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Eric Laursen - The Duty to Stand Aside

Wed, September 19th, 2018
6:30 pm
- 7:30 pm

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The election of Donald Trump brought new attention to George Orwell and his classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which once again became a bestseller. Eric Laursen explores the years that led up to Orwell’s dystopian novel—in particular, his wartime quarrel with a young biologist, poet, and anarcho-pacifist named Alex Comfort – later famous as the author of the bestseller The Joy of Sex.

As Britain and the U.S. battled Hitler, Orwell and Comfort debated whether there is ever such a thing as a “good war” and shared their concerns over the kind of world that would emerge from the war with Nazi Germany. Laursen digs deep into their debate, and the unexpected turn their relationship took after the war.

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