Miscellaneous

Video, audio, and other things Menand.

The Metaphysical Club page on Farrar, Strauss and Giroux
Read an excerpt from Chapter One as well as praises by critics. There is also an audio file of Menand discussing the book.

NPR: All Things Considered, May 24, 2001
Robert Siegel talks with Louis Menand about The Metaphysical Club.

NPR: All Things Considered, December 16, 2002
Lynn Neary talks with Louis Menand about his New Yorker article "Cat People."

WGBH Forum Network: Pragmatism's Three Moments
Louis Menand gives a lecture about pragmatism in February 2004. Video and audio in Realplayer format.

DC Bar: For Lawyers, April 2002
An article about legal reasoning makes reference to Menand's writing on Oliver Wendell Holmes.

New York Post article by Michael Giltz
Article about Metaphysical Club and Menand's new-found success. You can read the raw transcript from Giltz's interview with Menand.

The Minnesota Review: Interview with Menand, 2001
Jeffrey J. Williams interviews Menand about his work, his days at the New Republic, and his upcoming book on the Cold War.

Mark Bernstein's blog: a section about Menand
Mark Berstein reviews some of Menand's articles and books and points out various highlights in this blog section dedicated to Menand.

Harvard Magazine: Yearning for "Big Humanities," Jan-Feb. 2005
This article recaps the discussion on the role and pitfalls of the humanities by Menand and fellow English and American lit professor Majorie Garber.

Language Log: Menand and the Possessive Antecedent Proscription Issue
Geoff Pollum criticizes Menand for being a sloppy " grammatical pedant" in his article on The Chicago Manual of Style. Arnold Zwicky adds that Menand, while critical of those who have violated the possessive antecedent proscription (e.g. the confusing pronoun in "Emerson's reaction, when Holmes showed him the essay, is choice..."), is not guilt-free, citing examples from The Metaphysical Club.

The Literary Critic's Shelf of Shame: Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, and other books that professional readers skip.
Menand admits he never finished the second volume of Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, but it hasn't prevented him from using "Proustian" to describe other books.