LARB Digital eDitions #37: Marginalia

July 201550 pages

LARB Digital eDitions #37: Marginalia

When constructing stories of the past, we often highlight certain events as pivotal moments. In most cases these occasions, so-called turning points, are mere conceits, handy symbols of societal transformations that were years in the making. Hundreds of years from now, should we be lucky enough to avoid destroying ourselves by then, historians may look back on a little-discussed event to make sense of the world we presently inhabit. The Chicago Theological Seminary sold its property to the University of Chicago for $44 million, and in 2011 the seminary was knocked down, the lot scraped clean, and in its place was built the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. There may be no clearer metaphor for the transformation of the West. But like many historical conceits, this moment was years in the making.


As people interested in intellectual culture, historical study, and religious discourse, we often feel odd and out of place. Our society commonly relegates these topics to the margins. We collected some recent pieces published in the Marginalia Review of Books that help us make sense of our transforming world. We think of them as little voices crying out in the wilderness, inviting our society to turn its gaze – even for a brief moment – to examine books and art that help us to consider our trajectory as a people.