PHI BETA KAPPA THE KEY REPORTER SPRIING 2007

PARMELE RIDES AGAIN Phii Beta Kappa sends a legend to the rescue

TTHHEE PPHHII BBEETTAA KKAAPPPPAA CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN AATT TTHHEE LLIIBBRRAARRYY OOFF CCOONNGGRREESSSS BByy HHiissttoorriiaann aanndd CCuurraattoorr BBaarrbbaarraa BBaaiirr THE KEY REPORTER Parmele Rides Again

ost members of Phi Beta Kappa could date the Society’s founding to 1776. It’s a hard year to forget. But you have to dig a bit deeper into the lore to know that the Moriginal chapter at the College of William and Mary lasted — in this first incarna- tion — only a little more than four years. By the winter of 1781, General Charles Cornwallis was positioning the British army on the York peninsula for what became the cli- Volume 72, Number 1 mactic siege of the American Revolutionary War, and the college closed. When William and Spring 2007 Mary reopened a year later, Phi Beta Kappa was in eclipse at Williamsburg. Thus would Editor & Designer: Kelly Gerald have run the brief history of another club for intellectual talk and genteel conviviality. Consulting Editor: John Churchill That would have been the end of Phi Beta Kappa had the group at William and Mary not acceded to the proposals of their only non-Virginian member, to establish chapters in The Key Reporter (ISSN: 0023- New England. Elisha Parmele, a native of Connecticut who had studied at Yale and gradu- 0804) is published quarterly by the ated from Harvard, was authorized to carry founding documents to those institutions, where Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1606 New he established a chapter at New Haven, Conn., in 1780 and at Cambridge, Mass., in 1781. Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, Then, with new chapters at Dartmouth, Union, Bowdoin and Brown over the next 50 years, D.C. 20009. Periodicals postage is Phi Beta Kappa established its historic base in New England. From there, the Society paid at Washington, D.C., and at expanded across the country into truly national scope, with soon-to-be 276 chapters. additional addresses. IPM #1213423 Without Elisha Parmele, none of this would have happened. Therefore, as we under- Opinions expressed in this take to assist our chapters in becoming even more successful at recognizing and advocat- publication are not necessarily those ing excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, it is proper that we call our effort the Parmele of the editors or the officers of the Project. Society. Circulation for this issue: As I reported to the 41st Council of Phi Beta Kappa in Atlanta, the Society is doing 515,787. very well. But, like any organization, we have room for improvement. A small number of For nonmembers, single copies our chapters induct too few of the students they invite. While the arrival of Phi Beta Kappa are available for $2; one year’s Visiting Scholars is a major event on many campuses, at some institutions they get lost in subscription is $5. Printed by the noise of competing activities offered to students. Too often the functioning of the chap- Cadmus Specialty Publications, ter is sustained by too small a number of the chapter’s members, who labor largely without Richmond, Va. sufficient support. And, in many colleges and universities, the institution’s pride in shelter- Copyright © 2007 by the Phi Beta ing a Phi Beta Kappa chapter is not matched by adequate provision of support in budget, Kappa Society. All rights are reserved. staff and recognition. The Phi Beta Kappa name, key, and Across the board, the picture is not dark; most chapters are doing fine. But the nation- The Key Reporter name are al office has a responsibility to assist the chapters that are challenged by one or another of registered trademarks of the Phi Beta these issues. So we are launching the Parmele Project. As Elisha Parmele carried the char- Kappa Society. ters that made the Society’s survival possible, we want to encourage the best practices that The Society’s privacy policy will help every chapter to flourish. prohibits the distribution of member Eighteen months ago, we began a concerted effort to develop an understanding of those information. best practices. Since the fall of 2005, representatives of the national office have visited more than 60 chapters, asking about conditions, gathering ideas, hearing about problems Postmaster: Send change-of- and solutions. The upshot is a document called “The Chapter,” a guide to the practices and address notices to: The Key Reporter, conditions that seem most likely to produce a chapter with the greatest success in every The Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1606 dimension of its activity. A late draft of this document was discussed at length by chapter New Hampshire Ave. NW, delegates at the 41st Council, and we are ready for implementation. As part of a pilot proj- Washington, D.C. 20009. ect, about 20 chapters have agreed to assess their situation and practices in light of the rec- Web site: www.pbk.org ommendations. Among this group, some are already doing very well indeed, while others may find useful ways toward improvement. Circulation Policy The recommendations address the issues noted above, and at every turn, these princi- All four quarterly issues of The ples are embodied: that sheltering institutions have the responsibility to match their pride Key Reporter are sent to members with support, that the national office needs to do everything possible to ease the burden on who support the Society’s programs chapter officers, and that the conditions of success must be tailored to local circumstances. by donating to ΦBK’s annual giving We will not urge anyone to fix something that is working well. Our aim is to assist chap- program. Checks made out to the Phi ters as they seek to recognize and advocate excellence, and we continue to be open to Beta Kappa Society may be sent to the advice as we structure that assistance. attention of Annual Gifts, 1606 New Let me note that a best practices document for Phi Beta Kappa’s associations is in Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, preparation, and I will soon be discussing here our initiatives to assist our associations in D.C. 20009. Contributions are fully their effectiveness. tax-deductible. Above, I left the chapter at William and Mary in eclipse. It was re-established in 1851, The spring and fall issues are but closed in 1861, showing again that proximity to history has its risks. Opened again in mailed to every ΦBK member for 1893, the mother chapter flourishes and merits our affection. Without the original group in whom the Membership Records office Williamsburg, Elisha Parmele would have had nothing to carry home to New England. has an address. Newly initiated mem- bers receive all four issues for one year.

John Churchill Secretary SPOTLIGHT CONTENTS

FROM THE SECRETARY Parmele Rides Again 2

ΦBK NEWS ΦBK Book Awards 4 ΦBK in the News 4 Romanell-ΦBK Professorship 5 Jensen Fellowship 5 U.S. Professors of the Year 5 The American Scholar Turns 75 5 ΦBK Visiting Scholars 6

“As director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, I have the enormous FEATURES privilege of fostering scholarship and research, helping to preserve and grow the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, and overseeing a Massey’s Mentorship Creates Network of Mathematicians vigorous public outreach program of concerts, plays, poetry readings by Teresa Riordan 7 and Shakespeare festivals for children. The aspirations of Phi Beta Kappa are exemplified and celebrated every day in the myriad ΦBK at the Library of Congress activities of this great library.” by Barbara Bair 8

— Gail Kern Paster FROM OUR BOOK CRITICS Reviews 12 ail Kern Paster took office as director of the Folger Shakespeare Library on July 1, 2002. She continues as editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, the Gleading scholarly journal devoted to Shakespeare, published by the Folger ON THE COVER Shakespeare Library in association with The George Washington University, Harvard University where she was a professor of English and had taught since 1974. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, at Smith College, where she was Alpha-Iota of Massachusetts, elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a doctoral degree at Yale University. She has won 1781 and 1914 many national fellowships and awards, including fellowships from the Woodrow Pictured left to right: Jennifer Wilson Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Morse, Chief Marshal Dr. James Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. She is the author Wilkinson (center) and Kobey of numerous scholarly articles and several books, including The Idea of the City Shwayder lead the Phi Beta in the Age of Shakespeare (University of Georgia Press, 1985) and The Body Kappa procession across Harvard Embarrassed: Drama and the Disciplines of Shame in Early Modern England Yard during spring commence- (Cornell University Press, 1993), as well as the co-editor of Bedford Books’ “A ment, June 6, 2006. Photo Midsummer Night’s Dream”: Texts and Contexts (1998) and editor of Thomas Credit: Jon Chase/Harvard News Middleton’s 1607 comedy, Michaelmas Term (Manchester University Press, Office. Continued on 15

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 3 NATIONAL NEWS The 2006 Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards Phi Beta Kappa’s book awards are given each year in December to outstanding scholarly books published in the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences and mathematics. In addition to a cash prize, the winners are recognized by the ΦBK Senate at an annual awards dinner held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. Christian Gauss Award Ralph Waldo Emerson Award Science Award for literary scholarship or criticism for interpretation of the intellectual for outstanding contribution and cultural condition of humanity to the literature of science

Dickinson’s Misery American Curiosity: Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: A Theory of Lyric Reading Cultures of Natural History How Humans Took Control in the Colonial British Atlantic World of Climate by Virginia Jackson by Susan Scott Parrish by William F. Ruddiman Princeton University Press, 2005 University of North Carolina Press, Princeton University Press, 2005 2006

Œ Michael Lomax (Morehouse Christmas letters. For a college student ΦBK in the News College, 1968), president and CEO of who is a star athlete, performs Œ Bradley T. Sheares (Fisk the United Negro College Fund “Antigone” in Greek, has an essay pub- University, 1978) has been appointed (UNCF), returned to Tuskegee, Ala. to lished in Fortune, volunteers at a CEO of Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. receive a honorary Doctor of Humane homeless shelter and is a model for Prior to joining Reliant, Sheares was Letters from Tuskegee University and Vogue, he writes: “How she does what president of the U.S. Human Health speak at the university’s Charter Day she does and still makes Phi Beta division of Merck & Co., Inc. He also and Homecoming Convocation in Kappa is a wonderment to us all.” serves on the board of directors of November 2006. His mother, Lena (Keillor, Garrison. “The Season of Honeywell International and on the Lomax, a journalist from California, Letter-Perfect Families” Chicago board of trustees of Spelman College. moved to Tuskegee with her children in Tribune 13 Dec. 2006: C31.) (“Reliant Pharmaceuticals Names the 1960s to cover the unfolding Civil Œ Yul Kwon (Stanford University, Bradley T. Sheares, Ph.D. Chief Rights Movement. Prior to joining 1997) won the $1 million dollar top Executive Officer” PR Newswire 16 UNCF, Lomax served as president of prize on the Dec. 17, 2006, finale of Jan. 2007.) Dillard University in New Orleans. CBS’ “Survivor: Cook Island.” The Œ “Scooter and Me: Professing (“UNCF President Returns to show was controversial for dividing Liberal Doubt in an Age of Tuskegee for Charter/Homecoming teams by race, but Kwon said the con- Fundamentalist Fervor” by Nick Convocation” Tuskegee University 13 test was “an amazing platform to raise Bromell from The American Scholar, Nov. 2007 www.tuskegee.edu/Global/ the issue about racial identity, segrega- Winter 2007, has been covered by the story.asp?S=5680822.) tion, different issues that need to be Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles addressed.” (Young, Susan. “San Times. In 2006, the Scholar won a ΦBK in Popular Culture Mateo’s ‘Survivor’ Winner: Show’s National Magazine Award for out- Setup Made Him a Reluctant standing feature writing. (Warren, Œ Garrison Keillor, author and host of Contestant.” MercuryNews.com 17 James. “Ideology Confuses Friendship “A Prairie Home Companion,” used Dec. 2006.) for Childhood Pal of Libby’s” Chicago Phi Beta Kappa in his Dec. 13, 2006, Œ In July 1956, Alice Denham Tribune 25 Dec. 2006: Lifestyle. Chicago Tribune column to illustrate (University of North Carolina at “Found Object; Scooter’s Parable” Los an example of the impossibly accom- Chapel Hill, 1949) launched her liter- Angeles Times 17 Jan. 2007: A17.) plished children described in family Continued on 11

4 The Key Reporter NATIONAL NEWS Romanell-ΦBK Professorship round-trip, economy-class ticket for California, Berkeley. the recipient to travel to France. The Outstanding Master’s in Philosophy, 2007-2008 Daniels’ studies in France will Universities and Colleges Professor is Marilyn Frye, professor and asso- support research for his dissertation, Donna C. Boyd, professor of anthro- ciate chair of the philosophy depart- “Acts of Resistance: Visual Arts and pology, Radford University, Radford, ment at Michigan State University and Textual Practices in the Works of Henri Va. „ one of the founders of feminist philos- Michaux, Francis Ponge and Michel ophy in the United States, is the Butor.” The American Scholar Romanell-ΦBK Professor in “Daniels has for some years been Turns 75 Philosophy for 2007-2008. engaged in highly original work on the The recipient of this professorship intersection of visual art and poetic lit- gives a series of three special lectures erature in late 20th century authors,” open to the academic community and observed Charles Porter, professor the general public. Frye’s lecture series emeritus of French at Yale University will be titled “Kinds of People: and a judge for the Jensen award. “The Ontology and Politics.” intellectual acuity and critical imagina- Frye’s first book, The Politics of tion that he has already demonstrated Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory in his graduate dissertation promise (The Crossing Press, 1983), is consid- thought-provoking work during his fel- ered a classic in the field. She has been lowship year that will illuminate a Rockefeller Fellow and a National important writers and characterize a Humanities Center Fellow and was fundamental component of French named Distinguished Woman artistico-literary post-modernity.” „ Philosopher of the Year by the Society for Women in Philosophy in 2001. ΦBK Joins with the Carnegie Awarded annually, the Romanell- Foundation and CASE to ΦBK has published The American ΦBK Professorship recognizes both Scholar since 1932, and rarely has the distinguished achievement and the Honor U.S. Professors of the magazine seen better days than these. recipient’s contribution to the public Year Still glowing from its 2006 National understanding of philosophy. ΦBK Magazine Award, the Scholar has provides a $7,500 stipend to supple- Sponsored by the Carnegie launched a delicious new design with ment the professor’s salary. „ Foundation for the Advancement of the 75th anniversary issue as well as a Teaching and administered by the new Web site located at www.theamer- Walter J. Jensen Fellowship Council for Advancement and Support icanscholar.org. In the “Editor’s Note” of Education (CASE), the U.S. for this issue, Robert Wilson states that Professor of the Year awards recognize the Scholar site will eventually house a professors for their influence on teach- free online archive of all 75 years of ing and their outstanding commitment the publication. to teaching undergraduate students. The 301st issue begins with an This awards program is the only irreverent history of the quarterly by national initiative specifically designed Contributing Editor Ted Widmer, who to recognize excellence in undergradu- doggedly read the first 300. He discov- ate teaching and mentoring. ΦBK sup- ers that the magazine has always been ports the program by funding a recep- an odd combination of the serious and tion on Capitol Hill following the the idiosyncratic. In addition, Richard annual awards luncheon. The four win- E. Nicholls has gathered a selection of ners in the categories listed below were excerpts from Scholar articles by some selected from a pool of nearly 300 of the distinguished writers who have Thomas Tilden Daniels nominees. contributed through the years: Aldous Thomas Tilden Daniels, currently The Outstanding Baccalaureate Huxley (1945), Archibald MacLeish completing his doctoral degree at the Colleges Professor is K. E. Brashier (1950), George Santayana (1963), University of Pennsylvania, is the win- (University of Missouri, 1987), associ- Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1974), Barbara ner of the 2007 Walter J. Jensen ate professor of religion and humani- Tuchman (1980), John Updike (1998), Fellowship for French Language, ties, Reed College, Portland, Ore. and Rita Dove (2004). Literature and Culture. The Outstanding Community The 75th anniversary issue ΦBK’s Jensen fellowship is Colleges Professor is Mark Lewine, includes Ethan Fishman’s essay, “Not awarded for six months of study in professor of anthropology, Cuyahoga Compassionate, Not Conservative: A France. The purpose of the award is to Community College, Cleveland. Real Conservative Critiques Bush,” help educators and researchers The Outstanding Doctoral and and Nick Bromell’s “Scooter and Me,” improve the study and teaching of stan- Research Universities Professor is as well as new short stories by Ann dard French in the United States. The Alex Filippenko (University of Beattie and Louis Begley. fellowship, awarded annually, has a California, Santa Barbara, 1977), pro- To order, call 1-800-821-4567. stipend of $10,000 and includes a fessor of astronomy, University of Don’t miss this landmark issue! „

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 5 NATIONAL NEWS Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars, 2007-2008 For 50 years, Phi Beta Kappa has been sending distinguished scholars in the liberal arts and sciences to col- leges and universities where our chapters are located. These men and women serve as ambassadors for the Society and make a substantial contribution to the intellectual life of the campus. The following scholars have been selected to participate in the program for the coming academic year. If you are interested in hav- ing a ΦBK Visiting Scholar come to your campus, write to [email protected] or call (202) 745-3231.

Michael J. B. Allen, Distinguished Alejandro García-Rivera, Professor of Theory and Beyond (Viking Penguin, Professor of English, UCLA Systematic Theology, Jesuit School of 2005), Atom: An Odyssey from the Big President, Renaissance Society of Theology at Berkeley Bang to Life on Earth . . . and Beyond America; former director, UCLA’s Author, A Wounded Innocence: (Little Brown, 2001), and The Physics Center for Medieval and Renaissance Sketches for a Theology of Art of Star Trek (Basic Books, 1995); Studies; Faculty Research Lecturer, (Liturgical Press, 2003), The recipient, awards from the American UCLA, 1998; recipient, Eby Award for Community of the Beautiful: A Physical Society, the American Undergraduate Teaching; major Theological Aesthetics (Liturgical Association of Physics Teachers, and research contribution in the field of Press, 1999), St. Martin de Porres: The the American Institute of Physics. Italian Platonism. “Little Stories” and the Semiotics of Culture (Orbis, 1995); Distinguished Eric Mazur, McKay Professor of Roger S. Bagnall, Professor of Classics Faculty Lecture, Graduate Theological Applied Physics and Professor of and History, Columbia University Union, Berkeley; charter member, Physics, Harvard University Sather Professor of Classical Society of Theology and the Arts. Fellow and Centennial Lecturer, Literature, University of California, American Physical Society; recipient, Berkeley, 2005; recipient, Sandra Harding, Professor of National Science Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award, Education and Women’s Studies, Director’s Distinguished Teaching Mellon Foundation; author, Reading UCLA Scholar Award; research interests: opti- Papyri, Writing Ancient History Director, Center for the Study of cal physics, science education and pol- (Routledge, 1995) and Egypt in Late Women, UCLA, 1996-2000; co-editor, icy, public perception of science; Antiquity (Princeton University Press, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture author, 188 scientific publications and 1993); co-author, The Demography of and Society, 2000-2005; author, Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual Roman Egypt (Cambridge University Science and Social Inequality: (Prentice Hall, 1997), a manual on Press, 1994). Feminist and Postcolonial Issues reaching large lecture classes interac- (University of Illinois Press, 2006); Is tively. Lori F. Damrosch, Moses Professor of Science Multicultural? Law and International Organization, Postcolonialism, Feminism and Saskia Sassen, Lewis Professor of Columbia University Epistemologies (Indiana University Sociology, University of Chicago Author, Enforcing International Press, 1998); Whose Science? Whose Centennial Visiting Professor, Law through Non-Forcible Measures Knowledge?: Thinking from Women’s London School of Economics; author, (Hague Academy of International Law, Lives (Cornell University Press, 1991). Territory, Authority, Rights: From 1997); co-author, International Law: Medieval to Global Assemblages Cases and Materials (Schachter and Daniel Huttenlocher, Neafsey (Princeton University Press, 2006), Smit, 2001); co-editor, Beyond Professor of Computing, Information The Global City: New York, London, Confrontation: International Law for Science and Business, Cornell Tokyo (Princeton, 1991), The Mobility the Post-Cold War Era (Westview, University of Labor and Capital: A Study in 1995); former resident fellow, U.S. Named Cornell Weiss Presidential International Investment and Labor Institute of Peace; counselor, American Fellow in recognition of teaching Flow (Cambridge, 1988); former proj- Society of International Law. excellence; recipient, Excellence in ect director for UNESCO on sustain- Science and Technology Award, Xerox able human settlement; member, Morris P. Fiorina, Wendt Family PARC; research interests: computer Council on Foreign Relations, National Professor of Political Science, Stanford vision, online social networks, elec- Academy of Sciences’ panel on cities. University tronic collaboration tools, computa- Senior fellow, Hoover Institution, tional geometry, and financial trading James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor Stanford; member, National Academy systems. in the Humanities, Stanford University of Sciences; recipient, Miller Prize, Senior fellow, Institute for American Political Science Lawrence M. Krauss, Swasey International Studies, Stanford; presi- Association, 2006; co-author, Culture Professor of Physics and Professor of dent, American Historical Association, War? The Myth of a Polarized America Astronomy, Case Western Reserve 2005; recipient, awards for excellence (Longman, 2nd ed. 2006), The New University in teaching; Berlin Prize Fellow, American Democracy (Longman, 4th Director, Center for Education and American Academy in Berlin; author, ed., 2005); author, Divided Research in Cosmology and The Eclipse of Violence: The Government (Macmillan, 1992). Astrophysics, Case; author, Hiding in Transformation of Twentieth-Century the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Europe (forthcoming), German Extra Dimensions from Plato to String Continued on 11

6 The Key Reporter NATIONAL NEWS Massey’s Mentorship Creates Network of Mathematicians creating games. His mathematical abil- ities became fully manifest in a pre- by Teresa Riordan dominantly black public school for gifted students and later in high school. n decades of mentoring minority a 1987 undergraduate and 1991 gradu- When it was time for college, his and women mathematicians, engi- ate alumna who is currently a full pro- parents brought him east to visit Ineering professor William Massey fessor in mathematics and director of Harvard, MIT and Princeton. “It cer- has done more than foster a new, more applied mathematics at the University tainly helped having parents who were diverse generation of mathematical of California, Los Angeles; Arlie educators,” said Massey. “They were scholars. He has created a community Petters, who attended Princeton as a encouraging of me wanting to do math- of colleagues who support and inspire graduate student from 1988 to 1991 ematics. At the time, I didn’t know that each other’s research, including and is now a full professor of mathe- other black people even worked in Massey’s own. matics and physics at Duke University; math.” “His mentor- Massey ship is more than remembers his just one-on-one,” own mentors as said Otis B. an undergradu- Jennings, a mem- ate at Princeton ber of Princeton’s with great fond- class of 1994 who ness: mathe- is now an assistant maticians W. professor at Duke Stephen University’s Wilson, Ralph Fuqua School of Fox and Business. Bernard “It’s sort of a Dwork; and meta-mentorship,” physicists said Jennings, Cyrus Hoffman who was advised and Aaron on his senior the- Lemonick. sis by Massey. “I was lucky “He creates the in who taught environment me,” said where people can Massey, who make connections remembers that for mutual benefit. Exum Photo Credit: Steve Wilson advised As a mentor, you William Massey (foreground) gathered with some of the people he has mentored him to do may help someone over the years, including (from left) Robert Hampshire, a current graduate student something non- get a Ph.D., but in in operations research and financial engineering who will join the faculty at intuitive when the end you have a Carnegie Mellon this spring; Arlie Petters, a graduate student from 1988 to 1991 he arrived at new colleague. who is now a professor of mathematics and physics at Duke University; and Otis Princeton. And Bill is build- Jennings, a 1994 undergraduate alumnus who is now an assistant professor in the “I saw ing a family of Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. myself as a colleagues.” math major and On Nov. 3, Massey, the Edwin S. and Robert Hampshire, a current had placed out of freshman math,” Wilsey Professor of Operations Princeton engineering graduate student Massey recalls. “Wilson told me to go Research and Financial Engineering who will begin a teaching position at ahead and take a freshman honors-level and a 1977 Princeton ΦBK, received Carnegie Mellon in the spring. calculus class but sophomore-level the Blackwell-Tapia Prize at the Massey, the first African- physics. This turned out to be the best Institute for Mathematics and its American Princeton undergraduate to advice I could have gotten because I Applications in Minneapolis. have become a full professor at the uni- had been for the most part self-taught The prize is in recognition of his versity, also founded and continues to in math. [By taking the calculus class] outstanding record of achievement in provide leadership for the annual I learned that my understanding of mathematical research and his mentor- Conference for African-American math was really cookbook mathemat- ing of minorities and women in the Researchers in the Mathematical ics; I was familiar with various formu- field of mathematics. In a tribute to Sciences, now in its 12th year. lae and how to manipulate them but not Massey’s distinguished career as a pio- with the more sophisticated under- neer in the field of applied mathemat- Playing with Numbers standing of how to prove theorems.” ics called queueing theory, the institute Massey grew up in St. Louis, the Massey said that an early course has organized a two-day conference on son of a high school counselor and a with Lemonick imbued him with a love topics related to Massey’s research. home economics teacher. He loved for physics. “I was thinking I didn’t In addition to Jennings, minority numbers as a small child, and his want to be that involved in physics, but and women Princeton alumni Massey mother playfully encouraged his talent he actually got me excited about it. So, has mentored include Andrea Bertozzi, by cutting up calendars for him and Continued on 10

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 7 Phhii Beta Kappa at the Library of Congress by Barbara Bair

ow could you do it?” wrote “Is Einstein Right?” “Gosh, what a earlier for his Scribner’s piece, “I told a playful Christian Gauss in letter! Gosh, what an article!” Haydn you so.” “Ha July 7, 1946, cover letter gushed in his July 30, 1946, reply. These spirited letters and other to editor Hiram Haydn at The “I don’t mind being all the brutal papers of Christian Gauss, who served American Scholar offices in New York: things that you call me if I can elicit as president of the Phi Beta Kappa “How could you . . . Send me those such responses by being brutal.” On Society, are among the almost 200,000 summonses upon summonses and Aug. 10, Gauss responded to a request items in the Records of Phi Beta Kappa insist that . . . I provide you with the from The American Scholar for biogra- and some 70,500 items in the Records essence of all philosophy, jurispru- phical information about himself. of The American Scholar available for dence, science and theology, plus the Reporting ruefully that his Princeton public use in the collections of the heart of black magic, the secret of undergraduates sang in his Faculty Manuscript Division of the Library of homunculus, the Cabala and the Song: “Here’s to Gauss called Chris-ti- Congress. Upanishads, with the final solution of an / A most encyclopedic man,” he The Records of Phi Beta Kappa the staggeringest riddle that ever flab- observed that “encyclopedic is exces- and of The American Scholar are clear- bergasted man in all the tide of times. sive, but I have been interested in many ly of great value as a resource for intel- “Do you think I’m Plato, Solomon, phases of thought and action. Have lectual historians and biographers. In Prometheus, Oedipus, Sordello and all always believed humanists should be.” the hundreds of boxes at the Library of the Quizz Kids?” he asked. “And you He went on to describe that when Congress, they can find insight into the knew my age,” he admonished. Gauss Albert Einstein delivered his first series personalities and opinions of key was 68 at the time. He put the retire- of lectures on relativity in the United movers and shakers in American cul- ment card on the table, reminding States at Princeton in 1919, it fell to tural, historical and scientific life. Haydn that he was in “this Eden of Gauss to see to it that the lectures, Represented in the records are mem- Vermont where men live in the blessed delivered in German, were properly bers of the Senate (John Hope Franklin state of nature, without indices, fiches, “translated and reported to the press.” and Dorothy Kenyon, to name two), learned journals or even a Clifton It was popular to say at the time that members of committees who deliberat- Fadiman set of the Encyclopeadia there were “only four people in the ed over awards (and those whose books Brittanica. How could you do it?” he world who understood Einstein,” they considered), presidents and lead- repeated. Gauss recalled, and he confessed that ers of the organization, the myriad Nevertheless, Gauss delivered a “[i]n spite of the most Herculean intellectuals and professors who served 2,500-word manuscript (he could have efforts,” he was not one of them. But as visiting scholars on campuses across used 50 more words, he editorialized in his interest in Einstein was born. the country, and those who went out on a pencil postscript, as he sent it in). Einstein, Gauss observed, was “at once qualifications committee missions, The final paragraph of his letter to the greatest and most modest scientist traveling to and observing campuses Haydn was made up of kind words to and the most public spirited citizen that eager to establish new chapters of the relay to Irita Van Doren, illustrious I have known.” Gauss then proceeded Society. member of the journal’s editorial in his letter to argue for humanism in The records are made up of min- board. After quoting a line from Alfred science, citing the article he wrote for utes, reports, speeches, thorny internal Lord Tennyson’s “Tears, Idle Tears” Scribner’s Magazine in 1930 (“The debates, drafts of orations and articles, (from The Princess, part IV, 1847), Threat of Science”), which was a plea whimsical correspondence, and frank “The casement slowly grows a glim- for the unity of scientific discovery and evaluations and surveys of colleges and mering square” (the full stanza of “social and moral welfare,” particular- universities. These last may be of par- which reads “Ah, sad and strange as in ly when it came to the development of ticular interest to current deans and dark summer dawns / The earliest pipe instruments of mass destruction. faculty members of campuses, or to of half-awakened birds / To dying ears, Writing his letter little over a year after those writing histories of the academy when unto dying eyes / The casement the bombing of Hiroshima, he or particular institutions. Records stem slowly grows a glimmering square; / debunked the idea that there was such a back to the Society’s founding in So sad, so strange, the days that are no thing as “pure” science or, if there was, Williamsburg in 1776, with a copy- more”), he entreats Haydn to “tell her, that the meaning of purity would need book of meeting minutes from 1776 to I implore, that to me, she only, qualification, as science itself was 1781. There are rosters from 1913 to remained sweet Argos and that in fond amoral; evils, such as they were, would 1982, registration books and hand- remembrance my soul S’exhale dans lie in the application. Gauss confided books. Records of The American un son triste et melodieux.” that he was “just mean enough” to say Scholar begin with the creation of the The article Gauss delivered was now to the critics who had assailed him magazine and its formative years. They

8 The Key Reporter include the periods of time when Van on First Amendment Wyck Brooks, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul rights and academic Robeson, Alain Locke and others were freedom. These among the editorial board members, include behind-the- and include author correspondence, scenes information on reader reports, and a log of articles sub- the drafting of the mitted. Society’s 1949 state- There are rich things here as well ment on freedom of for those in the fields of social history, teaching, which was a the history of education, and for gender response to intimida- theorists and students of equality. Lest tion of individual one fear administrative papers might teachers and the be staid, these, the bulk of which stem demands made by from the 20th century, include many some campuses for documents that shed a light on large loyalty oaths. questions of our times: the nuclear Another file reveals bomb, civil liberties, African- the process by which American rights, women’s rights, a member suggested responses to World War II, that honorary mem- McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, and bership in the Society the women’s liberation movement be extended to a pres- among them. Initiatives calling for ident of the United Society action stem from grassroots States, and how attor- chapters and individual members, neys, members of necessitating official and personal Congress, and White responses — or non-responses — and House staff featured sometimes stirring frank discord. A in the mix. The sub- file from 1978-1979, for example, doc- ject of false claims to uments the Society’s response to a peti- the merits of Phi Beta tion sent to all chapters and the nation- Kappa status by Christian Gauss was president of Phi Beta Kappa from al office by the California State celebrities strikes a 1946-1949, after serving for more than 20 years as a University at Long Beach chapter, call- light note in the col- college dean at Princeton University. Photo courtesy ing on the Society to boycott states that lections, with folders of Princeton University Archives. failed to ratify the Equal Rights questioning whether Amendment by refraining from hold- comedian Joan Rivers ing meetings in those locales. Files was, or was not, a member of the from the Committee on Policy records Society at Barnard, as had been report- include documentation of the City ed in a newspaper doing a story on her College of New York chapter’s urging career. Lack of possession of a ΦBK that, in response to the new Brown v. key could also prove the downfall of Board of Education ruling, the Society beauty queens, as one Miss Virginia deny charters to applying institutions learned in 1995, when she was stripped barring students on racial grounds. of her crown for exaggerating her cre- Racial discrimination was the topic of dentials. letters to the editor of The Key The collections also yield much on Reporter in files stemming from 1945- the issues of women’s intellectual 1947, including heated dispute of attainments, their status in the acade- stereotypes regarding, as one Society my, and the struggle for equality in member from Rye, N.Y., put it, admissions to colleges and profession- “Negro-White difference” and the al schools. Ten oversized scrapbooks in question of environmental factors and the Records of Phi Beta Kappa, for measurement of mental ability. The example, record the visits of scholars Rye resident, a graduate of Columbia to many different campuses. There is and an officer of the Royal Canadian substantive cultural history to be Air Force, spoke out strongly for gleaned from their pages. Opening a desegregation, based on his experi- scrapbook from the 1940s would spark ences in the military. “I think Phi Beta interest from scholars of women’s his- Kappa should take a stand on this tory. On one page appears an amusing issue. Democracy, and equal education article clipped from the Ladies Home The 15th anniversary issue of The acceptance, is either applicable to all Journal of April 1941 (pages 18-19, American Scholar from 1947 features students, Negro and white, or it is not 61-65). It is a fiction story entitled two essays by Christian Gauss. The applicable at all.” “Nobody Loves a Phi Bete [sic]” by Scholar published its 75th anniversary Files on debates on censure for Margaret Craven. “Judy had a profes- issue earlier this year. reasons of morality in athletics are fol- sor for a parent and brains for her head. lowed by folders containing statements Continued on 15

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 9 MASSEY Continued from 7 Labs had a critical mass of black scien- and statistics, and understanding the tists. type of queuing systems that arise in rather than thinking of it as fulfilling a “We see what happened at Bell modern communication systems requirement, I took physics throughout Labs with Lincoln Hawkins,” Massey requires new mathematics and new my four years.” said. “Imagine what could have hap- analysis,” said Douglas Arnold, direc- Graduating magna cum laude and pened at Princeton or any other tor of the Institute for Mathematics and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in math- research institution for that matter” if its Applications and an organizer of ematics, Massey continued on to grad- someone of Hawkins’ stature had been this year’s Blackwell-Tapia uate school in mathematics at Stanford hired back in the 1940s. Conference at which Massey received University, earning his doctorate in Massey, his protégés say, may well his award. “This is where Bill Massey 1981. While at Stanford, he became become to Princeton what Hawkins has made outstanding contributions.” friends with Erhan Çinlar, who was was to Bell Labs: a fulcrum that tips A much cited paper of Massey’s then at Northwestern University and is the institution into becoming a mecca showed how to create a mathematical now Princeton’s Norman J. for African-American scientists. description of wireless networks in Sollenberger Professor in Engineering. “The more soldiers you have, the which calls are being placed and Çinlar, who delivered the plenary more soldiers you can train,” Jennings received from moving vehicles. In address at the conference in honor of observed. 2005, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Massey, tried to hire Massey right out Massey and his protégés Bertozzi, Education named Massey the second of graduate school, but Massey Jennings, Petters and Hampshire all most frequently cited black mathemati- demurred. Instead he went to Bell received graduate school funding from cian in the world. Massey also has a Labs, then in its heyday as one of the Bell Labs fellowships. Massey served patent on an optimal server staffing nation’s premier research institutions, as a mentor in the Bell Labs fellowship algorithm for call centers that is based and stayed for 20 years. programs for minorities and women, on his research in queuing. the same programs in which he partici- A few days after receiving the Creating a Legacy pated as an undergraduate. He con- Blackwell-Tapia Prize, Massey (along Massey credits his time at Bell ducted joint research with students with Robert Vanderbei) was inducted Labs with not only fostering innovative funded by these programs over the as a fellow of the Institute for research but also creating an environ- summer, publishing seven papers with Operations Research and the ment that allowed minorities to flour- students as co-authors. In addition, he Management Sciences, an honor ish. He first worked there the summer included his students as speakers at accorded to fewer than one percent of after he graduated from Princeton and telecommunications conferences. the institute’s membership and made in felt inspired by the sizable cadre of recognition of significant research con- black scientists. Queuing Up tributions. “Bell Labs of the 1970s, ’80s and Çinlar, who came to Princeton in ’90s was to black scientists what 1985 and served as the founding chair Coming Full Circle Harlem of the 1920s was to black writ- of the Department of Operations In addition to carrying on his ers, artists and musicians,” said Research and Financial Engineering, research from Bell Labs, Massey has Massey. “It was a true renaissance.” continued his efforts to tempt Massey built upon the mentoring efforts he Massey was in the mathematical back into academia for two decades. began there. He has served as a board sciences research center but rubbed Finally, in 2001, Massey relented and member for the National Association elbows with researchers in electrical came to Princeton as a full professor. of Mathematicians, a mathematics engineering and physics and many “One thing I learned from my organization for underrepresented other fields. On a given day, he might experience with Bill Massey is that you minorities, and has hosted its annual have bumped into Jim West, co-inven- have to keep after valuable people,” presentations by doctoral recipients tor of the modern day microphone, and said Çinlar. “You have to pursue them that provide students with an opportu- then the next minute have run into the over quite a long period of time and get nity to showcase their research at a physicist Shirley Jackson, now presi- used to being spurned.” major international conference. dent of Rensselaer Polytechnic At Bell Labs, Massey had begun to “Bill always coupled his mentor- Institute. make his mark in queuing theory by ing with a lot of mathematical dis- “There was no shortage of black analyzing it from a dynamic rather than course,” said Arlie Petters, who moved individuals who were high-achieving a static point of view. At Princeton, he on to MIT after three years of graduate in their respective fields,” said Massey. has continued that research and has work at Princeton and earned his doc- “But they were also dedicated collec- taught courses in queuing theory and toral degree there. “It created an ideal tively to creating a legacy for the next Monte Carlo simulations. setting for addressing a variety of ideas generation.” Queuing theory is a key mathemat- and techniques. I enjoyed those grad Massey said that his mentoring ical tool used to solve many problems school days largely due to his mentor- philosophy grows out of the Bell Labs of providing communications services, ing style.” approach — and out of the notion that from the old-fashioned telephone serv- Massey also has been an active small steps cumulatively will lead to ice to Internet phenomena like Napster participant in the Blackwell-Tapia momentous change. and YouTube. The success of a busi- Conference, held every other year in Bell Labs hired its first African- ness model for a wireless telephone honor of David Blackwell and Richard American scientist, W. Lincoln provider, for example, might hinge on Tapia, two mathematical scientists who Hawkins, in 1942, but it would be 20 how efficient that provider is at apply- inspired many African-American, more years before it hired another ing queuing theory. Hispanic and Native American mathe- African-American researcher. By the “Even simple queuing theory maticians. In receiving the third bienni- time Massey first worked there, Bell involves a lot of complex mathematics Continued on 11

10 The Key Reporter MASSEY Continued from 10 Pamela S. Soltis, Curator, Laboratory Northern New England, 1650-1750 of Molecular Systematics and (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), essays and al Blackwell-Tapia Prize at this year’s Evolutionary Genetics, Florida articles on early American social histo- conference, he follows in the footsteps Museum of Natural History, ry, women’s history; recipient, of Petters, who was the first recipient University of Florida MacArthur fellowship; member, of the prize in 2002. Past president, Society of American Philosophical Society, During the 1980s and ‘90s, Systematic Biologists; president-elect American Academy of Arts and Massey was also a driving force in the and former secretary, Botanical Sciences. „ Association of Black Princeton Alumni Society of America; member of coun- (ABPA). “The reason ABPA is one of cil, Society for the Study of Evolution, the best organized and largest affinity American Genetics Association, groups among Princeton alumni is due American Society of Plant POPULAR CULTURE in part to his legacy,” Jennings said. Taxonomists; associate editor of the Continued from 4 Massey served as moderator of a panel journals Evolution and Systematic ary career by writing the lead piece of discussion about careers in academia at Biology. fiction and posing for the centerfold in Princeton’s recent “Coming Back and that month’s issue of Playboy. Her Looking Forward” conference for Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 300th recent memoir, Sleeping with Bad black alumni. Anniversary University Professor, Boys (Cardoza Publishing, 2006), was One former Princeton student who Harvard University reviewed favorably in The New York attended the Princeton conference Author, The Age of Homespun: Times as a “feminist critique” of her described Massey’s mentoring as a Objects and Stories in the Creation of early life and ambitions. The book kind of “tyrannical affection.” “If Bill an American Myth (Alfred A. Knopf, describes her encounters with the likes takes a liking to you, you are in for a 2001), A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of of Hugh Hefner, James Dean, Norman rigorous friendship,” he said. Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, Mailer, and other luminaries of the Jennings acknowledged that 1785-1812 (Alfred A. Knopf, 1990) New York literary scene in the 1950s. Massey can be tough on his mentees. which won the Pulitzer Prize for histo- (D’Erasmo, Stacey. “Where the Boys “Bill holds himself to a very high stan- ry in 1991 and became the basis of a Were” The New York Times, Sunday dard, and if you are going to do busi- PBS documentary, Good Wives: Image Book Review 19 Nov. 2006: 16.) „ ness with him, you had better hold to and Reality in the Lives of Women in that standard as well. Bill likes to brag that I had never worked hard until I met him. He is a refreshing combination of brilliance, perseverance and concern for others.” But, Jennings emphasized, Massey is in the business of creating peers, not acolytes. “As I mature as a researcher, my appreciation of Bill continues to grow,” said Jennings. “I have always been able to confide my research dreams and aspirations to him. But our relationship has experienced an evolution. Now I have an independent perspective that I hope he benefits from as much as I benefit from his insight. We have come full circle.” „ Theresa Riordan is a senior writer for the Princeton University School of Engineering. This article originally appeared in the Princeton Weekly Bulletin on Oct. 23, 2006, and is reprinted here with permission from Princeton University.

VISITING SCHOLARS Continued from 6 Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (ACLS History E-Book Project, 2001), Museums in the German Art World: From the End of the Old Regime to the Rise of Modernism (Oxford University Press, 2000).

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 11 From Our Book Critics Old Masters and Key Reporter and for her many years By Anna J. Schwartz Young Geniuses: The of service to Phi Beta Kappa. Two Life Cycles of Financial Statecraft: Artistic Creativity. By Rick Eden The Role of Financial David W. Galenson. Markets in American Princeton University Plan B 2.0: Rescuing Foreign Policy. Benn Press, 2006. $29.95 a Planet Under Stress Steil and Robert E. and a Civilization in Litan. Yale University The aim of this book is to deter- Trouble. Second Press, 2006. A mine how and why the quality of Edition. Lester R. Council on Foreign artists’ work varies with age. The Brown. W.W. Norton, Relations-Brookings Institution Book. analysis is based on the theory that 2006. $29.50 $38.00 artists can be distinguished by whether their approach is experimental or con- Plan B 2.0 is a powerful and Multum in parvo (much in little) is ceptual. Both types have been promi- important book that is by turns terrify- an apt description of this book. It nent in every era among the greatest ing and inspiring. affords readers a conspectus on world- artists, whether they were modern art Lester R. Brown believes that we wide financial flows during the past painters, painters of the past, or practi- are headed for environmental disasters quarter century that involved the tioners of other kinds of expressive art. that will lead to the collapse of civi- American government in “harnessing At early ages in their careers, con- lization if we do not shift to an ecolog- financial institutions to achieve certain ceptualist artists have made major ically sustainable model for the global foreign policy objectives.” The authors innovations — in subject matter, com- economy. He argues we need to aban- distinguish financial from economic position, materials and technique — don Plan A: the wasteful economic statecraft. that influenced other artists. Even if model that depends on nonrenewable Economic statecraft, concerned conceptualists continue to innovate energy sources, inefficient sources of with aspects of international trade, is over the course of their careers, the protein (e.g., beef), and disposable traditional. Trade in goods and servic- most important innovations will be the products — all subsidized to hide their es, however, has been outstripped by earliest. Because experimentalists high indirect costs. trade in securities. Financial statecraft require trial and error over long periods Plan B is based on sustainable accordingly, concerned with capital before making influential innovations, environmental practices. Its major ele- flow guarantees and restrictions, is a these tend to occur at later ages in their ments are reliance on nondepletable new phenomenon. Policymakers in careers. energy sources, such as wind and sun- general favor the growth of financial Galenson uses the number of text- light, products that are more energy flows, but at times, for political pur- book illustrations of paintings, or efficient and recyclable, farming prac- poses, they seek to constrain certain experts’ lists of the best work in artistic tices that preserve soil and water, more cross-border capital movements. fields other than painting, to quantify productive crop strains, polyculture The book is in two parts. The first artistic success. He tabulates the results fish farms as major sources of food deals with efforts to fight terrorism, for important artists of each genre and protein, and land and marine preserves. drug trafficking, weapons prolifera- identifies each of them as either an To support his case, Brown docu- tion, and human rights abuses by stop- experimentalist or conceptualist, based ments a perfect storm of inconvenient ping cross-border financial flows on the artist’s own words about his truths. through bank and stock exchange regu- approach and the remarks of other The world has reached the peak of lation. artists. its dependence on fossil fuels. It is run- The second part of the book focus- Galenson notes that he did not ning out of fresh and potable water as es on financial statecraft in dealing originate the distinction between demand has tripled in 50 years and with financial crises, mainly in coun- experimentalists and conceptualists, rivers, lakes and aquifers are depleted. tries that borrow sums denominated in but art historians who have recognized Worldwide, forests are shrinking while a major foreign currency. If investors it rarely go on to associate the distinc- deserts are expanding. Rangelands are come to fear that the country will be tion with the difference in the creative deteriorating through overgrazing. unable to meet its foreign currency life cycles of the two groups of innova- Fisheries are collapsing through over- obligations, foreign capital will take tors. fishing. There is a mass extinction flight, local currency will collapse, and He believes art historians romanti- underway both of plants and animals. financial crisis ensues. The solution the cize artistic enterprise instead of per- Brown outlines how to transition authors offer “is to ditch the national ceiving the parallels among scholarly, from Plan A to B. The outlays required currency entirely and to adopt the dol- artistic and scientific innovations, are surprisingly affordable — for lar or another major currency in its which are often based on identification example, just $10 billion per year to place.” of a previously unrecognized problem stabilize water tables worldwide. The positions on the issues are or recasting a known problem in a Moving quickly to Plan B depends on forcefully argued. This review has cov- novel way. governments effectively steering mar- ered only a few of them. Readers will ket forces. Among the approaches that find observations on the flaws in the Editor’s Note: The two reviews by Brown advocates are shifting taxes, theory of Optimal Currency Areas and Anna J. Schwartz in this issue will be shifting subsidies and eco-labeling the problems of the International her last for us. The Society is grateful (e.g., “green” power). Monetary Fund, among many others, for Dr. Schwartz’s contributions to The all highly relevant.

12 The Key Reporter The book indicates that readers 2003 to the winter of the same year. It (1990), took up the challenge of how to can download Plan B 2.0 free from the shows how the U.S. fueled the coun- depict change over time. The third, Web site of the Earth Policy Institute. terinsurgency in Iraq through a series Visual Explanations (1997), explored of political and military missteps that the use of color and other artistic ele- Fiasco: The American provided the insurgents with the ments. Beautiful Evidence addresses Military Adventure in financing, arms, recruits and popular the integration of graphics and text. Iraq. Thomas E. Ricks. support they needed. The central lesson here is straight- Penguin, 2006. $27.95 Part three, “The Long Term,” cov- forward and familiar: “integrate words, ers the period from the winter of 2003 images and diagrams.” What sets Why does the United through mid-2006. It describes the Tufte’s message apart from the stan- States face the prospect fatal slowness with which U.S. politi- dard pedagogy is his fervor, insight and of losing the war in Iraq cal and military leaders came to inventiveness. To “integrate” he adds when we thought we had won years acknowledge the war in Iraq as a coun- “completely,” and he demonstrates ago after just a few weeks of combat? terinsurgency, a type of war that typi- what he means. He wants words inte- This excellent book is a detailed cally lasts about 10 years, and to adapt grated into graphics as they are on answer to this question by a distin- its goals, strategy, operations and tac- maps: “all serious analytical graphics guished defense journalist. Thomas E. tics accordingly. should be so good” as the best maps. Ricks answers primarily from a mili- Is the U.S. prepared to remain at Conversely, he wants graphics integrat- tary perspective, but he also provides war in Iraq for many more years? ed seamlessly into sentences. He insight into the contributions of Fiasco ends by considering the impli- shows how high-resolution graphical President Bush and his advisors, the cations of alternative courses of action displays permit syntactic use of word- Congress, and fellow journalists. He now open to us, none of them attrac- sized time series that he calls offers compelling accounts of what has tive. sparklines. For historical examples, gone wrong militarily, why it has gone Tufte points to Galileo, Leonardo Da wrong, and who is responsible. Beautiful Evidence. Vinci, Albrect Durer and, more recent- Ricks divides the book into three Edward Tufte. ly, Richard Feynmann as brilliant tech- historical sections. Part one, Graphics Press, nical communicators (among their “Containment,” deals with the period 2006. $52.00 other, more obvious talents) who inte- from 1991 to early 2003. It helps to grated word, number, diagram and explain the flawed assumptions, mis- As fans of Edward image in their notebooks and published calculations, deceptions and naive Tufte know, Beautiful texts. arrogance that led the U.S. to abandon Evidence is the fourth in a series on Despite textbook chapter titles a very cost-effective strategy for con- graphic design from Graphics Press such as “The Fundamental Principles taining Saddam Hussein and to replace that began in 1983 with The Visual of Analytical Design,” Beautiful it with preemptive war that threatens to Display of Quantitative Information. Evidence is best enjoyed as an art become one of America’s longest, most Acknowledged as a masterwork, that book. It reproduces a wide-ranging expensive and least successful. first book, nevertheless, left some basic collection of wonderful graphics that Part two, “Into Iraq,” deals with questions unexplored. The second in we would not ordinarily have occasion the period from the invasion in March the series, Envisioning Information to encounter. Like a docent, Tufte pro-

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 13 vides companionship and guidance to be dozens) of similar objects that are Union. It’s funny that Adrienne Outlaw help us study and enjoy them. It is a larger in size. Should school children was Weintraub’s artist for illustrations pleasure to be in the presence of some- have to make mnemonics to help them in this book. one so deeply fascinated by a topic that memorize, say, 53 planets? Or should is at once omnipresent and arcane. we cut back to the initial letters of “My The Best American Beautiful Evidence teaches us to see very educated mother just sent us noth- Science and Nature the technical graphics that surround us ing?” Writing 2006. Edited with heightened pleasure “as fine art.” David Weintraub, a professor of by Brian Greene. astronomy at Vanderbilt University, Houghton Mifflin, By Jay Pasachoff seizes the opportunity of having the 2006; paper $14.00 world’s attention to teach about the Is Pluto a Planet? A solar system. He describes how our Historical Journey understanding of what we now call the through the Solar solar system has changed over the mil- The Best American System. David A. lennia. The astronomers meeting in Science Writing 2006. Weintraub. Princeton Prague changed Pluto and objects like Edited by Atul University Press, it (round, or almost so, and “clearing Gawande. Harper 2006. $27.95 its neighborhood,” whatever that Perennial, 2006; paper means) to “dwarf planets.” The fight $14.95 People the world over were aston- was essentially over whether the ished when the International answer to the question “Is Pluto a plan- Several magazines Astronomical Union, meeting in et?” should be “Yes, a dwarf planet,” or bring scientific topics to the general Prague in August 2006, changed the “No, but it is a dwarf planet.” public. Scientific American and status of Pluto, known to most since Weintraub introduces us to the dis- Discover are all science, while The 1930 as the ninth planet. The change coveries of planets starting with New Yorker, The New York Times was not a surprise to those in the know, William Herschel’s of Uranus in 1781. Magazine, Wired and The Atlantic since Pluto had long seemed very odd He shows us how some asteroids first Monthly are examples of magazines — a tiny, solid body (only 1/500 were planets and then were demoted. with occasional articles on scientific Earth’s mass) out beyond huge gas In a chapter called “Goldilocks,” he topics, as is the newspaper The New giants and an object in an orbit more defines criteria for planethood and uses York Times. In the yearly Houghton tilted and out of round than any other. moons of the gas giant planets and Mifflin series, the series editor pro- The change was precipitated by the Pluto/Charon as examples. So vides a couple of hundred possibilities discovery of at least one (and soon to Weintraub takes us up to the promised to the guest editor, this year to Brian land but doesn’t take us in. His book Greene, who is well known for his rap- was in press at the time of the epochal turous and lively book, The Elegant Prague meeting, and the publisher Universe (Vintage, 2000), about string chose to go ahead with the book as it theory and cosmology. Greene chose already was without providing an 25 articles for this collection, and he update. So it hit the shelves of book- chose well. The book is a delight to stores (physical and virtual) already read, either in short bits or in lengthy slightly out of date. sittings. So, though Weintraub gives an Topics range from autopsies on excellent and thorough background to mummies to conservation to the scien- how we might define “planet” and tists who conceived of NASA’s whether Pluto is one, the book about Chandra X-ray Observatory. I learned, Pluto’s current status and the “dwarf in an article from a recipient of a planet” category and controversy cochlear implant, that “[w]hile my remains to be written. So far, I’ve done friends’ ears will inevitably decline a pamphlet on the topic, and a variety with age, mine will only get better.” In of astronomical magazines have treat- an exposé of flaws in “intelligent ed it, with at least one refusing to design,” I learned that, given that “the accept the new category. Whether the retina is inside out” with the nerve new status of Pluto will survive fibers on the far side from the brain, remains to be seen. “no intelligent designer would put such In the meantime, a body larger a clumsy arrangement in a camcorder.” than Pluto has been named Eris after I learned that the declining number of the classical Greek goddess of discord. autopsies, among many other things, Its moon has been named Dysnomia, means that “other things [than after the goddess of lawlessness, some- Alzheimer’s], like this multi-infarct thing of an inside joke given that Lucy dementia, can produce the same symp- Lawless played Xena, Warrior Princess toms,” meaning that some people who on television, and Xena was the nick- are left untreated could, in fact, be name given to Eris by its discoverer, helped. Mike Brown of the California Institute In anticipating this year’s start of of Technology, before its official nam- the Large Hadron Collider at the ing by the International Astronomical CERN atom-smasher in Switzerland,

14 The Key Reporter LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Kappa members have taken part. We sciences and the humanities at the Continued from 9 are also the repository for the personal Library of Congress. Many microfilm papers of individuals who played and print materials are available to you This was bad,” begins the lead-in for important roles in the Society’s history. from afar through interlibrary loan. the story, closely juxtaposed to an Among these are papers of Irita Van And millions of documents, maps, illustration of the attractive but pensive Doren — Christian Gauss’ Argos, the broadsides and historic photographs Judy, a black bow in her hair and an inspirer of Tennyson quotations — have been digitized and are accessible enormous Phi Beta Kappa key lurking who was the renowned literary editor to you online via the Library of just behind her, as if in her mind’s eye. of the New York Herald-Tribune in Congress Web site at www.loc.gov. Apparently Judy’s Phi Beta Kappa sta- addition to her stint on the board at The You can find virtual exhibitions on the tus would be a barrier to romance, American Scholar. Web site as well. And don’t be a unless she could find an exceptional The Phi Beta Kappa and American stranger to visiting us in person, either mate. A facing page features a news Scholar collections are also reminders to tour our grand Jefferson Building, clipping with photographs of three to Phi Beta Kappa members every- whose ornate muraled walls pay tribute female students from one locale, all where to evaluate whether they, too, to the ideals of learning and knowledge recently named to Phi Beta Kappa at should be archiving their personal Phi Beta Kappa represents, or to read Barnard, and another clipping with papers. Professors should consider and ponder the wealth of information news of the dismissal of a female pro- leaving a legacy to their university and beauty in our collections. „ fessor from her job at another leading libraries; members of all walks of life women’s college, after she testified in should discuss with family members Barbara Bair, Ph.D., is a historian and opposition to a wire-tapping bill before plans for organizing historical materi- manuscript curator in the Manuscript a Congressional subcommittee. als they may have in their possession. Division of the Library of Congress. Whatever your scholarly interest, I Make arrangements to donate these invite you to think imaginatively items to local historical societies, regarding what the Records of Phi Beta church or synagogue archives, or spe- PASTER Continued from 3 Kappa and the Records of The cial collections at libraries in your 2001). Her newest book is Humoring American Scholar might yield for you. states, cities or towns. If you are an the Body: Emotions and the You can explore the finding aid for the active member in a Phi Beta Kappa Shakespearean (University of Chicago Phi Beta Kappa collection online at chapter or an alumni group, see to it Press, 2004). www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/phibetak.html. that records of its activities are Paster has been a trustee of the The Library of Congress also has over archived. If you are a veteran, or have a Shakespeare Association of America 200 published titles related to Phi Beta veteran in your family or circle of and served as president of that organi- Kappa, as well as sound recordings. friends, consider recording an oral his- zation in 2003. She served two terms as The Manuscript Division is also home tory and submitting it to the Library of a public member of the Folger to closely related collections of docu- Congress’ Veterans History Project. Shakespeare Library committee. She is ments. We hold the records of other Your history matters. And don’t forget, married to Howard Paster, executive professional organizations in the whether you live far from Washington, vice president of WPP Group, plc, and humanities and the sciences, and of D.C., or in its vicinity, to utilize the has two children, Emily and Timothy. other organizations in which Phi Beta great store of scholarly resources in the „

BOOK REVIEWS Continued tion that asked why scientists know only overlap in the 21 pieces is we read what it’s like to test how mass some Shakespeare while those in the Michael Chorost’s “My Bionic Quest becomes attached to elementary parti- humanities are unlikely to know the for Boléro” about the cochlear trans- cles, providing the substance of our second law of thermodynamics. plant; it appeared in Wired (though the world and our universe. (In this and Greene also decries the “myth that the collection doesn’t give the month of its several other stories, one wonders what sciences, especially the hard sciences, 2005 publication for this or any of the the high-quality magazine illustrations are cold and aloof.” Those reading this pieces). The New York Times’ article that are missing from this unillustrated collection will be encouraged toward about Caltech’s Michael Brown and collection might have added in com- his goal of improving the situation “in the object now known as the “dwarf prehension.) My skepticism from when the realm of popular science writing” planet” Eris is another of the pieces. I first saw mummies in Arica, Chile, to “connect the sciences and the One piece, an anthropological story near the Atacama desert is dispelled by humanities.” from Harper’s about which peoples the report of these natural mummies Though clearly two books with first populated America, is allowed to much older and better preserved than different choices can’t each really have far exceed the average length, and the more familiar mummies of Egypt. the “best” science writing, the Harper rightly so. Primatologist Franz de Waal And I read the story of how X-rays Perennial series edited by Atul has a different piece in each book. were found coming from Scorpius X-1 Gawande (who provides the definition in outer space with a Geiger counter on that “the best science writing is science Divine Wind: The a military rocket decades ago when writing that I think is cool”) is a more History and Science NASA (whose scientific interests have recent addition to the yearly collectivi- of Hurricanes. Kerry long been suspect) declined to send ty urge. The yearly set of editors since Emanuel. Oxford such an instrument into space. 2000, also including James Gleick, University Press, I was glad to see Greene cast his Timothy Ferris, Matt Ridley, Oliver 2005. $45.00 choices in terms of C. P. Snow’s still- Sacks, Dava Sobel and Alan Lightman, significant The Two Cultures and the shows the desire of this newer series to A book this mag- Scientific Revolution, a 1959 publica- match the older one in quality. The nificent can only be the result of years

www.pbk.org Spring 2007 15 of both scientific study and the collec- poetry that match the wonderful exam- vers, less respect for the legal profes- tion of á propos materials. Kerry ples that Emanuel has provided for ear- sion, and more lawyer jokes. Did these Emanuel, an MIT professor, truly lier storms. qualify as hate speech, as the president unites the two cultures by bringing sci- From the poetry of Emily of the California Bar Association entific aspects of atmospheric physics Dickinson to Shakespeare’s “The argued in 1993? Did flames of animos- together with relevant artworks, poetry, Tempest” (and the proof that it wasn’t ity need to be fanned? At any rate, fiction and history. Roberta Olson and written by the Earl of Oxford, who Marc Galanter believes that, by the I published something along these lines died before the major hurricane of that 20th century’s end, law and lawyers about comets, her years of collecting time), to a full-page movie poster of had “joined race and sex as one of the artworks providing the base, so I am Dorothy Lamour and others in The great staples of joking in the United particularly respectful of how much Hurricane — “Another Samuel States.” concentrated attention over a lengthy Goldwyn smash hit!” — and an oil by Many of the jokes Galanter quotes period of time is needed to provide the Joseph Mallord William Turner, read- can, with slight modifications, be told basic material for such a book. Further, ers will be enthralled with Emanuel’s about golfers or mothers-in-law. Many, Emanuel’s hurricane book is beautiful- masterpiece. Emanuel’s “not altogether though, turn on specific aspects of the ly produced, in 8.5- x 11-inch trim and implausible” second scenario (of three) lawyer’s trade and testify to roles and illustrated in full color. was for flooding to result from a hurri- prominence more significant than Now that essentially all scientists cane passing over New Orleans, which those of, say, teachers. “How can you agree on the looming crisis of global has come to pass. Let us hope that his tell if a lawyer is lying? His lips are warming, Emanuel’s exceptionally third scenario, with a 25-foot storm moving,” could easily be applied to clear description shows how the green- surge over Manhattan, does not. spouses or politicians (and has). But house effect is joined by effects of con- “litigants are innocent until proven vection and evaporation to explain sur- By Eugen Weber broke” could not. Nor “weather so cold face temperatures. And he shows how that lawyers put their hands in their future hurricanes will be affected by Lowering the Bar: own pockets.” Earth’s global warming. Politics comes Lawyer Jokes and Some jokes reconcile more than into the book at early stages, too, in Legal Culture. Marc one prejudice: “Where do the wicked explaining how the U.S. Weather Galanter. University of go? They practice law a while, then Bureau botched the forecast of the Wisconsin Press, move on to the legislature.” And litiga- 1900 Galveston hurricane through a 2005; paper $26.96 tion fever is contagious. A New Yorker not-invented-here bureaucratic mental- cartoon shows a little girl querying her ity. The devastation of Galveston killed What’s black and mother: “When will I be old enough to perhaps a half-dozen times more peo- brown, and looks good on a lawyer? A start suing people?” Mother does not ple than August 2005’s Hurricane Doberman. What do you need when answer. Katrina and the next month’s three lawyers are up to their necks in Positive responses to the question Hurricane Rita. Unfortunately, this cement? More cement. Justice? How whether most people can be trusted fell book reached stores just before the two much justice can you afford? And so from 58 percent in 1960 to 37 percent major 2005 hurricanes, therefore with- on. in 1994. They may be falling still. Like out being able to provide information Between 1965 and 2000, the pro- the politicians into whom they morph, about the effects of those two major portion of lawyers in our population lawyers are central to life and society: storms. I hope for a second edition tripled, spending on legal services scorned, mistrusted, but appealed to in with such information, including suit- soared and so did their share of the need. Galanter’s tour d’humor could able illustrations as well as Emanuel’s national income. There were more drive you to the bar. Have one on them. own more recent conclusions that hur- lawyers, there was more law and more ricanes are intensifying because of litigation, more propensity to sue, more Our critics select books for review and are global warming. I wonder when and prime-time and paperback sensational- not limited to ΦBK authors. whether Katrina will lead to art and ism, less reticence about legal maneu-

THE KEY REPORTER Periodicals Postage THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY P A I D 1606 New Hampshire Ave. NW at Washington DC Washington, D.C. 20009 and at additional mailing addresses Tel: (202) 265-3808 Fax: (202) 986-1601

16 The Key Reporter