5 comments about Harvard Rules: Lawrence Summers and the Battle for the World's Most Powerful University.

1. This is an outstanding book. It covers the first three years of Larry Summers' Harvard presidency and really takes you inside the university. Harvard Rules treats the issues of higher education seriously, but it also conveys all the drama that goes on behind-the-scenes at Harvard. I particularly liked the way Bradley treated the people involved as characters, so that the book reads almost like a novel, which is not what you'd typically expect of a book about higher education. Like him or hate him, Larry Summers is a fascinating man, and this book provides grist for both sides of the mill. If you're interested in Harvard or higher education, this is a must read. But if you're interested in just a good read about ambition and power, I'd recommend Harvard Rules for that, too.



2. Answer: the author Richard Bradley, not Harvard president Lawrence Summers.
   Reason. The cause of the fear is that West might accuse Bradley of being a "racist" and ruin his career. If you are one of the Harvard faculty who hate Summers, you are probably afraid of West too. Some of you may have witnessed Bradley's fear and trembling on C-SPAN 2 when he discussed this book in the presence of West. He acted like a hostage in Iraq.
   Truth. The truth is that Summers had the guts to stand up to West and Henry Gates. He rejected their racial fantacies because they could not cite any credible supporting evidence. He rejected the politicizing of a great university. He reaffirmed academic freedom. Of course, Bradley did not intend to make Summers look good. But the facts speak for themselves. Read the book in a bookstore, but don't buy it and enrich an author who is afraid of Cornel West.



3. Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Larry Summers. I didn't care for him when I was an intern at Treasury, and as an alum I really don't care for him as president of Harvard. But even I think this book is unfair to Summers and goes too far in trying to villify the man.
   
   Bradely has written a book that is very easy to read and draws almost all of the issues enveloping Harvard in easy to digest, black-and-white dramas between Summers (always in the black hat) and various members of the faculty and student body (always portrayed sympatetically). This book makes no pretence of being objective or looking any further than skin-deep at the controversies that surrounded Summers before the most recent blow-up over his comments on women in science. Several chapters end with essentially the same line: by doing X, Summers had further consolidated his rule over the university. If all of this is true (it's not), Summers would be the absolute dictator of Harvard Yard by now.
   
   In fact, what has been written here is basically an expanded, book-edition copy of the Harvard Crimson from 2000 to the present. There is little new in the book that readers of Harvard's student newspaper don't already know other than a few re-interviews that Richard Bradley has done with various personalities involved in the recent events at Harvard.
   
   What's lost here is that what is going on at Harvard is a microcosm of what's going on at many other American universities, and that much of it isn't new. As far back as I can remember (and I come from a family of academics), students and faculty alike have hated their university presidents, viewing them as uninterested in academics or out of touch with their student bodies. As at Harvard, with the decibel level of campus politics higher today than at any time since the 1960s, there is a lot of talking (or complaining, depending on one's perspective) going on and less respect for opposing viewpoints. Harvard is hardly unique in this respect.
   
   Bradely castigates Summers for his handling of several episodes with faculty (most noteably the Cornel West debacle) but misses the broader trend that acadmics as a whole have been getting into narrower and narrower specalties that prevent their work from being of much use to anyone. This doesn't mean that Summers was justified in how he treated West, who was (and is) a true educator, but it does deny this book some much-needed context.
   
   Similarly, Bradley's comments on Summers' stress on achievement by students misses that the same line was toed by the genteel Neil Rudenstine, who once told the Crimson that 'students don't come to Harvard to have fun' when asked why the university maintains an academic schedule that places fall term finals immediately after winter break. This was a particularly poor-timed comment after a rash of student suicides on campus and reports that Harvard's student suicide rate was twice the national average.
   
   Overall, only the most die-hard Summers haters will find anything valuable in Harvard Rules. Everyone else interested in the state of campus would be better of reading the Crimson from time to time.



4. I bought Harvard Rules because my daughter is in high school and thinking of applying there, and after President Summers' comments about women and science, I wasn't so sure that was a good idea. Now, I'm even less sure. Harvard Rules is a fascinating investigation of what the author refers to as the world's most powerful university, and I think he makes a pretty good case for that. Bradley traces the story of how Larry Summers got chosen as president and what his mandate was to change the university. But he shows how Summers was a more difficult character than anyone had expected, and the resulting controversy repeatedly impeded his attempt to bend Harvard to his will. I never realized all the behind-the-scenes politicking that goes on at Harvard-fighting over money, promotions, prestige. This is a great story of the way that one of the most influential institutions in the entire world *really* works-and sometimes doesn't. Anyone whose kid is thinking about Harvard-or anyone thinking of applying there-should read this book.



5. This is one of the first examinations of the Summers presidency at Harvard. The book examines the results of Laurence Summers, former treasury secretary and brilliant economist, when he served as president of Harvard. Summers was known for daring to oppose that anti-Israel lobby at Harvard and divestment. He was known for his many verbal battles with such icons as Cornell West. He was also known for critiquing many of the political courses at Harvard that did not seek to educate but to indoctrinate. He was also criticized for accepting money for a sheikh connected to Islamism and allowing Harvard's name to be purchased by the United Arab Emirates, an apartheid state.
   
   But for all his controversy he may have been the greatest president of Harvard in the last thirty years. This book is partially a critique and partially a discussion of the ins and outs of the controversies surrounding him. He was critiqued so much because he tried to rock the boat at Harvard and he dared to question whether it was still providing the best education. Although this book might be a little heavy handed in claiming that Harvard students are groomed to run the world, it is an interesting examination of the role of Summers at the prestigious University.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman

No comments about The Passionate Mind of Maxine Greene: 'I am...not yet'.

1 comments about W. E. B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line.

1. When most think about Dubois, one of the first theoretical formulations that come to mind is the oft-quoted "double-consciousness." In this work, Reed's central task is to situate African American political thought squarely within the material context in which it occurs using W.E.B. Dubois as the focus for this project. Along the way Reed slices and dices Henry Louis Gates and the new black intellectuals, as well as the troublesome concept of "double consciousness" that Reed shows to be overstudied at best. Clearly among the best works of its kind to come to light in some years.

No comments about The Education of Booker T. Washington: American Democracy and the Idea of Race Relations.

5 comments about Duke Ellington: a Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies).

1. I just got finished listening to the new CDs of Duke Ellington's Sacred Music, picked up at Borders. Wow! While I was listening to this great stuff I was reading this book. And Wow! again. If you want the nitty, gritty, the lowdown, or dope so to speak, on the Duke you'll have to go somewhere else. Miss Steed does give you the whole story but her emphasis is on his work, his artistry, and his legend--what the Good Man left us with--and his Sacred Music, which he said, was not his best work, but his most important work. And it was real, man, this is what I was looking for, someone who really had something new to say about The Man, and knew what they were talking about! Buy this book and get to know the Duke and the man behind the legend.



2. The author's knowledge of Duke Ellington, and descriptions of his compositions is impressive. After studying Ellington's life and compositions through this book more closely, in his music, even when it is not overtly religious, one can quickly see that Ellington did indeed work out his spirituality through his music, as this author so convincingly argues. Of especial interest is the author's conception of spirituality and her deep artistry of both genuinely recognizing Ellington's and making that connection with his music, and how both shaped and influenced his life. This is not a scholarly tome, but rather a wonderfully quick, short read. As one of many old Ellington fans, my guess is that Duke Ellington would have smiled brightly and given his big stamp of approval to this book.



3. I picked this book up after reading Joan of Arc in this Lives and Legacies Series. This new book delivers everything it promises. I'm a real biography nut with an interest in a very broad range of subjects (and that's just what this series delivers) but have little time to immerse myself in a 500 or 700 page reading. So it's great to be able to pick up these short biographies, get a great read, and then decide if I want to explore a subject in further depth. But I can tell you with both these books, short as they are (192 pages), they are still very in-depth, scholarly and but still accessible to the popular audience. Duke Ellington was a particular pleasure as I knew nothing about his Sacred music and Concerts, nor have I run across anything that examines so fully the films that him and his orchestra were featured in, and which by the way Ellington had a significant role in developing. Author Janna Steed offers up a terrific little gem with this new book on Duke Ellington.



4. I just recently joined a book discussion group and last night, during my first meeting we were discussing Janna Tull Steed's new book "Duke Ellington: A Spiritual Biography." In just 192 pages Steed traces Ellington's development from a piano player to bandleader to composer and his truly thrilling and sublime sacred concerts in the last decade of his life. Steed also discusses in depth Ellington's ability to write for the individual voice, or band member, which seems to be, at least partly, what made and marks him as such an extraordinary and perhaps greatest American composer--that and his overwelming dedication to his music and a relentless ability to constantly break new ground.

   Steed's grasp of Ellington and his music, particularly Ellington as a composer is tops. She draws on the enormous archives at the Smithsonian Institution but also on extensive firsthand interviews with scores of people who were intimately familiar with Duke Ellington and his music, and especially his development of his sacred music and concerts. It is in the area of the sacred concerts that Steed breaks new ground but also her focus of Ellinton as composer, as well as his oft forgotten important work in Hollywood. Her outstanding achievment is that she accomplished this in 192 pages. Steed covers the entire scope of Ellington's remarkable life and career and her insights are very welcome and as engaging as they are informative.




5. Very accesible book & good introduction not only to Duke Ellington but the world of Jazz. I suppose an author is limited by the number of pages how in depth one can get but still I expected a more critical examination of the contradiction of Ellington's public persona w/ his spirituality and how he reconciled these contradictions. That said, I still found Steed's argument convincing, especially his leading up to his sacred music. This is especially a good book for the new initiate to Duke Ellington.

4 comments about Teacher in Space: Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger Legacy.

1. As a friend of Colin's, I normally would disqualify myself from reviewing one of his books but I feel that I had to comment on this book.

   Colin has done a great job of cutting through the usual American sentimentality whenever the Challenger crew are mentioned and has done a great job in telling us about Christa. However, the book is not just about Christa. The ill fated Teacher in Space program is described in detail as is the launch and the short flight of the Challenger shuttle.

   A worthy addition to any space library. Teenagers in particular will like this book.

   Kate




2. This is not the first book written about Christa McAuliffe- but it may well be considered the last word on her. Many previous books have concentrated on the technical aspects of the Challenger explosion that took her life. Others were written about her as a person, but were written so close to the time of the disaster that it was hard for them to be objective and see her life and achievements in their entirety. With the passage of time, it has been possible to set the Teacher In Space Program and Christa's life in their true historical context, and Colin Burgess has here done an admirable job of doing so. The politically-inspired events that led to a teacher being offered a seat on a spacecraft formerly reserved for those with piloting or science tasks to undertake are outlined by Burgess with objectivity and clarity. But what comes through more than anything from this book is the remarkable strength of personality that McAuliffe had, making her the perfect person for a space flight, and how that strength has meant that, even after her death, her plans for space education have gone ahead. It seems that her mission to educate and inspire people to dream about spaceflight and act on those dreams was fulfilled even though she never made it into space. Burgess, having already authored an important body of spaceflight books, has added a work guaranteed to inspire and motivate anyone.



3. While much has been written about the engineering and management decisions that lead up to Challenger explosion, the mission, the Challenger crew and the whole Teacher in Space Program have received much less attention. In this book, the author, Colin Burgess, only devotes a few pages to the accident and focuses primarily on the teacher in space program, Christa McAuliffe, her teaching and NASA experiences and of course the aftermath of the accident. Since the book was written well close to fifteen years after the accident, it avoids much of the sadness, anger and the like which dominated many of the early works on this subject. As a result, the author gives us a wonderful book about the life and times of Christa McAuliffe and the Teacher in Space Program. There is also closing chapter on the next Teacher in Space Candidate, Barbara Morgan, who should fly sometime this decade.

   As someone who lives across the street from the Johnson Space Center (JSC), it is quite obvious to me that the author spent a considerable amount of time researching her life and experiences at JSC, since all of the places, buildings, etc., are named correctly (using the names in 1986), located in their proper places and the astronaut training she received is as it should be. In other words, not only are you getting a wonderful well written book, it is also well researched.

   One final thing to add, the book contains 32 pages of color pictures and all royalties from the book go to the Christa McAuliffe Fund.




4. I've read several books on Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger tragedy and bought this book because the reviews described it as focusing on the Teacher in Space program. I am mostly interested in how the program came about, how it was announced and promoted, the application process, the selection process, and the training. The book certainly covers those areas but not in as much depth as I hoped. Much of the book is on the life of McAuliffe which is thoroughly covered in Robert T. Hohler's excellent biography "I Touch the Future..." While just over 100 pages with very wide margins, Burgess' work does offer information as well as a more comprehensive look into certain areas than I've found in other books which makes it definitely worthwhile to anyone interested in McAuliffe, Challenger, and the Teacher in Space program.
   
   Burgess describes the lessons McAuliffe was planning to teach in space better than any book I've read so far. This information is found in the chapter "Learning the Ropes." One of the demonstrations involved a screwdriver to show that, in space, the weightless astronaut would turn instead of the screw unless anchored. As to the programs to send civilians into space, Burgess covers the incomplete plans of choosing a journalist to go into space (Walter Cronkite was one of the forty finalists) more thoroughly than elsewhere. While Hohler's book is a better source on the application and selection process of the Teacher in Space candidates, Burgess offers several color photos of the ten finalists I have not seen anywhere else.
   
   Finally, with a publishing date of 2000, Burgess has the benefit of hindsight that most of the other books on Challenger do not have. He gives a brief update on Christa's husband and back-up Teacher-in-Space, Barbara Morgan. I had always thought programs to send civilians into space of any walks of life died with Challenger, but the Teacher in Space program has continued with Morgan taking the lead. She actually completed astronaut training in 1999 with an expectation that she would enter space as an "educator mission specialist." This book was completed before the Columbia disaster, so Burgess sounded very optimistic about her chances. Although delayed, fortunately, Morgan got the chance to live her dream on the space shuttle Endeavour. The book includes a section of color photos, an interesting chapter on "Space Objects Named for the Seven Challenger Astronauts," and a forward by Christa's mother Grace Corrigan.

5 comments about Ms. Moffett's First Year: Becoming a Teacher in America.

1. I, too, was a New York City Teaching Fellow, and this book tells it like it is in America's urban schools.
   
   If you are already a teacher, this book will reaffirm everything you already know about the ups and downs of this most challenging and rewarding job. When your friends and loved ones ask what you do every day, just give them this book to read.
   
   If you are not a teacher, then you need to read this book to see what's really going on in our country's most troubled schools. It's all here -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.



2. This book is written in a breezy, popular style that kept me turning pages right to the end. However, the content is serious, and should be of interest to parents, prospective teachers, and to anyone who cares about children. The book is partly the story of one woman's initiation into the challenging work of teaching in a troubled city school. It is also a book about the politics of education. The author does a good job of explaining the many and varied political forces at work within the world of public schools. I think this book is a fair-minded and very readable introduction to a very complex subject.



3. I was a new teacher in a difficult Baltimore school, and this book was very unrealistic and only scratched the surface of the problem. Ms. Moffett is an angel and to be admired, but the author Abby Goodnough Hollywood-izes her experience and really waters down the problems in inner city schools.
   
   I felt the author didn't really understand the experience of new teachers. She doesn't get into the student's lives at all. She doesn't seem to be upset or outraged by the terrible treatment of Ms. Moffett by the administration. And-- at the end-- she glosses over the fact that most of Ms. Moffett's colleagues leave the profession within a couple of years, meaning that hundreds of students still won't have teachers. This is deeply unfair to the students, but this book skims right over that injustice.
   
   This book is a simple, nice read, but it was not hardhitting enough and it gives no concrete advice or guidance to new teachers.



4. This book, like most cheerful teacher writing, suffers from an overabundance of mushy anecdotes and 'tug at you heart strings' bathos.
   
   Perhaps if the author had focused the spotlight (critically) on herself and on the dubious policies that placed her in these troubled 'inner-city' NYC public schools-without so much as one day classroom training-we as readers would be saddled with one less memoir, and policy-makers, parents, and concerned citizens would understand the importance of re-professionalizing teaching and taking it out of the hands of hobbyists and corporate managers.



5. The book,Ms. Moffett's First Year, Becoming A Teacher in America, was exactly as presented by seller. Title of the book is misleading, due to the fact, there was too much rhetoric in the beginning of the book about politics and finance in NYC school system.

No comments about Tenderfoot Teacher: Letters from the Big Bend, 1952-1954 (Chisholm Trail Series, 21).

No comments about William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South (Religion in the South).

No comments about From VPI to State University: President T. Marshall Hahn Jr. and the Transformation of Virginia Tech, 1962-1974.