The violent struggle over civil rights in 1964 Mississippi shows what happens when God’s will is interpreted through radically different filters of beliefs. In his book “God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights,” Charles Marsh takes an in-depth look at one historical moment when those beliefs clashed violently. Marsh’s work has earned the […]
L. Scott Miller lays out a plan to bridge the chasm in his 1995 book “An American Imperative: Accelerating Minority Educational Advancement.” The ideas presented in the book have earned for Miller the 1998 Award. In “An American Imperative,” Miller examines the differences between majority and minority achievement and shows they are due to environmental […]
Through his opera “Marco Polo,” composer Tan Dun takes his audience along for the explorer’s legendary travels from Italy to China. He also takes the audience on a spiritual quest reflecting the three states of the human being — past, present and future — and the cycle of nature. And he takes the listener on […]
Larry L. Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, won the 1997 award for the book Earth Community, Earth Ethics. The $150,000 Grawemeyer prize is presented jointly by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville. Rasmussen shows through the book how the current environmental […]
Long-standing international disputes often seem unsolvable because the parties involved are too deeply invested in their positions. However, a third party may help them to focus on the basic concerns underlying their positions, and thus to reframe the issues in ways more amenable to negotiation. Herbert C. Kelman describes the process, which he calls interactive […]
Societal respect for and confidence in American public education may be at an all-time low. Yet remarkable things are happening in classrooms across the nation. In his book “Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America,” Mike Rose focuses on the positive things going on in these classrooms and, through them, offers hope for […]
An orchestral work inspired by the poems of a Holocaust survivor captured the 1997 award. British composer Simon Bainbridge intertwined his music with the poetry of Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi in “Ad Ora Incerta — Four Orchestral Songs from Primo Levi,” which was selected from among 181 entries for the $150,000 Grawemeyer prize. The work […]
For the first time, the major world powers share a commitment to democracy. By working together, they eventually will encourage other nations toward democracy and, ultimately, peace. This is one of the predictions by Max Singer and the late Aaron Wildavsky, authors of The Real World Order: Zones of Peace/Zones of Turmoil. The ideas presented […]
Understanding that some cultures within society have little use for accepted ideas of literacy is the key to improving learning for children from those groups, says Harvard University professor Victoria Purcell-Gates, winner of the 1996 award. Purcell-Gates explores in her book “Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy,” how nonliterate cultures adapt to life […]
A concerto written by composer Ivan Tcherepnin for violinist Lynn Chang and cellist Yo-Yo Ma captured the 1996 award. Tcherepnin’s “Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra,” a 23-minute work premiered by the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras June 3, 1995, was selected from 173 entries to receive the $150,000 Grawemeyer prize. Tcherepnin described the […]