Bookshelf
Bookshelf Archive 2011
Faculty books and productions from 2011.
Philip N. Alexander
A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT
MIT Press, 2011
Philip N. Alexander is Research Associate in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies.
Poor Economics:
A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Public Affairs, 2011
What really works in alleviating poverty?
For more than fifteen years Abhijit V. Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, and Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, have worked in dozens of countries spanning five continents, trying to understand the specific problems that come with poverty and to find proven solutions. Through a careful analysis of a very rich body of evidence, including the hundreds of randomized control trials that Banerjee and Duflo’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) has pioneered, they show why the poor, despite having the same desires and abilities as anyone else, end up with entirely different lives.
Poor Economics argues that so much of anti-poverty policy has failed over the years because of an inadequate understanding of poverty. The battle against poverty can be won, they argue, but it will take patience, careful thinking, and a willingness to learn from evidence. The work of Banerjee and Duflo offers transformative potential for poor people anywhere, and this volume is a vital guide to policy makers, philanthropists, activists, and anyone else who cares about building a world without poverty.
“A marvellously insightful book by two outstanding researchers on the real nature of poverty.”
—Amartya Sen, Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics
“This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about world poverty. It has been years since I read a book that taught me so much. Poor Economics represents the best that economics has to offer.”
—Steven D. Levitt, William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and author of Freakonomics
Edward C. Barrett
Down New Utrecht Avenue
Press Wafer, 2011
Edward Barrett is Senior Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies.
Andrea Louise Campbell and Kimberly J. Morgan
The Delegated Welfare State: Medicare, Markets, and the Governance of Social Policy
Oxford University Press, 2011
Andrea Louise Campbell is Associate Professor of Political Science.
Howard Eiland
Editor, Early Writings (1910-1917) Walter Benjamin
Belknap Press, Harvard U.P., 2011
Howard Eiland is Lecturer in Literature.
Jonathan Gruber
Illustrated by Nathan Schreiber
Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works
Hill and Wang, 2011
Jonathan Gruber is Professor of Economics.
Jeanne Guillemin
American Anthrax: Fear, Crime, and the
Investigation of the Nation's Deadliest Bioterror Attack
Macmillan, 2011
Jeanne Guillemin is Research Affiliate in the Center for International Studies.
Laura Harrington
Alice Bliss
Penguin, 2011
Laura Harrington is Lecturer of Theater Arts.
Frederick Harris Jr.
Seeking the Infinite: The Musical Life of Stanisław Skrowaczewski
createspace, 2011
Review in Bruckner Journal
Frederick Harris Jr. is Director of the MIT Wind and Festival Jazz ensembles and Lecturer in Music.
Mark Harvey
The Golden West
Film Score and Performance
National Film Preservation Foundation, 2011
Mark Harvey is Lecturer in Music.
Gretchen Henderson
On Marvellous Things Heard
Green Lantern Press, 2011
Derived in form from Aristotle’s “Minor Work” of the same title, this variation of ON MARVELLOUS THINGS HEARD explores a range of literary appropriations of music, in terms of translation and metamorphosis.
Gretchen E. Henderson is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities
Gretchen Henderson
Galerie de Difformité
Lake Forest College Press Publications, 2011
With the head of a novel and the body of a poem, this extraordinary work interrogates the nuanced concepts of ability/disability, voyeurism/exhibition, deformity/normality—all with a wry sense of self-representational humor.
Gretchen E. Henderson is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities
Graham M. Jones
Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician's Craft
University of California Press, 2011
Graham M. Jones is Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
David Kaiser
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
W. W. Norton, 2011
David Kaiser is Professor of Science, Technology, and Society.
Arthur Kaledin
Tocqueville and His America: A Darker Horizon
Yale University Press, 2011
Arthur Kaledin is Professor of History Emeritus.
Samuel Jay Keyser
Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows
The MIT Press, 2011
Samuel Jay Keyser is Professor Emeritus in Linguistics, and continues to serve the Institute as Special Assistant to the Chancellor.
Ina Lipkowitz
Words to Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language
St. Martin's Press, 2011
Ina Lipkowitz is Lecturer in Literature.
Keeril Makan
Target
Starkland, 2011
Keeril Makan is Lister Brothers Career Development Associate Professor of Music.
Martin M. Marks
Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938, DVD set
National Film Preservation Foundation, 2011
Martin M. Marks is Senior Lecturer in Music.
Roger D. Petersen
Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict
Cambridge University Press, 2011
Roger D. Petersen is Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science.
Shankar Raman
Renaissance Literature and Postcolonial Studies
Edinburgh University Press, 2011
Shankar Raman is Associate Professor of Literature.
Irving Singer
Modes of Creativity
MIT Press, 2011
Irving Singer is Professor of Philosophy.
Abha Sur
Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India
South Asia Books, 2011
Abha Sur is Lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies.
Stephen Tapscott
Editor and Translator, Poems, by Georg Trakl
Field Poetry series, 2011
Stephen Tapscott is Professor of Literature.
John Tirman
The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars
Oxford University Press, 2011
John Tirman is Principal Research Scientist and Executive Director of the Center for International Studies.
Robert Townsend
Financial Systems in Developing Economies
Oxford University Press, 2011
Robert Townsend is Elizabeth & James Killian Professor of Economics.
Edward Baron Turk
French Theatre Today: The View from New York, Paris, and Avignon
University of Iowa Press, 2011
Edward Baron Turk is John E. Burchard Professor of the Humanities and Professor of French and Film Studies.
Sherry Turkle
Alone Together
Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Basic Books, 2011
Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology.
2010