Kenneth L. Caneva, "Helmholtz and the Conservation of Energy: Contexts of Creation and Reception" (MIT Press, 2021)
In 1847, Herman Helmholtz, arguably the most important German physicist of the nineteenth century, published his formulation of what became known as the conservation of energy--unarguably the most imp...
10 Feb 202242min
R. David Lankes, "The New Librarianship Field Guide" (MIT Press, 2016)
Can libraries be radical positive change agents in their communities? R. David Lenkes offers a guide for librarians who see their profession as a chance to make a positive difference in their communit...
31 Jan 202251min
Midori Yamamura, "Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular" (MIT Press, 2015)
Midori Yamamura’s Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press, 2015) is an in-depth examination of the famed artist’s early years in Japan and the United States. Based on extensive research in Kus...
28 Jan 20221h 1min
Neil Vallelly, "Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness" (MIT Press, 2021)
If maximizing utility leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, as utilitarianism has always proposed, then why is it that as many of us currently maximize our utility--by work...
26 Jan 202256min
Harry Yi-Jui Wu, "Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization" (MIT Press, 2021)
In 1948, the World Health Organization began to prepare its social psychiatry project, which aimed to discover the epidemiology and arrive at a classification of mental disorders. In Mad by the Millio...
14 Jan 20221h 7min
Karl Herrup, "How Not to Study a Disease: The Story of Alzheimer's" (MIT Press, 2021)
For decades, some of our best and brightest medical scientists have dedicated themselves to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. What happened? Where is the cure? The biggest breakthroughs occurred...
3 Jan 202246min
Carol Diehl, "Banksy: Completed" (MIT Press, 2021)
Banksy is the world's most famous living artist, yet no one knows who he is. For more than twenty years, his wryly political and darkly humorous spray paintings have appeared mysteriously on urban wal...
30 Dec 202149min
Omar W. Nasim, "The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History" (MIT Press, 2021)
The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of sources. Nineteenth-century stargazers in particular see...
28 Dec 20211h 2min
