The Worst Great Man: Reflections on the Perplexing Life of Fritz Haber

Join us for a talk by Todd Hasak-Lowy, about the Nobel Prize-winning chemist and controversial figure, Fritz Haber. 

Once called "arguably the single most consequential organism on the planet," Fritz Haber (1868-1934) was a German-Jewish chemist whose immeasurable influence on our history, species, and planet is nearly matched by his subsequent obscurity.  This talk will offer an introduction to Haber, the man who discovered how to "fix" nitrogen out of the air (thus making synthetic fertilizer possible), and, less than a decade later, led Germany's chemical weapons program during World War One.  What are we to make of a man who appears to be responsible for such incredible good and such indescribable evil?  And what would it mean if the good weren't so good after all and the evil was less evil than we've been led to believe?    

Todd Hasak-Lowy holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and until 2010 was an assistant and later associate professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the University of Florida. He is currently Professor, Adj. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he teaches Literature and Creative Writing.  He is the author of Here and Now: History, Nationalism, and Realism in Modern Hebrew Fiction.  He has published four works of fiction, including the short story collection The Task of This Translator and the novel Captives.  He has co-authored two works of nonfiction for younger readers, including Somewhere There is Still a Sun, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.  His most recent book, We Are Power, is a history of nonviolent activism for young readers.  His writing has been translated into over fifteen languages.  Todd also translates Hebrew literature into English, and his translation of Asaf Schurr's novel Motti won the 2013 Risa Domb/Porjes Hebrew-English Translation Prize.