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)

阿扎尔•纳菲西（Azar Nafisi）

约翰•霍普金斯大学客座教授、对外政策研究院的对话研究项目负责人。曾在伊朗的德黑兰大学、自由伊斯兰大学以及阿拉美塔巴塔拜大学教授西方文学。1981年因拒戴头巾，被逐出德黑兰大学。1997年，从伊朗到美国。

纳菲西因为《在德黑兰读<洛丽塔>》引起全世界的关注，她所获得的奖项还包括克里斯托弗•戈勃朗基金会国际思想与人文奖、东与阿冯尼•弗雷泽人权奖、伊丽莎白•安•斯通勇敢女性奖、 美国移民法律基金会移民杰出成就奖、俄克拉荷马大学杰出校友奖等。蒙特霍里约克学院、斯腾山大学、戈切尔学院、巴德学院、以及拿撒勒学院等多个高校均向她授予了荣誉博士学位。

纳菲西的文章广受欢迎，多见于《纽约时报》《华盛顿邮报》《华尔街日报》以及《新共和》等著名媒体。著作另有：《在德黑兰读<洛丽塔>:以阅读来记忆》《反地域：纳博科夫小说的批评性研究》《比比和绿色的声音》《想象共和国》等。