April 13, 2017: Daniel Mahoney discusses Solzhenitsyn's 'The Gulag Archipelago'

Daniel Mahoney presents 'Judging Communism and All Its Works: Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago Reconsidered' Thursday, April 13, 7:30-9 p.m. / Rasmuson Hall, Room 101 Free and open to the public. Free parking after 7:30 p.m.

Daniel J. Mahoney is Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship at Assumption College, where he has taught since 1986. An expert on statesmanship, French political philosophy and anti-totalitarian thought, his books include The Liberal Political Science of Raymond Aron (1992), De Gaulle: Statesmanship, Grandeur, and Modern Democracy (1996), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology (2001), The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order (2011) and The Other Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth About a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker (2014).

Professor Mahoney will explore Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, at once a great literary work and an unparalleled witness to the totalitarian ravages of the bodies and souls of human beings. This remarkably capacious book includes historical discussions, personal reminiscences of Solzhenitsyn's time in the Soviet camps, political reflections and philosophical meditations. At its heart is an epic poem in which Solzhenitsyn recovers the great and enduring drama of good and evil in the human soul. In Russia, the availability of The Gulag Archipelago, which is required reading in abridged form in Russian high schools, provides hope that the terrible tragedies of the past will not be repeated. In the West, it remains an indispensable warning against the totalitarian temptation.

Parking is free in all UAA lots after 7:30 p.m.

Those who wish to learn more about Aleksandr Solzhenitysn in advance of the lecture are directed to any of his books or to this article by Professor Mahoney on Solzhenitsyn's work The Red Wheel.

The Chartwell Lecture Series, organized by the UAA Department of Political Science, features lectures on a wide range of subjects in the humanities and liberal arts. Lectures are free and open to the public. Professor Mahoney's lecture is made possible by the Victims of Communism Foundation in Washington, D.C., and co-sponsored by the Alaska Association of Scholars.

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Save the date for the next Chartwell Lecture (which will also be the last in the series for spring 2017):

• Christer Persson presents "The Growing Nationalist Populism: Its Impact on the British 'Brexit' Vote and on European and Global Politics" on Thursday, April 20, 7:30-9 p.m. in UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307.

April Archive