Dr. Robert Zaller

Essays, Reviews & Commentary

The Cliffs of Solitude
“A triumph of great criticism.”
Whitney HothFanshawe College Ontario
The Discourse of Legitimacy in Early Modern England
“Monumental…a vast exercise in the history of ideas.”
Alexandra GajdaJournal of British Studies
Robinson Jeffers and the American Sublime
“The best single critical book about Jeffers…”
Albert GelpiCoe Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
Robinson Jeffers and the American Sublime
“Sure to become a mainstay of Jeffers studies…”
Josh WeinsteinJournal of American Literature
The Discourse of Legitimacy
“Massive and massively learned . . . [an] enormous achievement.”
Janelle GreenbergThe Journal of Modern History
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    • Endgame for the Grexit, or More of the Same?
    • It’s Time for Greece to Leave the Reich
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Home2018June

Month: June 2018

Literary

Review: Robert Jay Lifton. The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival.

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

Robert Jay Lifton set out long ago to be our catastrophist: the chronicler of the grim age of the twentieth century that included the two most terrible wars in history, and, with the advent of [ Read Article ]

Politics

How Has Donald Trump Affected Your Writing and Life?

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

I have been writing occasional opinion pieces about Donald Trump since his presidential run began three years ago. Like most commentators, I assumed it to be a vanity candidacy, and saw it as part of [ Read Article ]

Art

Shafts of Light, Slants of Dark: Nancy Herman Paintings at the Cosmopolitan Club

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

Nancy Clearwater Herman is perhaps best known for her large, richly complex quilts and hangings. The present exhibit at the Cosmopolitan Club shows another aspect of her art. The mostly small oil paintings on display [ Read Article ]

Music Review
Music

Of Sacred Spaces and the Right of Protest: The Orchestra’s Tour of Israel

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s just-concluded tour of Germany, Austria, and Israel has been the most controversial in its history. No, visiting Germany, where a resurgent right wing openly invokes the symbols of Nazism, wasn’t the problem. [ Read Article ]

Uncategorized

What’s a Girl Alone To Do? Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

Finding romance as one gets older doesn’t come easily. Such is the plight of Isabelle, the heroine of Claire Denis’ Un Beau soleil intérieur, wretchedly mistranslated as Let the Sunshine In in its American release. [ Read Article ]

Uncategorized

The Twilight of the European Union

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

The “West,” as that term has been understood since the end of World War II, is cracking up. It consisted, broadly, of the US, Canada, and Western Europe, the latter slowly recast as the European [ Read Article ]

Politics

Rock Bottom: A Torturer Now Heads the CIA

June 25, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

Weighing in on the subject of waterboarding, the notorious practice of simulated drowning widely practiced on suspected terrorists during the George W. Bush administration, our current president, Donald Trump, proclaimed that he not only approved [ Read Article ]

Politics

Pay To Play: America in the Middle East Today

June 4, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

Modern American foreign policy in the Middle East was formed by three pivotal events: the determination to control the region’s oil resources through public policy and oil corporations after World War I; the decision by [ Read Article ]

Academics

Outsourcing the Future: How America Has Abandoned Its Commitment to Public Education

June 4, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

America’s retreat from its century and a half commitment to public education has now become a rout. There has not been a greater betrayal of our country in my lifetime. There is no more disastrous [ Read Article ]

Music Review
Music

Brahms All the Way: The Chamber Music Society Presents His Two Sextets

June 4, 2018 Robert Zaller 0

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society is winding down its season this week, a varied one as usual that has offered everything from solo recitals to large chamber ensembles. Its presentation of the two Brahms Sextets [ Read Article ]

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About the Author

Dr. Robert Zaller is an American author, playwright, and professor of history at Drexel University. An authority on British political history and constitutional thought, he writes extensively on politics, modern literature, film, music and art. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

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