The History of MIT

Readings

Required

[KAI] = Kaiser, David. Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision. MIT Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780262518154.

WEEK #	READINGS
1	Required Readings and Viewings Douglas, Deborah G., and William Barton Rogers. “Introduction.” In Countless Connecting Threads: MIT’s History Revealed Through Its Most Evocative Objects. MIT Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780262525459. [Purchase from the MIT Museum Store] “Persistence of Vision.” Teaching Excellence at MIT. Accessed 8 August 2016. Kevles, Daniel J., Alexander Keyssar, et al. “Optional: “A House Dividing: 1851–1860.” In Inventing America: A History of the United States. Vol. 1. W. W. Norton & Company Incorporation, 2002. ISBN: 9780393974355.
2	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Smith, Merritt Roe. “Godspeed the Institute: The Foundational Years, 1861–1894.” Pearl, Matthew. Chapters 1 and 2 in The Technologists: A Novel. Random House, 2012. ISBN: 9781400066575. Pearl, Matthew. The Lady in the Basement. Additional Readings and Viewings Eliot, Charles. “The New Education.” The Atlantic Monthly, February 1869, 203–20. Rogers, William Barton, et al. “Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” (PDF - 5.8MB) 1864. Senate and House of Representatives of Massachusetts. “Acts and Resolves of the General Court Relating to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” (PDF - 4.2MB) Acts of 1861, Chapter 183. Rogers, Emma Savage. Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers. University of Michigan Library, 1896. (Students may want to focus on the sections related to the founding and early years of MIT) Walker, Francis Amasa. “Massachusetts Institute of Technology Annual Report.” 1894. (Students should read the introductory material carefully and skim other parts) Alexander, Philip N. “William Barton Rogers,” “John Daniel Runkle,” and “Frances Amasa Walker.” In A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT. MIT Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780262015639. Angulo, A. J. “Instituting a New Education” and “Convergence of Interests.” In William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780801890338. Noble, David. Chapter 1 in America By Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780195026184.
3	Required Readings MIT in 150 Objects. There are 150 objects organized into 10 thematic sections. You should skim them all but for your reflection paper, please identify one object from each theme that intrigues you. Shuh, John Hennigar. “50 Ways to look at a Big Mac Box” from “Teaching Yourself to Teach With Objects.” Journal of Education 7, no. 4 (1982): 15.
4	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Mergers and Acquisitions, pp. 51–77. Pritchett, Henry. “Harvard-Technology Alliance.” (PDF - 10.1MB) Bulletin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Report of the President and Treasurer 41, no. 2 (1906): 13–23. Additional Readings and Viewings Alexander, Philip N. “James Mason Crafts” and/or “Henry Smith Pritchett.” In A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT. MIT Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780262015639. Prescott, Samuel C. Chapters 8–11 in When MIT Was Boston Tech: 1861–1916. MIT Press, 1954. ISBN: 9780262160025. Holman, Silas W. 1899. “The Function of the Laboratory.” In Technology Review 1 (January 1899): 13–35. Wendell, George V. “Fraternities and Their Place in Institute Life.” Technology Review 9 (April 1907): 161–168.
5	Required Readings and Viewings Jarzombek, Mark. Designing MIT: Bosworth’s New Tech. Northeastern, 2004, pp. 56–114. Maclaurin, Richard. “The Problem of a New Location.” Bulletin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Report of the President and Treasurer 45, no. 2 (1910): 19–24. Rogers, R. E. “A Record in College Celebrations.” Technology Review 18 (July 1916): 463–466. Excerpts from Chapter 1 in Technology’s War Record. Alumni Committee of MIT, 1920, pp. 1–10 and 53–56. Additional Readings and Viewings “New Technology Plans Announced.” In The Technology Review November 1913. “Some Interesting Comparisons.” In The Technology Review November 1913. “Progress on the New Buildings”.In The Technology Review November 1914: 539–42. “Status of the New Buildings.” (PDF - 3.0MB) Technology Review 17 (November 1915): 559–64. Prescott, Samuel C. “Richard Cockburn Maclaurin - Sixth President,” “The New Technology,” and “The Last Years in Boston.” In When MIT Was Boston Tech: 1861–1916. MIT Press, 1954. ISBN: 9780262160025. Pearson, Henry. “A Site for Technology,” “Concerning ‘Mr. Smith’,” and “The New Buildings.” In R_ichard Cockburn Maclaurin, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1909–1920_. The Macmillan Company, 1937. Alexander, Philip N. “Richard Cockburn Maclaurin.” In A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT. MIT Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780262015639.
6	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Lécuyer, Christophe. “Patrons and a Plan.” 2010. Edwin B. Wilson to Karl T. Compton. Letter, March 14, 1930. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Technology 1934.” Accessed September 19, 2016. Additional Readings and Viewings Noble, David. Chapters 7–9 in America By Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780195026184. [Preview with Google Books] Owens, Larry. “Engineering and the Perfect Cup of Coffee: Samuel Prescott and the Sanitary Vision at MIT.” Technology and Culture 45, no. 4 (2004): 795–807. Hughes, Thomas. Chapter 5 in American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870–1970. University of Chicago Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780226359274. [Preview with Google Books] Servos, John. “The Industrial Relations of Science: Chemical Engineering at MIT, 1900–1939.” Isis 71, no. 4 (1980): 531–49. Zachary, Pascal G. Chapter 4 in Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century. MIT Press, 1999, pp. 61–86. ISBN: 9780262740227. Alexander, Philip N. “Ernest Fox Nichols,” “Samuel Wesley Stratton,” and “Karl Taylor Compton.” In A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT. MIT Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780262015639.
7	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Douglas, Deborah. “MIT and War.” The Tech, Volume 61, Issue 49, Issue 50, and any other two issues through the end of Volume 65, Issue 39. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Victory and Science (1945)).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Additional Readings and Viewings Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “President’s Report Issue, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1944–1945.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin 81, no. 1 (1945): 5–34. (Technology Press) Sections 1, 6, plus one of your choice from Bush, Vannevar. “Science, The Endless Frontier.” United States Government Printing Office. 1945. Buderi, Robert. Chapters 11 and 12 in The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution. Touchstone, 1998. ISBN: 9780684835297. Burchard, John. Chapter 19 in Q.E.D. MIT in World War II. MIT Press, 1948. ISBN: 9780262020015.
8	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] “Elephant on the Charles: Postwar Growing Pains.” Teaching Excellence at MIT. “The Social Beaver (1956)” and “Churchill at MIT: The Midcentury Convocation of 1949 (1999).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Land, Edwin H. “Generation of Greatness: The Idea of a University in an Age of Science.” 9th Annual Arthur Dehon Little Memorial Lecture at MIT, May 22, 1957. Additional Readings and Viewings Hughes, Thomas. “MIT as System Builder: SAGE.” In Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects that Changed the Modern World. Vintage, 2000. ISBN: 9780679739388. “Report of the Committee on Educational Survey.” (PDF - 8.2MB) Report to the Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Technology Press, 1949. Beranek, Leo. “MIT, Teaching, Writing, AT&T, and Traveling.” In Riding the Waves: A Life in Sound, Science, and Industry. MIT Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780262026291. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Making Electrons Count (1950).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Lecuyer, Christophe. “The Making of a Science Based Technological University: Karl Compton, James Killian, and the Reform of MIT, 1930–1957.” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 23, no. 1 (1992): 153–80. Killian, James. “Sputnik and Its Shockwaves” and “To Reassure the Nation.” In Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. MIT Press, 1977, pp. 1–39. ISBN: 9780262110662. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “View from the Road (1958).” Accessed September 19, 2016.
9	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Leslie, Stuart W. “‘Time of Troubles’ for the Special Laboratories.” Teaching Excellence at MIT. “ds=dQ / T and YOU! (1961).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Additional Readings and Videos Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Computer for Apollo (1965),” “The Eye of a Robot: Studies in Machine Vision at MIT (1959),” “Underwater Photography (1964),” and “Automatically Programmed Tools (1959).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Jr. Seamans, Robert C. “The NASA Years.” In Aiming at Targets: The Autobiography of Robert C. Seamans, Jr. University Press of the Pacific, 2004. ISBN: 9781410218315. Waldrop, M. Mitchell. “The Phenomena Surrounding Computers.” In The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution that Made Computing Personal. Penguin Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780142001356. InfiniteHistoryProject MIT. “Marvin Minsky (2008).” Interviewed by John Hockenberry. March 8, 2016. YouTube. Levy, Steven. “Spacewar.” In Hackers: Heros of the Computer Revolution. O’Reilly Media, 2010. ISBN: 9781449388393.
10	Required Readings and Viewings Leacock, Richard. November Actions. Film, 1969.      *Note: The MIT Museum is restoring Leacock’s unfinished documentary November Actions. Students in the class watched a preliminary version of this film, which is in the process of being restored.   The Tech, May 24, 1960. (PDF) The Tech, November 7, 1969. (PDF) Schwartz, Bruce. “Painting MIT Roses: The Public Relations Office.” (PDF) The Tech, November 25, 1969, pp. 4 and 7. Additional Readings and Viewings Johnson, Howard W. “Education in the Midst of Turmoil: The Close of a Presidency.” In Holding the Center: Memoirs of a Life in Higher Education. MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262600446. [Preview with Google Books]
11	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Durant, John. “Refrain from Using the Alphabet.” Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Hypothetical Risk: Cambridge City Council’s Hearings on Recombinant DNA Research (1976).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Leacock, Richard. “Centerbeam.” Accessed September 19, 2016. InfiniteHistoryProject MIT. “Shirley Jackson.” September 19, 2016. YouTube. (Watch from 55:00 to 01:04:02) Additional Readings and Videos Jackson, Shirley A. “Oral History Interview” (p. 220-230); “Oral History Interview” (p. 400-420); and Gregory C. Chisholm, “Oral History Interview” (p. 448-457) in Williams, Clarence G. Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941–1999. MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262232128. Weisner, Jerome B. “Science, Technology, and the Quality of Life.” (1971). Jerry Wiesner: Scientist, Statesman, Humanist: Memories and Memoirs. Edited by Walter A. Rosenblith. MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780262182324. [Preview with Google Books] Turkle, Sherry. “Hackers: Loving the Machine for Itself.” In The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit: Memories and Memoirs. MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262701112. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “MIT Experimental Music Studio (1973).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Bix, Amy Sue. “A Special Case: Women at MIT.” In Girls Coming to Tech! A History of American Engineering Education for Women. MIT Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780262019545. [Preview with Google Books]
12	Required Readings and Viewings [KAI] Bailyn, Lotte. “Putting Gender on the Table.” [KAI] Hopkins, Nancy. “Afterword.” Additional Readings and Viewings Brand, Stewart. “Demo or Die” and “The Room Who Will Giggle.” In The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M. I. T. Penguin Books, 1988. ISBN: 9780140097016. Brooks, Rodney. “Planetary Ambassadors.” Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. Vintage, 2003. ISBN: 9780375725272. Turkle, Sherry. “The View from the 1980s” and “New Ways of Knowing / New Ways of Forgetting.” In Simulation and Its Discontents. MIT Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780262012706. “Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Student Life and Learning.” (1998) “Putting Education First: Final Report of the Student Advisory Committee Task Force on Student Life and Learning.” (1998) Peterson, T. F. “Where the Sun Shines, There Hack They.” In Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT. MIT Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780262515849.
13	Required Readings and Viewings Abelson, Harold, et al. “Questions for the MIT Community.” Report to the President: MIT and the Prosecution of Aaron Swartz. (PDF - 5.0MB) July 26, 2013. Roberts, Edward, and Charles Eesley. “Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT.” 2009. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Common Threads: The Evolving Student Experience at MIT” at “Take Me Back to Tech (1976).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Additional Readings and Viewings Teaching Excellence at MIT. “MIT OpenCourseWare Press Conference (April 4, 2001).” Accessed September 19, 2016. Vest, Charles M. “Disturbing the Educational Universe: Universities in the Digital Age – Dinosaurs or Prometheans?” In Pursuing the Endless Frontier. MIT Press. 2005. ISBN: 9780262220729. Moss, Frank. “I Am a Creator.” In The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives. Crown Business. 2011. ISBN: 9780307589101. Teaching Excellence at MIT. “Outside the Box: Crossing Disciplines at MIT.” Accessed September 19, 2016. Final Report of the Task Force on the Undergraduate Educational Commons (2006). Williams, Rosalind. “The Expansive Disintegration of Engineering.” In Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change. MIT Press. 2002. ISBN: 9780262232234. [Preview with Google Books]
14	Required Readings and Viewings MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP). “Taking Online Education to the Next Level.” October 31, 2014. YouTube. Read the most current issue of MIT News.