Fall 2002

In a conversation with soundings contributing editor Orna Feldman, Professor Joshua Cohen discusses freedom of expression, campaign finance reform, and the trouble with political philosophy today.

Stepping up!

Recipients of the Spring 2002 SHASS Infinite Mile Awards were announced in May.

Science Writing Program opens its doors

MIT's new graduate program in science writing hopes to influence both the discipline of science writing and the public understanding of science and technology.

Planting seeds

The Burchard Scholars Program makes room in the MIT universe for questions without answers.

Soundings is published by the Dean's Office of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT

Comments and questions to shass-www@mit.edu

Book notes

Edward Barrett, Sheepshead Bay. Zooland Books 2001. A collection of poetry composed largely of prose poems that address the larger life we merely intuit, but cannot grasp for long. Edward Barrett is a Senior Lecturer in Writing.

Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power. New Press 2002. Discussions on power and its exercise in the contemporary world. Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics.

Frederick Harris, Jr., Conducting with Feeling. Meredith Music Publications, 2001. A collection of thoughts from leading conductors about how a conductor communicates musical feeling to an ensemble. Frederick Harris, Jr. is Director of Wind Ensembles for Music and Theatre Arts.

Robert Kanigel, High Season: How One Mediterranean Town Has Seduced Travelers for Two Thousand Years. Viking Penguin, 2002. An account of how and why Nice came to define the nature of vacation itself—liberation, exoticism, sun, sex, and sensuality. Robert Kanigel is Professor of Science Writing.

Lowell E. Lindgren, ed, Complete Sonatas: Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, volumes 116-177. A-R Editions, 2002. The composer Haym moved in 1701 from Rome to London, where he published sonatas, adapted scores for the opera house, and served as Handel's principal librettist. Each volume contains twelve "Corellian" trio sonatas and a few solo sonatas for treble instruments (flute, oboe, violin) or the violoncello. Lowell E. Lindgren is Professor of Music and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow.

Pauline Maier, Merritt Roe Smith, Alex Keyssar, and Daniel Kevles, Inventing America: A History of the United States. W.W. Norton and Co., New York, 2002. A general history of the United States that seeks to reconfigure American history, by integrating technology and science into the usual mainstream discussions of politics and society. Pauline Maier is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History. Merritt Roe Smith is Cutten Professor of the History of Technology.

Charles Stewart III, David Canon, and Garrison Nelson, Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789-1946 (4 vols.). Congressional Quarterly Press, 2002. The culmination of a twenty-year effort to document the history of the congressional committee systems, from the first convening of Congress until the most important overhaul of the system in 1946. Charles Stewart III is Associate Dean of SHASS, Professor of Political Science, and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow.

Fall 2002