ELECTING THE PRESIDENT, 2008: The Insiders’ View Edited by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, faculty (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009; $24.95.) Shortly after the 2008 presidential election, Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, assembled an all-star cast of consultants and other campaign leaders from the Republican and Democratic sides. Their remarkable discussion, chronicled in the March|April 2009 Gazette, details what went right—and wrong—for both sides. BUY THIS BOOK
LOUIS I. KAHN’S JEWISH ARCHITECTURE: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue By Susan G. Solomon G’69 GFA’87 Gr’97 (Brandeis University Press, 2009; $45.) After World War II, the American synagogue went through a transformation, initiated in part by the visionary architect Louis I. Kahn Ar’24 Hon’71. Originally hired to redesign Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel, Kahn found his effort doomed by a lack of financial support. Solomon, who heads her own research firm, explains how Kahn’s innovative designs provided a scope for the radical changes to the American synagogue. BUY THIS BOOK
TOWN BORN: The Political Economy of New England from Its Founding to the Revolution By Barry Levy Gr’76 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009; $45.) Colonial New England’s distinctive and relatively egalitarian order was the result of its innovative system of governance, which placed nearly all land under the control of self-governing town meetings. Levy, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, shows how these town meetings were used to organize, force, and reconcile laborers, families, and entrepreneurs into profitable export economies—and how they protected the value of local labor by excluding outsiders. BUY THIS BOOK
THE SHADOWS OF YOUTH: The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generation By Andrew B. Lewis C’89 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009; $28.) Moving away from the traditional heroes of the civil-rights movement, Lewis examines the movement’s success by focusing on the young activists in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, such as Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, John Lewis, Marion Barry, Bob Moses, Diane Nash, and Bob Zellner. Lewis, who teaches history at Wesleyan University, shows the profound impact the youth of that generation had on changing America’s approach to race. BUY THIS BOOK
WORLD CLASS IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs By Peter A. High C’96 (Jossey-Bass, 2009; $38.00.) Although technology encompasses much of our daily lives, many companies have not taken advantage of the technological advances as a “strategic weapon.” High, founder and president of Metis Strategy, reveals five principles that executives should use in order to perform at an optimum level. BUY THIS BOOK
FIRE YOUR THERAPIST: Why Therapy Might Not Be Working for You and What You Can Do about It By Joe Siegler C’79 (Wiley, 2009; $15.95.) Siegler, the president and founder of the Full Life Center, proposes a new, holistic approach to moving past life’s roadblocks and achieving goals through an original, results-oriented method. BUY THIS BOOK
HISTORIC WALKING GUIDES: Madrid By Beebe Bahrami Gr’95 (DestinWorld Publishing, 2009; $12.99.) Bahrami, a cultural anthropologist and frequent Gazette contributor, provides multiple walking tours through Madrid, the heart of Spanish history and tradition. Clear maps, established times and distances, museum guides, restaurant and bar suggestions, and Bahrami’s personal guidance (including stories about the city’s artists and writers) provide entertaining material for numerous themed walks. BUY THIS BOOK
