BOOKS
Politics, pregnancy and two new books about Cornell
Why Cornell is a 'world treasure'
A new book shows just how unique Cornell University is among educational institutions.
The book "Cornell University" (Arcadia Publishing), by Richard H. Penner, B.Arch. '69, M.Arch. '72, Cornell professor emeritus of hotel administration, traces the university's history in 128 pages with 200 vintage black-and-white photographs, mostly from the Cornell University Library archives.
Starting with the university's founding, the book not only chronicles the institution's history, but goes on to highlight notable students; student life, including skating, ice hockey, a toboggan slide on Beebe Lake, the "mud" rush, Dragon Day and Slope Day; athletics, including the women's rifle team and the "crew train"; notable faculty; and the campus today.
In a recent reaccreditation report, the university "was referred to by the professors on the visiting team as a 'world treasure,'" Penner begins his book. From its inception, Penner writes, the university was a pace setter for its wide-ranging curriculum and diverse student body that included women, minority and international students.
Penner taught design and development to School of Hotel Administration students for more than 40 years at Cornell and has been deeply involved with the design and operation of campus facilities. The book is part of the publisher's Campus History Series.
Recession in perspective
The "Great Recession" of 2008 and its aftershocks, including the eurozone banking and debt crisis, add up to the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although economic explanations for the recession have proliferated, the political causes and consequences of the crisis have received less systematic attention. "Politics in the New Hard Times: The Great Recession in Comparative Perspective" (Cornell University Press), co-edited by David Lake, M.A. '81, Ph.D. '84, is the first book to focus on the Great Recession as a political crisis, one with both political sources and political consequences.
Lake and co-editor Miles Kahler examine variation in crises over time and across countries, rather than treating these events as undifferentiated shocks. Chapters explore how crisis has forced the redefinition and reinforcement of interests at the level of individual attitudes and in national political coalitions. Throughout, the authors stress that the Great Recession is only the latest in a long history of international economic crises with significant political effects - and that it is unlikely to be the last.
Not expecting this
What happens when Sarah Abadhi, an infertile workaholic New York City attorney with no expectation of marriage or babies, hooks up for five months with a driven pediatric ICU doctor with commitment issues and she inexplicably becomes pregnant? Find out in the new e-novel "Fertility" by Denise Gelberg '72, Ph.D. '93, a former teacher and ILR School visiting fellow. The characters part company, but the unexpected pregnancy drives them to cultivate the barren landscapes of their interior lives.
Inspiring campus imagery
The Cornell Store has announced the May release of "Cornell: Tradition, Inspiration and Vision," a new book of Cornell photographs by Alan Nyiri. Over the past two years, Nyiri, whose photographs were featured in the 1999 book "Images of Cornell," has visited campus to capture images of Cornell's beautiful landscapes and architecture in every season. As the title implies, the imagery focuses on the vision of the founders, the inspiration Cornell's unique approach to education engenders, and the traditions Cornellians cherish.
"Cornell: Tradition, Inspiration and Vision" will be available in hardcover and softcover editions.