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Arts & Culture
By: Sarah Sweeney/
May 3, 2012
Six fresh books worth perusing
Among these recent titles by Harvard writers, there’s something for everyone.
Filling a gap between teachers, troubled children
Child psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport follows up her 2009 memoir that explored her mother’s suicide with a user-friendly guide for teachers dealing with behaviorally challenged students.
New book documents a rising movement of likable people with offbeat ideas, who constitute a major influence on the Republican Party in this presidential election.
In his new book, “Guantánamo: An American History,” lecturer Jonathan Hansen uncovers the rich and controversial history of an American empire on the tip of Cuba.
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Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science
Happiness — how do we get it, how do we keep it, and where does it come from? Distinguished visiting fellow Sissela Bok plumbs the theories of philosophers, neuroscientists, and other specialists, and synthesizes her research into a comprehensive overview of the subject.
Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It
Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law, presents a road map for how to get the U.S. Congress back on track, and examines the issues of campaign financing, corporate lobbying, and other outside monetary interests that derail the government.
The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School Calestous Juma presents three opportunities that can transform African agriculture: advances in science and technology; the creation of regional markets; and the emergence of entrepreneurial leaders dedicated to the continent's economic improvement.
The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by three Harvard faculty members, including Dean of Harvard College Evelynn M. Hammonds, and featuring essays by University faculty including Jonathan Losos, Steven Pinker, Werner Sollors, and others, this collection of essays offers insight into contemporary education and issues in academia.
The Copan Sculpture Museum: Ancient Maya Artistry in Stucco and Stone
With illustrations and archaeological context, Barbara Fash, director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program at the Peabody Museum, discusses the global significance of a Honduran museum dedicated to the ancient Maya stone carvings in Copan.
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
In this wave-making book, Cogan University Professor Stephen Greenblatt takes into account “On the Nature of Things,” an eerily modern poem by the ancient Roman writer Lucretius, which helped shape the great thinkers of the Renaissance, even if fewer than three copies of the poem were known to exist at the time.
Tocqueville’s Discovery of America
Ernest Bernbaum Research Professor on Literature Leo Damrosch retraces the nine-month journey through America by historian Alexis de Tocqueville, author of “Democracy in America,” who cannily predicted the growing social unrest toward slavery in America.
In this important book, Douglas H. Powell, a clinical instructor in psychology, discusses lifestyle habits and attitudes linked to cognitive aging, and provides evidence-based strategies to minimize mental decline.
Professor of Law Annette Gordon-Reed tackles one of the worst presidents in American history, claiming that his own racism was to blame for his shoddy performance during the Reconstruction era.
Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade Elhanan Helpman discusses the revolutions in trade theory, showing how scholars shifted their trade flow analyses from sectoral levels to business-firm levels to clarify the growing roles of multinational corporations, offshoring, and outsourcing in the international division of labor.
Field Notes on Science & Nature
Michael Canfield, a lecturer on organismic and evolutionary biology, visits an eclectic range of scientific disciplines, offering examples that professional naturalists can emulate to fine-tune their own field methods, along with practical advice that amateur naturalists and students can use to document their adventures.
Another Freedom: The Alternative History of an Idea
Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature Svetlana Boym explores the cross-cultural history of the idea of freedom, discusses its limitations, and wonders how it can be newly imagined.
Hyperboles: The Rhetoric of Excess in Baroque Literature and Thought
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Christopher Johnson defends the role of Baroque period hyperbole in Spanish and Mexican lyrics, English drama, and French philosophy.
High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg
This biography by Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History and Professor of Business Administration, chronicles the life of Siegmund Warburg, a financial wiz, prophet of globalization, and strategic businessman.
His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra and India’s Struggle Against Empire
Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs Sugata Bose parses the life of Indian revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose, who struggled to liberate his people from British rule and led the Indian National Army against Allied Forces during World War II.
The Moche of Ancient Peru: Media and Messages
Jeffrey Quilter, a senior lecturer on anthropology and deputy director for curatorial affairs and curator at Harvard’s Peabody Museum, introduces the Moche civilization and explores current thinking about Moche politics, history, society, and religion.
Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership
Paul Lawrence, a professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, offers an integrated explanation of both human behavior and leadership using a scientific approach — and Darwin, too! — to illustrate how good, bad, and misguided leadership are natural to the human condition.
The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea
This selection of essays edited by Ezra F. Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, and Byung-Kook Kim recovers and contextualizes many of the ambiguities in South Korea’s trajectory from poverty to a sustainable high rate of economic growth.
Constructing the International Economy
Rawi Abdelal, the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration, and co-editors parse the ways political and economic forces are interpreted globally by agents, and seek to understand just how the economy is constructed.
Imagination and Logos: Essays on C.P. Cavafy
Panagiotis Roilos, professor of Modern Greek studies and of comparative literature, edits this volume of essays by international scholars exploring the work of C.P. Cavafy, one of the most important 20th century European poets.
Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down
Understanding attack strategies and how to prepare for them will help get your idea off the ground, according to this book by John P. Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership Emeritus, and co-author Lorne Whitehead.
Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology
Mayra Rivera Rivera, assistant professor of theology and Latina/o studies, and Stephen D. Moore compiled these essays by theologians and biblical scholars who react to Spivak’s postcolonial studies and theology.
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
Robert D. Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, and co-author David E. Campbell, plumb America’s modern history of religion, including the shift towards atheism, and current youth culture’s acceptance of diversity.
Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages
Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore Stephen A. Mitchell examines witches, wizards, and seeresses in literature, lore, and law, as well as surviving charm magic directed toward love, prophecy, health, and weather.
In the Light of Evolution: Essays from the Laboratory and Field
Jonathan Losos, Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America, edits this collection of essays by leading scientists, including Harvard’s Daniel Lieberman and Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard historian Janet Browne, and many others.
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