All event attendees must preregister.

In Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (2003), Charles Murray uses quantitative techniques that historians have developed over the last century to compile inventories of the people and events that have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences from the age of Homer to our own time. At this lecture coinciding with the book’s publication, Murray will discuss some of the leading issues raised by his analysis. How is a measure of "excellence" to be defended in a non-judgmental age? What sets the giants apart from the merely great? Why has great accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe since 1400? How do the conditions for great accomplishment in the past correspond to the conditions in today’s culture?

Human Accomplishment is available in bookstores starting Tuesday, October 21.