Advance praise for Banquet at Delmonico’s

“Barry Werth has written a banquet of a book, a sumptuous feast of distinctive characters and delicious vignettes that places evolution indelibly at the center of Gilded Age controversy.”

–Christopher Benfey, author of The Great Wave and A Summer of Hummingbirds

“Few ideas have had a bigger (or sorrier) impact than the nineteenth-century notion that nations and races are engaged in a survival of the fittest–and that the Anglo-Saxons are the fittest of them all. By telling the story through a few shrewdly chosen and thoroughly fascinating people, Werth animates an idea and brings to life a memorable age.”

–Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and Robert Kennedy

“What a thrilling ride Barry Werth takes us on! His narrative history of the triumph of Darwinism in America has some of the qualities of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia: one bold character and striking scene after another, all in the service of a single great idea whose repercussions are still being felt today.”

–Anthony Giardina, author of Recent History and White Guys

“A rich, entertaining slab of Victorian American history, focused on the debate over evolution . . . Histories of ideas are rarely page-turners, but Werth has done the trick.”

– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

阿紮爾•納菲西（Azar Nafisi）

約翰•霍普金斯大學客座教授、對外政策研究院的對話研究項目負責人。曾在伊朗的德黑蘭大學、自由伊斯蘭大學以及阿拉美塔巴塔拜大學教授西方文學。1981年因拒戴頭巾，被逐齣德黑蘭大學。1997年，從伊朗到美國。

納菲西因為《在德黑蘭讀<洛麗塔>》引起全世界的關注，她所獲得的奬項還包括剋裏斯托弗•戈勃朗基金會國際思想與人文奬、東與阿馮尼•弗雷澤人權奬、伊麗莎白•安•斯通勇敢女性奬、 美國移民法律基金會移民傑齣成就奬、俄剋拉荷馬大學傑齣校友奬等。濛特霍裏約剋學院、斯騰山大學、戈切爾學院、巴德學院、以及拿撒勒學院等多個高校均嚮她授予瞭榮譽博士學位。

納菲西的文章廣受歡迎，多見於《紐約時報》《華盛頓郵報》《華爾街日報》以及《新共和》等著名媒體。著作另有：《在德黑蘭讀<洛麗塔>:以閱讀來記憶》《反地域：納博科夫小說的批評性研究》《比比和綠色的聲音》《想象共和國》等。