Tickets HERE

Tuesday, January 31st 6-7 PM

Bomhard Theatre, 501 W. Main St, Louisville (In-Person and Virtual Options)

Part of the Gretrude Polk Brown Lecture Series.

A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today’s conservative political landscape.

Beverly Gage’s monumental work explores the full sweep of Hoover’s life and career, from his birth in 1895 to a modest Washington civil-service family through his death in 1972. In her nuanced and definitive portrait, Gage shows how Hoover was more than a one-dimensional tyrant and schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he was a confidant, counselor, and adversary to eight U.S. presidents, four Republicans and four Democrats. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did the most to empower him, yet his closest friend among the eight was fellow anticommunist warrior Richard Nixon. Hoover was not above blackmail and intimidation, but he also embodied conservative values ranging from anticommunism to white supremacy to a crusading and politicized interpretation of Christianity. This garnered him the admiration of millions of Americans. He stayed in office for so long because many people, from the highest reaches of government down to the grassroots, wanted him there and supported what he was doing, thus creating the template that the political right has followed to transform its party.

Beverly Gage is professor of 20th-century American history at Yale. She is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded, which examined the history of terrorism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She writes frequently for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Nation, and is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.

Masks are strongly encouraged to help actively include immuno-vulnerable friends and those around them. Thanks!

Register HERE

Pre-registering helps us order enough books for our guests and helps us set up the room for safety and comfort. We will allow pre-registrants to be seated first. No one will be turned away, but please note that seating is limited. Please contact the store ahead of time if you need assistance with mobility or other concerns - we are happy to help!

From the author of "The Origins Of The Cornbread Mafia" and "Cornbread Mafia, The Outlaws of Central Kentucky", comes Joe Keith Bickett's third book, "Cornbread Mafia, The Quest For Freedom, A Prisoner's Memoir". After becoming the largest domestic marijuana cartel in U.S. History, the federal government convicted Bickett and many more Kentucky men and women and sentenced them to harsh sentences for their roles as members of the famed Cornbread Mafia. While many have heard the stories of the Cornbread Mafia's origins, its rise to fame and ultimate downfall, "Quest For Freedom" dives deep into the violent and murky world of the federal prison system where Bickett and many more were incarcerated for decades. Cornbread Mafia, The Quest For Freedom is a true and untold story of mass incarceration of marijuana offenders and others during the "War on Drugs" in the 1990s and beyond. Bickett details an unforgiving justice system as he and many other cannabis and drug offenders struggle for their freedom while in the "belly of the beast." After being convicted in the early 1990s as a member of the Cornbread Mafia, Bickett was sentenced to serve twenty-five, (25) years in federal prison along with his brother Jimmy who was sentenced to twenty (20) years. At the time, Johnny Boone, "The Godfather of Grass" was serving a twenty (20) year sentence for his role in the Cornbread Mafia. Bobby Joe Shewmaker was sentenced to thirty (30) years, Tommy Lee to twenty-one (21) years and many more members incarcerated for the cultivation and distribution of marijuana. Bickett's first-hand account, Cornbread Mafia, The Quest For Freedom, chronicles the members of the Cornbread Mafia's new lives behind the imposing and restricted walls of federal prison as they struggle-by any means possible--for that ultimate goal of freedom--once again.

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You can get the book on the registration page, but it’s cheaper if you link below because we don’t pay extra service fees. Whatever is more convenient for you, we love to get you your books!

Mobility device access info:

While our store has ramp access to the right of the main entrance, the event space is more easily accessed by entering at Bayly Avenue. Please call the store when you arrive and we will be happy to welcome you via this entrance. This door is next to a loading zone for easy car access, and our parking lot reserved ADA spots are also close to this entrance.

Masks are strongly encouraged to help actively include immuno-vulnerable friends and those around them. Thanks!

Register HERE

Pre-registering helps us order enough books for our guests and helps us set up the room for safety and comfort. We will allow pre-registrants to be seated first. No one will be turned away, but please note that seating is limited. Please contact the store ahead of time if you need assistance with mobility or other concerns - we are happy to help!

"Filled with images of the beauty of nature – the colors of the sunset, the feel of the wind with the approach of winter, the tastes of food in a cabin or from a campfire, the sound of quail and coyotes on a Texas ranch – the short stories and novellas of J. Kent Gregory explore the basic human yearning for the peace and healing found in the natural world.  In “A Place Apart”, the narrator describes finding an untouched, separate, liminal dell.  “Scouting with My Daddy”, told from the perspective of a young boy, describes his introduction to the beauties and thrills of the woods by his protective father. In the title short story, “Sanctuary”, two friends meet on a river near Canada to fish and find peace in the waning days of summer.  “On the Gulf” follows one of the two friends as he escapes the Northern cold and a failing relationship to fish the surf and the Gulf Stream where he finds connection and shared loss with a trophy sailfish.  In “The Forge” the two friends come together to fight a dangerous fire in the Valley of Virginia.  The narrator of “Free and Happy, Wherever Home Is” discovers, to his surprise, a love for the land and animals on a dry Texas ranch.  “A Café Scene” is a short vignette where the narrator looks ahead from the waning of winter to summer amid a feast of the senses.  In “Solitude” an older man, alone with his dog, gets in one last pheasant hunt before a winter storm and the unwanted arrival of visitors.  In the final story, “Healing Waters”, the narrator flies out West after a devastating loss to meet a young woman who introduces him to the rivers and waters of the Cascades and the Coastal Range."

You can get the book on the registration page, but it’s cheaper if you link below because we don’t pay extra service fees. Whatever is more convenient for you, we love to get you your books!

Mobility device access info:

While our store has ramp access to the right of the main entrance, the event space is more easily accessed by entering at Bayly Avenue. Please call the store when you arrive and we will be happy to welcome you via this entrance. This door is next to a loading zone for easy car access, and our parking lot reserved ADA spots are also close to this entrance.

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a Showtime/Paramount series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

Register HERE

In The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go, businessman and former U.S. Ambassador Matthew Barzun layers lessons from American history and business with insights from his career in tech, politics, and diplomacy to show how we can lead meaningful change in our companies, communities, and even our nation.

Barzun served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom during the Obama administration and is the current owner/publisher of Louisville Magazine.

This program is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.

“This book is a breakthrough. It’s beautifully written, perfectly timed and heralds a new way forward. I’m buying a dozen copies to share with friends and colleagues.”

-Seth Godin, Founder of altMBA and author of The Practice
 
If you let go of hierarchy, chaos will reign...or so many leaders believe.
 
But when leaders find the courage to distribute rather than hoard power, creativity multiplies, trust deepens, and inclusivity expands... and a new kind of order emerges.

A few rare leaders have learned to embrace a new organizational shape and mindset: Constellations. Organizations designed as constellations are dynamic and flexible networks of distinct yet interwoven individuals. Each member of the team feels like a singular star and is also connected to others to form something greater. That is how Visa reimagined how we pay for things, how Wikipedia beat the richest company in the world and how Barack Obama and his grassroots team revolutionized political campaigning. These leaders did what most leaders dread – they gave away power.
 
Barzun brilliantly layers lessons across history and industries with his own experiences as an internet entrepreneur, political organizer, and US ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden. The Power of Giving Away Power shows how the Constellation mindset shines in some of the most impactful organizations and innovations the world has ever known. And it encourages us all to recognize, as Barzun writes, "the power we can create by seeing the power in others" — and making the leap to lead. Together. 

About the Author

Matthew Barzun has always been fascinated about how we can stand out and fit in at the same time. He helped countries do both when he served as US ambassador to the United Kingdom and to Sweden. He helped citizens do both as National Finance Chair for Barack Obama by pioneering new ways for people to have a stronger voice in politics. And he helped tech consumers do both as an entrepreneur when he helped build CNET Networks in the early 90’s. Barzun was raised on the East Coast, started his career on the West Coast, and settled in the middle in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Brooke, and their three children.

Praise For…

“He can indeed make his constellation theory sound appealing… The Power of Giving Away Power is surprisingly (and refreshingly) nonpartisan.”
The Wall Street Journal

“Bravo. These are ideas that can heal and inspire in a time when we are suspicious, tribal, at each others’ throats.” 
Ken Burns, Documentary Filmmaker
 
“Matthew Barzun might well be the first modest man to write a great book on leadership. This is a gift."
Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize Laureate and co-author of Nudge
 
"This is the manifesto we need right now. Barzun shows that sharing power, counterintutively, magnifies everyone's impact and helps leaders get more done."
Charles Duhigg, Author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
 
"A brilliant challenge to conventions that have held back organizations for decades and a crisp playbook for making distributed leadership work for everyone."
Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer, Netflix
 
“A gift. This is certainly the path to the collective leadership we need to tackle today’s challenges and shape a better future.”
Wendy Kopp, Founder, Teach For America
 
"Fun, informative, and mind-expanding for everyone, whether you're leading a business, a country, or a family." 
Danny Meyer, CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group
 
"A remarkable book about creating order without control and freedom without chaos, from an original and counterintuitive leader and thinker."
Daniel H. Pink, Author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human
 
“An engaging, compelling, and welcome rebuttal to the distressingly widespread win/lose theories of leadership.”
-Drew Faust, President Emerita, Harvard University
 
"Unexpected encounters! Barzun introduces you to people and ideas you never knew but should if you really care about leadership." 
Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer
 
“An extraordinary book about human flourishing, about linking ourselves properly to the best bits of ourselves and of others to move mountains. Enlightening and brain reviving.”
Alain de Botton, Author of How Proust Can Change Your Life

"Anyone who seeks to be a better, stronger, wiser and more effective leader would do well to read this collection of engaging stories about the power of empowering others."
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mayor of New York, 2002-2013

"Delightfully paradoxical and deeply insightful. Read it and lead differently."
Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America,
 
“A book as provocative, energizing, and humane as Barzun himself. It points the way forward in a time in which we desperately need new and better leadership.”
Admiral James Stavridis, former USN Supreme Allied Commander at NATO
 
“Matthew’s leadership style has always been collaborative and celebratory of his teams, but in this wonderful book he shares the power of how lifting people up to lift up the entire organization.”
Nicole A. Avant, TV and Film Producer and former US Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
 
“This is an incredibly timely book and blueprint into how power and leadership should operate within the world. Through this exploration we are able to see the possibility of a new and inspiring world that exists when power is interwoven.”
Sir David Adjaye, Architect, National Museum of African American Culture & History
 
“With compelling personal and historical stories Barzun artfully makes the case for replacing the Great Man myth of leadership with effective leadership through empowering others. An upbeat and refreshing book.”
Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
 
“This is a treatise on grace that shows a way to move forward at rocket speed and to solve the problems that paralyze so many ostensible leaders today.  It’s vivid and generous and often witty and deeply insightful.
Andrew Solomon, Author, Far From the Tree

"Take to heart Barzun’s bracing 'declaration of interdependence'—an engagingly personal primer on how we might change the world by changing ourselves, together." 
Hank Meijer, Chairman of Meijer Inc.

"A riveting and unforgettable journey through the wisdom of largely-forgotten visionaries with profound potential to reshape modern leadership for the better."
Jeffrey Rosen, President & CEO, National Constitution Center

"I had the opportunity to meet Matthew during the time he was ambassador in Britain. I was astonished by his thinking. Whenever we would have occasion to talk, I would scramble to find a pen and paper so I could take notes on everything he said. Now, thankfully, we have this book."
Simon Sinek, Author, Start With Why & The Infinite Game
 
“Full of compelling stories and hard-won wisdom. Inspiring.”
Jon Favreau, Co-Host, Pod Save America
 
"The book is illuminating. It challenges you to take a hard look at your own leadership style...it's that good."
Stacey Wade, CEO and executive creative director, Nimbus
 
“Redistributing power, an anthem of our times, gets a new twist from a former US Ambassador who rejects exerting power over whomever and whatever we can. Barzun engagingly argues for abandoning hierarchy to empower ‘constellations’ of diverse workers and teammates seeking the freedom to ‘stand out and fit in.’”
Anita L. Allen, JD., PhD, Henry R Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania