Literary critic and Yale professor Caleb Smith explores nineteenth-century archives and shows that distraction—“the wandering mind”—is not just a 21st-century problem. It was also a serious concern in American culture two centuries ago. Modeling his text after 19th-century books of devotion, Smith offers close readings of 28 short passages about attention. Considering social reformers, religious leaders, and spiritual seekers, Smith shows how disciplines of attention became spiritual exercises in an earlier distracted age.
More info on series here.
All events are free and open to the public and will be held on Wednesday afternoons in the lecture hall at Sterling Memorial Library. After the presentations, authors will be available to sign copies of books that participants have purchased in advance. Books will not be sold at the event.