved into the Romance languages and Ancient Greek into Modern Greek and its dialects. Moreover, it is in the specialised science and technology vocabularies that the Latin influence in English and the Greek influence in English are notable, however, it is Ecclesiastical Latin, the Roman Catholic Church’s official tongue, that remains a living legacy of the classical world to the contemporary world.

Sub-disciplines within the classics

One of the most notable characteristics of the modern study of classics is the diversity of the field. Although traditionally focused on ancient Greece and Rome, the study now encompasses the entire ancient Mediterranean world, thus expanding their studies to Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Philology

Traditionally, classics was essentially the philology of ancient texts. Although now less dominant, philology retains a central role. One definition of classical philology describes it as "the science which concerns itself with everything that has been transmitted from antiquity in the Greek or Latin language. The object of this science is thus the Graeco-Roman, or Classical, world to the extent that it has left behind monuments in a linguistic form." Before the invention of the printing press, texts were reproduced by hand and distributed haphazardly. As a result, extant versions of the same text often differ from one another. Some classical philologists, known as textual critics, seek to synthesize these defective texts to find the most accurate version.

Archaeology

Classical archæology is the investigation of the physical remains of the great Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The archæologists’ field, laboratory, library, and documentation work make available the extant literary and linguistic cultural artefacts to the field’s sub-disciplines, such as Philology. Like-wise, archæologists rely upon the philology of ancient literatures in establishing historic contexts among the classic-era remains of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Art history

Some art historians focus their study of the development of art on the classical world. Indeed, the art and architecture of Ancient Rome and Greece is very well regarded and remains at the heart of much of our art today. For example, Ancient Greek architecture gave us the Classical Orders: Doric order, Ionic order, and Corinthian order. The Parthenon is still the architectural symbol of the classical world.

Greek sculpture is well known and we know the names of several Ancient Greek artists: for example, Phidias.

Civilization and history

With philology, archæology, and art history, scholars seek understanding of the history and culture of a civilisation, through critical study of the extant literary and physical artefacts, in order to compose and establish a ''continual'' historic narrative of the Ancient World and its peoples. The task is difficult, given the dearth of physical evidence; for example, Sparta was a leading Greek city-state, yet little evidence of it survives to study, and what is available comes from Athens, Sparta’s principal rival; like-wise, the Roman Empire destroyed most evidence (cultural artefacts) of earlier, conquered civilizations, such as that of the Etruscans.

Philosophy

Pythagoras coined the word philosophy (“love of wisdom”), the work of the “Philosopher” who seeks understanding of the world as it is, thus, most classics scholars recognize that the roots of Western philosophy originate in Greek philosophy, the works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics.

Classical Greece

Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian leadership successfully repelling the military threat of Persian invasion. The Athenian Golden Age ends with the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.

Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization.

Language in ancient Greece

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic (c. 9th–6th centuries BC), Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine ("common") or Biblical Greek, and its late period mutates imperceptibly into Medieval Greek. Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earlier form it closely resembles Classical Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects.

Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions since the Renaissance. Latinized forms of Ancient Greek roots are used in many of the scientific names of species and in scientific terminology.

Ancient Greek literature

Alfred North Whitehead once claimed that all of philosophy is but a footnote to Plato. To suggest that all of Western literature is no more than a footnote to the writings of ancient Greece is an exaggeration, but it is nevertheless true that the Greek world of thought was so far-ranging that there is scarcely an idea discussed today not already debated by the ancient writers. At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two monumental works of Homer, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. The Greeks invented the epic and lyric forms of tragedy and used them skillfully. They also invented drama and produced masterpieces that are still reckoned as drama's crowning achievement. Like tragedy, comedy arose from a ritual in honor of Dionysus, but in this case the plays were full of frank obscenity, abuse, and insult. At Athens the comedies became an official part of the festival celebration in 486 BC, and prizes were offered for the best productions.

Two of the most famous historians who have ever written flourished during Greece's classical age: Herodotus and Thucydides. Herodotus is commonly called the father of history, and his "History" contains the first truly literary use of prose in Western literature. Of the two, Thucydides was the more careful historian. His critical use of sources, inclusion of documents, and laborious research made his History of the Peloponnesian War a significant influence on later generations of historians. The greatest achievement of the 4th century was in philosophy. There were many Greek philosophers, but three names tower above the rest: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It is impossible to calculate the enormous influence these thinkers have had on Western society .

Greek mythology and religion

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These different groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or "cults" in the plural, though most of them shared similarities. Also, the Greek religion extended out of Greece and out to other islands.

Many Greek people recognized the major gods and goddesses: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Hestia and Hera though philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to posit a transcendent single deity. Different cities often worshipped the same deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them and specified their local nature.

Ancient Greek philosophy

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric, and aesthetics.

Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception. Clear, unbroken lines of influence lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, to medieval Islamic philosophers, to the European Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Technology of ancient Greece

Ancient Greek technology developed at an unprecedented speed during the 5th century BC, continuing up to and including the Roman period, and beyond. Inventions that are credited to the ancient Greeks such as the gear, screw, rotary mills, screw press, bronze casting techniques, water clock, water organ, torsion catapult and the use of steam to operate some experimental machines and toys and a chart to find prime numbers. Many of these inventions occurred late in the Greek period, often inspired by the need to improve weapons and tactics in war. However, peaceful uses are shown by their early development of the watermill, a device which pointed to further exploitation on a large scale under the Romans. They developed surveying and mathematics to an advanced state, and many of their technical advances were published by philosophers such as Archimedes and Hero.

Classical Rome

! Roman philosophy

! Roman mythology and religion

! Roman science

! Roman history

! Roman literature

! Latin language

*Seneca the Younger

*Cicero

*Lucretius

*Marcus Aurelius

*Roman mythology

Religion in ancient Rome>Roman religion

*Agriculture

**Cato the Elder

**Columella

Marcus Terentius Varro>Varro

Astrology/Astronomy

**Manilius

*Architecture/Engineering

**Frontinus

**Vitruvius

*Periods

Founding of Rome>The founding of Rome

*Roman Kingdom

*Roman Republic

*Roman Empire

Decline of the Roman Empire>The fall of Rome

*Topics

**The Samnite Wars

**The Pyrrhic War

**The Punic Wars

***The First Punic War

***The Second Punic War

***The Third Punic War

Social War (91–88 BC)>Social War

**The Gallic Wars

**The Civil war between Antony and Octavian

**The Germanic Wars

*Poets

***Didactic poetry

***Ovid

***Virgil

**Drama

***Plautus

***Seneca the Younger

***Terence

**Elegiac poetry

***Catullus

***Ovid

***Propertius

***Tibullus

**Epic poetry

***Ennius

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus>Lucan

***Ovid

***Virgil

***Lucan

***Statius

**Epigram

***Martial

**Lyric poetry

***Catullus

***Horace

***Satire

***Horace

***Juvenal

***Persius

*Prose writers

**Epistolary writers

***Cicero

***Pliny the younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca>Seneca

**Encyclopedia

***Pliny the Elder

***Apuleius

***Petronius

**History

Julius Caesar>Caesar

***Livy

***Sallust

***Suetonius

***Tacitus

**Oratory

**Rhetoric

***Quintilian

**Satire

***Petronius

***Seneca the Younger

*Latin

*Classical Latin

*Vulgar Latin

Famous classicists

Throughout the history of the Western world, many classicists have gone on to gain acknowledgement outside the field.

John Milton, author of ''Paradise Lost'' and English Civil War figure; studied, like many educated people of the time, Latin and Greek texts, which influenced ''Paradise Lost''

George Berkeley, philosopher, read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was also Junior Lecturer in Greek

Edward Gibbon, English historian and Member of Parliament who wrote ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''

William Ewart Gladstone, 19th century British Prime Minister, studied classics at Oxford University

Theodor Mommsen, author of ''History of Rome'' and works on Roman law; German politician, delegate in the Reichstag during the German Empire period

Karl Marx, philosopher and political thinker, studied Latin and Greek and received a Ph.D. for a dissertation on ancient Greek philosophy, entitled "The Difference between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature." His classical background is reflected in his philosophies—indeed the term "proletariat" which he coined came from that Latin word referring to the lowest class of citizen.

Søren Kierkegaard, philosopher, theologian, and social critic, studied classical philosophy and received a Master of Arts for a dissertation on Socratic thought, entitled ''On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates''. Kierkegaard spent much of his philosophical career studying and refining his views of Socrates.

Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher; earned Ph.D. and became Professor of Classics at the University of Basel in Switzerland

Sir James George Frazer, poet and anthropologist

Oscar Wilde, nineteenth-century playwright and poet; studied classics at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford

A.E. Housman, best known to the public as a poet and the author of A Shropshire Lad, was the most accomplished (and feared) textual critic of his generation and held the Kennedy Professorship of Latin at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1911 until his death in 1936.

John Buchan, writer and politician, who served as Governor General of Canada.

P.G. Wodehouse, writer, playwright, lyricist and creator of Jeeves; studied classics at Dulwich College

Enoch Powell, British Conservative and later Ulster Unionist politician; wrote and edited texts on Herodotus

Boris Johnson, British Conservative politician and current Mayor of London; studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford.

Most other pre-twentieth century Oxbridge playwrights, poets and English scholars studied classics before English studies became a course in its own right. Also many civil servants, politicians, etc. studied classics at Oxford University, by taking a course in Greats, up till the 1920s, when Modern Greats started to become more influential.

Modern quotations about

"Nor can I do better, in conclusion, than impress upon you the study of Greek literature, which not only elevates above the vulgar herd but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable emolument."—Thomas Gaisford, Christmas sermon, Christ Church, Oxford. "I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat."—Sir Winston Churchill, ''Roving Commission: My Early Life'' "He studied Latin like the violin, because he liked it."—Robert Frost, ''The Death of the Hired Man'' "I enquire now as to the genesis of a philologist and assert the following: 1. A young man cannot possibly know what the Greeks and Romans are. 2. He does not know whether he is suited for finding out about them."—Friedrich Nietzsche, Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen "I doubt whether classical education ever has been or can be successfully carried out without corporal punishment." —George Orwell

See also

Outline of classical studies

* Outline of ancient Greece

**Greek Language

* Outline of ancient Rome

**Latin Language

*Christian views on the classics

Outline of ancient Egypt

Digital Classicist

Humanism

Literae Humaniores

Loeb Classical Library

Philology

Western culture

Western World

Notes

References

Dictionaries

''Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists'' by Ward W. Briggs, Jr. (editor). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994 (hardcover, ISBN 0-313-24560-6).

''Classical Scholarship: A Biographical Encyclopedia (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities)'' by Ward W. Briggs and William M. Calder III (editors). New York: Taylor & Francis, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0-8240-8448-9).

''Dictionary of British Classicists, 1500–1960''. Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2004 (ISBN 1-85506-997-0).

''An Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology'', edited by Nancy Thomson de Grummond. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996 (hardcover, ISBN 0-313-22066-2; ISBN 0-313-30204-9 (A–K); ISBN 0-313-30205-7 (L–Z)).

''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'', ed. by Harry Thurston Peck. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1896; 2nd ed., 1897; New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1965.

Medwid, Linda M. ''The Makers of Classical Archaeology: A Reference Work''. New York: Humanity Books, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 1-57392-826-7).

''The New Century Classical Handbook'', ed. by Catherine B. Avery. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962.

''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', ed. by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, revised 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-19-860641-9).

''The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature'', ed. by M.C. Howatson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Miscellanea

Beard, Mary; Henderson, John. ''Classics: A very short introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 (paperback, ISBN 0-19-285313-9); 2000 (new edition, paperback, ISBN 0-19-285385-6).

Briggs, Ward W.; Calder, III, William M. ''Classical scholarship: A biographical encyclopedia (Garland reference library of the humanities)''. London: Taylor & Francis, 1990 (ISBN 0-8240-8448-9).

''Forum: Class and Classics'':

* Krevans, Nita. "Class and Classics: A Historical Perspective," ''The Classical Journal'', Vol. 96, No. 3. (2001), p. 293.

* Moroney, Siobhan. "Latin, Greek and the American Schoolboy: Ancient Languages and Class Determinism in the Early Republic", ''The Classical Journal'', Vol. 96, No. 3. (2001), pp. 295–307.

* Harrington Becker, Trudy. "Broadening Access to a Classical Education: State Universities in Virginia in the Nineteenth Century", ''The Classical Journal'', Vol. 96, No. 3. (2001), pp. 309–322.

* Bryce, Jackson. "Teaching the Classics", ''The Classical Journal'', Vol. 96, No. 3. (2001), pp. 323–334.

Knox, Bernard. ''The Oldest Dead White European Males, And Other Reflections on the Classics''. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993.

Macrone, Michael. ''Brush Up Your Classics''. New York: Gramercy Books, 1991. (Guide to famous words, phrases and stories of Greek classics.)

Nagy, Péter Tibor. "The meanings and functions of classical studies in Hungary in the 18th–20th century", in ''The social and political history of Hungarian education'' (ISBN 963-200-511-2).

Pearcy, Lee T. ''The Grammar of Our Civility: Classical Education in America'' (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2005).

Wellek, René. "Classicism in Literature", in ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas'', ed. by Philip P. Wiener. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968.

Winterer, Caroline. ''The Mirror of Antiquity: American Women and the Classical Tradition, 1750–1900''. Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell University Press, 2007 (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8014-4163-9).

Further reading

Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, ''Who Killed Homer: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom'', Encounter Books, 2001

External links

The Classical Association, the largest classical organization in the UK.

Institute of Classical Studies, the UK's national centre for the study of the ancient world, based at the University of London

Institute of Classical Studies Postgraduate Work-in-Progress Seminar official website, the UK's national forum for postgraduate students in classics

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

The American Classical League, the largest classics organization in the US, mainly a Latin, Greek, and Humanities teacher resource center

The National Junior Classical League, the largest youth-oriented Classics organization in the world, with US and international chapters, and membership for all middle- and high-school students of the Classics

Classical Resources on Internet at the Department of Classical Philology, University of Tartu.

De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors

Electronic Resources for Classicists by the University of California, Irvine.

Illustrated History of the Roman Empire

The Online Medieval and Classical Library

NOSTOI Journal of Classical Humanism. An aggregation of classical topics, articles and news.

The Perseus Digital Library

The Centre for the Promotion of Classics in Schools, Eye, Suffolk

Category:Ancient Greece Category:Ancient Rome Category:Humanities

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Name	Lou Reed
Landscape	yes
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Lewis Allan Reed
Born	March 02, 1942Brooklyn, New YorkUnited States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, ostrich guitar, bass, synthesizer, keyboards, piano, harmonica, drums, percussion
Genre	Rock, experimental rock, art rock, protopunk, noise music, drone music, psychedelic rock, folk rock, glam rock
Occupation	Musician, Songwriter, producer, photographer
Years active	1964–present
Label	Matador, MGM, RCA, Sire, Reprise, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	The Velvet Underground, John Cale, Nico, David Bowie, The Killers, Mick Ronson, Gorillaz, Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel, Metallica.
Website	www.loureed.com }}

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (born on March 2, 1942) is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which spans several decades and crosses multiple genres. The Velvet Underground gained little mainstream attention during their career, but became one of the most influential bands of their era. As the Velvet Underground's main songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including sexuality and drug culture.

After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", although he subsequently lacked the mainstream commercial success its chart status seemed to indicate. Reed's work as a solo artist frustrated critics wishing for a return of the Velvet Underground. In 1975 Reed released a double album of feedback loops, ''Metal Machine Music'', upon which Reed later commented: "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." He is also responsible for the name and popularization of ostrich tuning.

In 2008, Reed married singer/songwriter Laurie Anderson.

Early life

Reed was born into a Jewish family at Beth El Hospital in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Contrary to some sources, his birth name was Lewis Allan Reed, not Louis Firbanks; a name that was coined as a joke by Lester Bangs in ''Creem'' magazine. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in a number of bands. His first recording was as a member of a doo wop-style group called The Jades.

In 1956 Reed received electroconvulsive therapy as a teenager to "cure" his homosexuality; he wrote about the experience in his 1974 song, "Kill Your Sons". In an interview, Reed said of the experience:

Reed began attending Syracuse University in the fall of 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. In 1961 he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called "Excursions On A Wobbly Rail". Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Many of Reed's guitar techniques, such as the guitar-drum roll, were inspired by jazz saxophonists, notably Ornette Coleman. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. in June 1964.

Poet Delmore Schwartz taught at Syracuse University and befriended Reed, who in 1966 dedicated the song "European Son", from the Velvet Underground's debut album ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'', to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album.

Career

Staff songwriter at Pickwick Records

In 1964 Reed moved to New York City and began working as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. In 1964 he scored a minor hit with the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it." His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and arranged for a band to be assembled around Reed to promote the recording. The ad hoc group, called The Primitives, included Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music, along with Tony Conrad. Cale and Conrad were both surprised to find that for "The Ostrich" Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve.

The Velvet Underground

Reed and Cale lived together on the Lower East Side, and after inviting Reed's college acquaintances, guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, to join the group, they formed The Velvet Underground. Though internally unstable (Cale left in 1968; Reed in 1970) and without commercial success, the band has a long-standing reputation as one of the most influential bands in rock history.

The group soon caught the attention of artist Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gives an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Conflict emerged when Warhol had the idea for the group to take on a chanteuse, the European former model and singer Nico. Reed and the others registered their objection by titling their debut album ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' to imply that Nico was not accepted as a member of the group. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers (as were Nico and Cale later). ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' reached #171 on the charts.

Today, however, it is considered one of the most influential rock albums ever recorded. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine has it listed as the 13th most influential album of all time. Brian Eno once famously stated that although few people bought the album, most of those who did were inspired to form their own band.

By the time the band recorded ''White Light/White Heat'', Nico had quit and Warhol was fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager, Steve Sesnick, convinced Reed to drive Cale out of the band. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the group. Cale's replacement was Doug Yule, whom Reed would often facetiously introduce as his younger brother. The group now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. The group released two albums with this line up: 1969's ''The Velvet Underground'' and 1970's ''Loaded''. The latter included two of the group's most commercially successful songs, "Rock and Roll" and "Sweet Jane". Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970; the band disintegrated as core members Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker departed in 1971 and 1972, respectively. Yule continued until early 1973, and the band released one more studio album, ''Squeeze'', under the Velvet Underground name.

After the band's move to Atlantic Records' Cotillion label, their new manager pushed Reed to change the subject matter of his songs to lighter topics in hopes commercial success. The band's album ''Loaded'' had taken more time to record than the previous three albums together, but had not broken the band through to a wider audience. Reed briefly retired to his parents' home on Long Island.

Solo career

1970s

After quitting the Velvet Underground in August 1970, Reed took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week. A year later, however, he signed a recording contract with RCA and recorded his first solo album in London with top session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman, members of the progressive rock group Yes. The album, simply titled ''Lou Reed'', contained smoothly produced, re-recorded versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which were originally recorded by the Velvets for ''Loaded'' but shelved (see the ''Peel Slowly and See'' box set). This first solo album was overlooked by most pop music critics (although Stephen Holden in ''Rolling Stone'' called it "almost perfect") and it did not sell in significant numbers.

In December 1972, Reed released ''Transformer''. David Bowie and Mick Ronson co-produced the album and introduced Reed to a wider popular audience (specifically in the UK). The hit single "Walk on the Wild Side" was both a salute and swipe at the misfits, hustlers, and transvestites in Andy Warhol's Factory. The song's cleverly transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though musically somewhat atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. The song came about as a result of his commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name, though the play failed to materialize. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs; "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts.

Though ''Transformer'' would prove to be Reed's commercial and critical pinnacle, there was no small amount of resentment in Reed devoted to the shadow the record cast over the rest of his career. A public argument between Bowie and Reed ended their working relationship for several years, though the subject of the argument is not known. The two reconciled some years later, and Reed performed with Bowie at the latter's 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1997. The two would not formally collaborate again until 2003's ''The Raven''. Reed followed ''Transformer'' with the darker ''Berlin'', which tells the story of two junkies in love in the titular city. The songs variously concern domestic abuse ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late-1973 European tour, featuring dual lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his ''Berlin'' material with older rockers.

After ''Berlin'' came two albums in 1974, ''Sally Can't Dance'' and a live record ''Rock 'n' Roll Animal'', which contained performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane" and "Heroin". ''Rock 'n' Roll Animal'' became his biggest selling album, and its follow-up ''Lou Reed Live,'' recorded on the same occasions in December 1973, kept Reed in the public eye with strong sales after its release in early 1975.

As he had done with ''Berlin'' after ''Transformer'', in 1975 Reed responded to commercial success with a commercial failure, a double album of electronically generated audio feedback, ''Metal Machine Music''. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. But Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also as psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands after a few weeks. Though later admitting that the liner notes' list of instruments is fictitious and intended as parody, Reed maintains that ''MMM'' was and is a serious album. He has since stated though that at the time he had taken it seriously, he was also "very stoned". In the 2000s it was adapted for orchestral performance by the German ensemble Zeitkratzer.

By contrast, 1975's ''Coney Island Baby'' was mainly a warm and mellow album, though for its characters Reed still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, ''Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed''. While ''Rock and Roll Heart'', his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, fell short of expectations, ''Street Hassle'' (1978) was a return to form in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. But ironically Reed was dismissive of punk and rejected any affiliation with it. "I'm too literate to be into punk rock... The whole CBGB's, new Max's thing that everyone's into and what's going on in London — you don't seriously think I'm responsible for what's mostly rubbish?" ''The Bells'' (1979) featured jazz musician Don Cherry, and was followed the next year by ''Growing Up in Public'' with guitarist Chuck Hammer. Around this period he also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film ''One Trick Pony''. Reed also played several unannounced one-off concerts in tiny downtown Manhattan clubs with the likes of Cale, Patti Smith, and David Byrne during this period.

1980s

In 1980, Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales. They were divorced more than a decade later. While together, Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's ''Growing Up in Public'' and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's ''The Blue Mask''. After ''Legendary Hearts'' (1983) and ''New Sensations'' (1984) fared adequately on the charts, Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become spokesman for Honda motorcycles.

In the early 1980s, Reed asked guitarist Robert Quine to join his group. Quine appeared on Reed's The Blue Mask (1982), acclaimed as one of Reed's best albums, and Legendary Hearts (1983). The two guitarists’ played both rhythm and lead guitar. Robert Quine eventually quit the group due to tensions with Reed. However, Reed persuaded Quine to rejoin for a world tour, with which he agreed to despite his aversion to touring, for financial reasons. Quine ended his musical relationship with Reed in 1985.

On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' The Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", and ''New Sensations'', and "Walk on The Wild Side".

In 1986, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope Tour and was outspoken about New York's political issues and personalities on the 1989 album ''New York'', commenting on crime, AIDS, Jesse Jackson, Kurt Waldheim, and Pope John Paul II.

Following Warhol's death after routine surgery in 1987, Reed again collaborated with John Cale on the biographical ''Songs for Drella'', Warhol's nickname. The album marked an end to a 22-year estrangement from Cale. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, but also criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas.

1990s

In 1990, following a 20-year hiatus, the Velvet Underground reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit in France. Reed released his sixteenth solo record, ''Magic and Loss'' in 1992, an album about mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured throughout Europe, although plans for a North American tour were cancelled following another falling out between Reed and Cale. In 1994, Reed appeared in ''A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who'', also known as ''Daltrey Sings Townshend''. This was a two-night concert at Carnegie Hall produced by Roger Daltrey in celebration of his fiftieth birthday. In 1994, a CD and a VHS video were issued, and in 1998 a DVD was released. Reed performed a radically rearranged version of "Now And Then" from ''Psychoderelict''.

In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, Reed performed a song entitled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend" alongside former bandmates John Cale and Maureen Tucker, in dedication to Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. Reed has since been nominated for the Rock Hall as a solo artist twice, in 2000 and 2001, but has not been inducted.

His 1996 album, ''Set the Twilight Reeling'', met with a lukewarm reception, but 2000's ''Ecstasy'' drew praise from most critics, including Robert Christgau. In 1996, Reed contributed songs and music to ''Time Rocker'', an avant-garde theatrical interpretation of H.G. Wells' ''The Time Machine'' staged by theater director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Germany, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

In 1998, the PBS TV show, ''American Masters'' aired Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' feature documentary ''Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart''. This film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. and at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany went on to screen at over 50 festivals worldwide. In 1999, the film and Reed as its subject received a Grammy Award for best long form music video.

Since the late 1990s, Reed has been romantically linked to the musician, multi-media and performance artist Laurie Anderson, and the two have collaborated on a number of recordings together. Anderson contributed to "Call On Me" from Reed's project ''The Raven'', to the tracks "Baton Rouge" and "Rock Minuet" from Reed's ''Ecstasy'', and to "Hang On To Your Emotions" from Reed's ''Set the Twilight Reeling''. Reed contributed to "In Our Sleep" from Anderson's ''Bright Red'' and to "One Beautiful Evening" from her ''Life on a String''. They were married on April 12, 2008.

2000s

In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2000, a new collaboration with Robert Wilson called ''Poe-Try'' was staged at the Thalia Theater in Germany. As with the previous collaboration ''Time Rocker,'' ''Poe-Try'' was also inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer: Edgar Allan Poe. Reed became interested in Poe after producer and long-time friend Hal Willner had suggested him to read some of Poe's text at a Halloween benefit he was curating at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. For this new collaboration, Reed reworked and even rewrote some of Poe's text as well as included some new songs based on the theme explored in the texts. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of ''Prozac Nation''. On October 6, 2001 the ''New York Times'' published a Reed poem called ''Laurie Sadly Listening'' in which he reflects upon the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In 2003, he released a 2-CD set, ''The Raven'', based on "Poe-Try". Besides Reed and his band, the album featured a wide range of actors and musicians including singers David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Antony Hegarty, saxophonist and long-time idol Ornette Coleman, and actors Elizabeth Ashley, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Amanda Plummer, Fisher Stevens and Kate Valk. The album consisted of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by the actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. At the same time a single disc CD version of the albums, focusing on the music, was also released.

A few months after the release of ''The Raven'', a new 2-CD Best Of-set was released, entitled ''NYC Man (The Ultimate Collection 1967-2003)'', which featured an unreleased version of the song "Who am I" and a selection of career spanning tracks that had been selected, remastered and sequenced under Reed's supervision. In April 2003, Reed embarked on a new world tour supporting both new and released material, with a band including cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Antony Hegarty. During some of the concerts for this tour, the band was joined by Master Ren Guangyi, Reed's personal Tai Chi instructor, performing Tai Chi movements to the music on stage. This tour was documented in the 2004 double disc live album ''Animal Serenade'', recorded live at The Wiltern in Los Angeles.

In 2003, Reed released his first book of photographs, ''Emotions in Action''. This work actually was made up out of two books, a larger A4-paper sized called ''Emotions'' and a smaller one called ''Actions'' which was laid into the hard cover of the former.

''After Hours: a Tribute to the Music of Lou Reed'' was released by Wampus Multimedia in 2003. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song, "Satellite of Love" (called "Satellite of Love '04") was released. It reached #10 in the UK singles chart. Also in 2004, Reed contributed vocals and guitar to the track "Fistful of love" on ''I Am a Bird Now'' by Antony and the Johnsons. In 2005, Reed did a spoken word text on Danish rock band Kashmir's album ''No Balance Palace''.

In 2003, Reed was also a judge for the third annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

In January 2006, a second book of photographs, ''Lou Reed's New York'', was released. At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, Reed performed "White Light/White Heat" with The Raconteurs. Later in the night, while co-presenting the award for Best Rock Video with Pink, he exclaimed, apparently unscripted, that "MTV should be playing more rock n' roll."

In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far For Beauty" in Dublin, beside the cast of Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Antony, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, and others. According to the reports, he played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". He also performed "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong" and two duets — "Joan of Arc", with Cohen's former back-up singer Julie Christensen, and "Memories" — in a duet with Anjani Thomas.

In December 2006, Reed played a first series of show at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on his 1973 ''Berlin'' song cycle. Reed was reunited on stage with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album as well as on ''Rock 'n' Roll Animal'', as well as joined by singers Antony Hegarty and Sharon Jones, pianist Rupert Christie, a horn and string section and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The show was being produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The stage was designed by painter Julian Schnabel and a film about protagonist "Caroline" directed by his daughter, Lola Schnabel, was being projected to the stage. A live recording of these concerts was also published as a film (directed by Schnabel) which was released spring 2008. The show was also played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and throughout Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled ''Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse'', was released in 2008.

In April 2007, he released ''Hudson River Wind Meditations'', his first record of ambient meditation music. The record was released on the Sounds True record label and contains four tracks that were said to have been composed just for himself as a guidance for Tai Chi exercise and meditation. In May 2007 Reed performed the narration for a screening of Guy Maddin's silent film ''The Brand Upon the Brain''. In June 2007, he performed live at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the town.

In August 2007, Reed went into the studio with The Killers in New York City to record "Tranquilize", a duet with Brandon Flowers for The Killers' b-side/rarities album, called ''Sawdust''. During that month, he also recorded guitar for the Lucibel Crater song "Threadbare Funeral", which appears on their full-length CD ''The Family Album''. In October 2007, Reed gave a special performance in the ''Recitement'' song "Passengers". The album combines music with spoken word. The album was composed by Stephen Emmer and produced by Tony Visconti. Hollandcentraal was inspired by this piece of music and literature, which spawned a concept for a music video. On October 1, 2008, Reed joined Richard Barone via projected video on a spoken/sung duet of Reed's "I'll Be Your Mirror", with cellist Jane Scarpantoni, in Barone's ''FRONTMAN: A Musical Reading'' at Carnegie Hall.

On April 12, 2008, Reed married his longtime companion, performance artist Laurie Anderson, in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado.

On October 2 and 3, 2008 he premiered his new group, which later was named Metal Machine Trio, at REDCAT (Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex, Los Angeles). The live recordings of the concerts were released under the title ''The Creation of the Universe''. The Trio features Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and plays free improvised instrumental music inspired by Reed's 1975 album ''Metal Machine Music''. The music ranges from ambient soundscapes to free rock to contemporary noise. The trio played further shows at New York's Gramercy Theater in April 2009 and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza, including a 10 minute free trio improvisation. At Lollapalooza, held in Chicago's Grant Park, Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden as part of the 25th-anniversary celebration of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on October 30, 2009. Reed's recent activity in films include providing the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the forthcoming Luc Besson animated film, ''Arthur and the Vengeance of Maltazard'' playing the role of himself in Wim Wenders' movie Palermo Shooting (2008)

In 2009, Reed became an active member of The Jazz Foundation of America (JFA). Reed was a featured performer at the JFA's annual benefit "A Great Night in Harlem" in May 2009.

2010s

Reed has remained active doing benefits and composing music. He has contributed vocals on the third Gorillaz album, ''Plastic Beach'', on the song "Some Kind Of Nature". and co-wrote and performed backup music for a Chen Style Tai Chi instructional DVD. He has a co-production credit on Laurie Anderson's ''Homeland''.

Lou Reed performed a cover of the Buddy Holly song "Peggy Sue" which is featured on the tribute album "Rave On Buddy Holly".

Reed also began touring with the Metal Machine Trio, which was widely viewed as a return to his exploration of noise and sound. On June 15, 2011, heavy metal band Metallica announced that they have recorded a full length collaboration with Lou Reed to be released November 1 in North America and October 31 everywhere else.

Discography

With the Velvet Underground

''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' (1967)

''White Light/White Heat'' (1968)

''The Velvet Underground'' (1969)

''Loaded'' (1970)

''1969: The Velvet Underground Live'' (1974)

''VU'' (1985)

''Another View'' (1986)

''Live MCMXCIII'' (1993)

''Peel Slowly and See'' (1995)

''Fully Loaded'' (1997)

''Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes'' (2001)

As a solo artist

''Lou Reed'' (1972)

''Transformer'' (1972)

''Berlin'' (1973)

''Rock 'n' Roll Animal'' (1974)

''Sally Can't Dance'' (1974)

''Metal Machine Music'' (1975)

''Coney Island Baby'' (1975)

''Rock and Roll Heart'' (1976)

''Street Hassle'' (1978)

''The Bells'' (1979)

''Growing Up in Public'' (1980)

''The Blue Mask'' (1982)

''Legendary Hearts'' (1983)

''New Sensations'' (1984)

''Mistrial'' (1986)

''New York'' (1989)

''Songs for Drella'' (with John Cale) (1990)

''Magic and Loss'' (1992)

''Set the Twilight Reeling'' (1996)

''Ecstasy'' (2000)

''The Raven'' (2003)

''Hudson River Wind Meditations'' (2007)

''Metal Machine Music Presented By Zeitkratzer Live'' (with Zeitkratzer) (2007)

''The Stone: Issue Three'' (with John Zorn and Laurie Anderson) (2008)

''The Creation of the Universe'' (2008)

Appearances in film

''One Trick Pony'' (1980) as Steve Kunelian

''Get Crazy'' (1983) as Auden

''Permanent Record'' (1988) as himself

''Faraway, So Close!'' (1993) as himself

''Blue in the Face'' (1995) as "Man with Strange Glasses"

''Closure'' (1997) as himself

''Prozac Nation'' (2001) as himself

''Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse'' (2008)

''Palermo Shooting'' (2008) as himself

Personal life

On April 12, 2008, Reed married longtime companion Laurie Anderson in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado.

References

External links

Official Lou Reed website

Category:Living people Category:1942 births Category:American baritones Category:American buskers Category:American Jews Category:American male singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish singers Category:Musicians from New York Category:Noise musicians Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Freeport, New York Category:Protopunk musicians Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Syracuse University alumni Category:The Velvet Underground members Category:Sire Records artists Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Warner Bros. Records artists

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Bruce S. Thornton is a classicist at California State University, Fresno. He has written for many publications, published several books, and appeared at numerous media venues. He lives in Fresno with his wife and two sons. He is currently a research fellow and W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Career

Thornton received a Bachelor of Arts in Latin from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1975. He received a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1983. He had studied Greek, Latin, and English literature for his doctorate.

Thornton is a frequent guest on talk radio shows across the United States. He has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He also appeared regularly on ABC's ''Politically Incorrect'' with Bill Maher. Thornton is a regular contributor to the conservative website CaliforniaRepublic.org as well.

He has written for numerous publications such as National Review Online, ''Heterodoxy'', ''The National Herald'', ''The Washington Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''Helios Magazine'', ''Arion'', ''The Jewish Press'', ''The San Francisco Examiner'', ''The American Enterprise'', ''The University Bookman'', ''Religious Studies Review'', ''Intercollegiate Review'', ''The American Journal of Philology'', ''City Journal'', and ''FrontPage Magazine''. Thornton has also written several well received books.

Personal views

Thornton has described his opinions as opposed to the dominant, mainstream historical tradition about the Enlightenment. He is an admirer of historian and author Christopher Dawson. He also subscribes to the 'Athens versus Jerusalem' thesis of Leo Strauss, in which the interplay between classical Greek ideologies of rationality and the Judaeo-Christian spiritual philosophies resulted in the creation of Western civilization.

Thornton believes that the declining belief in interpersonal ideals such as national pride and in religious ideals such as Christianity has led non-American Westerners to either substitute "political religions" such as communism and fascism into their lives or abandon having moral ideals altogether. This, in his opinion, weakens them against pressure from threats such as increasing immigration to Europe by Muslims that have higher birth rates than native Europeans. He has said, "If all of their goods are material, right, what material good is worth dying for and what material good is worth killing for?"

Thornton is a strong critic of the Obama administration. He wrote on February 10, 2009: }}

Books

''Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality'' (Westview Press, 1997)

''Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge'' (ISI Books, 1999)

''Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization'' (Encounter Books, 2000)

''Humanities Handbook'' (Prentice-Hall, 2000)

''Bonfire of the Humanities. Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age,'' with John Heath and Victor Davis Hanson (ISI Books, 2001)

''Searching for Joaquin: Myth and History in California'' (Encounter Books, 2003)

''Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Motion Suicide'' (Encounter Books, 2008)

''The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens, Munich, and Obama’s America'' (Encounter Books, 2011) ISBN 1594035199

References

External links

"An interview with Bruce S. Thornton". My Greek Odyssey. Posted 20 March 2007.

Category:Living people Category:American essayists Category:American historians Category:American political writers Category:California State University, Fresno people Category:Writers from California Category:Theorists on Western civilization Category:People from Fresno County, California Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Conservatism in the United States

de:Bruce Thornton

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner, and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassical and neogothic buildings.

Biography

Schinkel was born in Neuruppin, Margraviate of Brandenburg. Aged six, his father died in Neuruppin's disastrous fire. He became a student of architect Friedrich Gilly (1772–1800) (the two became close friends) and his father, David Gilly, in Berlin. After returning to Berlin from his first trip to Italy in 1805, he started to earn his living as a painter. Working for the stage he created in 1816 a star-spangled backdrop for the appearance of the "Königin der Nacht" in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera ''The Magic Flute'', which is even quoted in modern productions of this perennial piece. When he saw Caspar David Friedrich's painting ''Wanderer above the Sea of Fog'' at the 1810 Berlin art exhibition he decided that he would never reach such mastery of painting and turned to architecture. After Napoleon's defeat, Schinkel oversaw the Prussian Building Commission. In this position, he was not only responsible for reshaping the still relatively unspectacular city of Berlin into a representative capital for Prussia, but also oversaw projects in the expanded Prussian territories from the Rhineland in the west to Königsberg in the east.

From 1808 to 1817 Schinkel renovated and reconstructed Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, in the Gothic Revival style.

Schinkel's style, in his most productive period, is defined by a turn to Greek rather than Imperial Roman architecture, an attempt to turn away from the style that was linked to the recent French occupiers. (Thus, he is a noted proponent of the Greek Revival.) His most famous buildings are found in and around Berlin. These include Neue Wache (1816–1818), the Schauspielhaus (1819–1821) at the Gendarmenmarkt, which replaced the earlier theater that was destroyed by fire in 1817, and the Altes Museum (old museum, see photo) on Museum Island (1823–1830).

Later, Schinkel moved away from classicism altogether, embracing the Neo-Gothic in his Friedrichswerder Church (1824–1831). Schinkel's Bauakademie (1832–1836), his most innovative building, eschewed historicist conventions and seemed to point the way to a clean-lined "modernist" architecture that would become prominent in Germany only toward the beginning of the 20th century.

Schinkel died in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg.

Schinkel, however, is noted as much for his theoretical work and his architectural drafts as for the relatively few buildings that were actually executed to his designs. Some of his merits are best shown in his unexecuted plans for the transformation of the Athenian Acropolis into a royal palace for the new Kingdom of Greece and for the erection of the Orianda Palace in the Crimea. These and other designs may be studied in his ''Sammlung architektonischer Entwürfe'' (1820–1837) and his ''Werke der höheren Baukunst'' (1840–1842; 1845–1846). He also designed the famed Iron Cross medal of Prussia, and later Germany.

It has been speculated, however, that due to the difficult political circumstances – French occupation and the dependency on the Prussian king – and his relatively early death, which prevented him from seeing the explosive German industrialization in the second half of the 19th century, he did not even live up to the true potential exhibited by his sketches.

Literature

Karl Friedrich Schinkel 1781 - 1841: the drama of architecture, ed. by John Zukowsky. With essays by Kurt W. Forster and Wolfgang Pehnt, ISBN 0-86559-105-9.

Jörg Trempler: ''Schinkels Motive''. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-88221-866-4.

Christoph Werner: Schloss am Strom. Die Geschichte vom Leben und Sterben des Baumeisters Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Bertuch-Verlag, Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-937601-11-2.

References

External links

Prefatory essay from ''Collection of Architectural Designs including those designs which have been executed and objects whose execution was intended by Karl Friedrich Schinkel'' (Chicago: Exedra Books Incorporated, 1981). Also used as a reference.

Category:1781 births Category:1841 deaths Category:19th-century architects Category:German ecclesiastical architects Category:German neoclassical painters Category:German architects Category:Greek Revival architects Category:Neoclassical architects Category:People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg Category:People from Neuruppin

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Name	Peter Berkowitz
Nationality	United States
Fields	Law,Ethics,Politics,Liberal democracy
Workplaces	Hoover Institution,Israel Program on Constitutional Government,Ethics and Public Policy Center
Alma mater	Yale University,Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Swarthmore College
Signature	}}

Peter Berkowitz is an American political scientist, a former law professor, the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and a Senior Fellow at the Jegish Academy on top of the Guggenheim Museum. He holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University; an M.A. in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and a B.A. in English literature from Swarthmore College.

Berkowitz taught constitutional law and jurisprudence at George Mason University School of Law from 1999 to 2007, and political philosophy in the Department of Government at Harvard University from 1990 to 1999.

In 1997, after Harvard University president Neil Rudenstine rejected the Department of Government's recommendation and denied his tenure, Berkowitz challenged the process by which Rudenstine reached his decision through Harvard's internal grievance procedure. Eventually, in 2000, he brought a lawsuit for breach of contract against Harvard alleging flaws in both the tenure review process and the grievance procedure. In 2003, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts dismissed his case.

He is cofounder and director of the Israel Program on Constitutional Government and is a member of the Policy Advisory Board at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He has defended George W. Bush and neoconservative policies. He has also written articles on liberalism and conservatism in the United States and on atheism.

In 2003 he penned an article in ''The Weekly Standard'' defending philosopher Leo Strauss from detractors who claimed that Strauss taught a group of elite who serve in high position in Bush administration to secretly manipulate policy for a neoconservative agenda.

Berkowitz formerly served on the foreign policy advisory team of Republican Party presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

Bibliography

''Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism'' (Princeton University Press, 1999).

''Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist'' (Harvard University Press, 1995).

''Varieties of Conservatism in American'', editor (Hoover Institution Press, 2004).

''Varieties of Progressivism in America'', editor (Hoover Institution Press, 2004)

''The Future of American Intelligence'', editor (Hoover Institution Press, 2005)

''Terrorism, the Laws of War, and the Constitution: Debating the Enemy Combatant Cases'', editor (Hoover Institution Press, 2005).

''Never a Matter of Indifference: Sustaining Virtue in a Free Republic'', editor (Hoover Institution Press, 2003).

Peter Berkowitz has co-edited the ''Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society'' book series with Tod Lindberg since 2005.

References

External links

Category:American political scientists Category:American political writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Swarthmore College alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Hoover Institute people Category:Yale University alumni Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:American Jews