Spring
1998
Soundings is a publication of the School of Humanities and Social Science at MIT
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Book notes
Stephen Alter All the Way to Heaven: An American Boyhood in the Himalayas. Henry Holt and Company, 1997. A tribute to Alter's family, Indian friends, and unique upbringing in the Himalayas. Stephen Alter is writer-in-residence in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies.
Olivier Blanchard Macro-economics. Prentice-Hall, 1997. Outlines how the practice of macroeconomics helps in understanding some of the most important issues of the day, from the transformation of Eastern Europe to the budget battles in the United States. Olivier Blanchard is the Class of 1941 Professor of Economics.
Anne E. C. McCants Civic Charity in a Golden Age: Orphan Care in Early Modern Amsterdam. University of Illinois Press, 1997. Explores the connections between the developing capitalist economy, the functioning of government, and the provision of charitable services to Amsterdam orphans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Anne McCants is Associate Professor of History.
Heather Cox Richardson The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies During the Civil War. Harvard University Press, 1997. A study of the dynamics of the Civil War Republican Party, which championed economic growth and yet lay the foundations for corporate corruption and public protest. Heather Cox Richardson is Associate Professor of History.
Harriet Ritvo The Platypus and the Mermaid. Harvard University Press, 1997. Captures the fervor of the Victorian age for classifying and categorizing new specimens — plant and animal — brought home by British explorers, soldiers and sailors. Harriet Ritvo is Arthur J. Conner Professor of History.
Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey eds., Major Problems in the History of American Technology. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. New volume in a series. Examines the history of technology in America, from colonial times to the present, through essays and documents illuminating technology's social and cultural impact on everyday American life. Merritt Roe Smith is Leverett Howell Cutten and William King Cutten Professor of the History of Technology. Gregory Clancey is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and a Dibner Institute Graduate Fellow.
Myron Weiner and Tadashi Hanami eds., Temporary Workers or Future Citizens? Japanese and U.S. Migration Policies. New York University Press, 1998. Places the economic issues of migration in a cultural context by revealing how the collective identities of Americans and Japanese shape the way each society regards immigrants and refugees. Myron Weiner is Professor of Political Science.
Elizabeth A. Wood The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Indiana University Press, 1997. Investigates the Bolshevik government's campaign to draw women into the public sphere and involve them in the world of politics in the early Soviet years. Elizabeth A. Wood is Associate Professor of History.
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