Talks & Entertainment

The World According to Star Wars is an original celebration of George Lucas’s masterpiece and an exploration of what we can learn from Star Wars—across history, presidential politics, law, economics, fatherhood and culture—by Sunstein, a Harvard legal scholar and former White House regulatory czar.

The Star Wars series, Sunstein argues, is all about serendipity and freedom: we explore the clouded nature of the future, the dismal failures of plans, and the inevitability, in our lives and our society, of “I am your father” moments, which cast a new light on everything that has gone before.

“Impossible to see, the future is,” says Yoda; this is the secret theme of Star Wars and the foundation of its tribute to human freedom. In The World According to Star Wars, you’ll learn:

• The meaning of Star Wars is not that everything is destined or prophesied, but that at crucial moments, a distinctly human power is required: the power of agency.
• The success of presidential candidates, the victory of rebellions, and the continued rule of empires often depend on small, unexpected factors, and are extremely hard to predict.
• When Star Wars was released, the studio had little faith in it, thinking that it would be a dud—it’s not always possible to predict what will catch on.
• New ways of looking at Star Wars through lenses as diverse as Christianity, Oedipus, feminism, chaos theory, terrorism, Buddhism and more.

Book signing to follow.