Promotional Information

This remarkable volume traces the intellectual, educational, organizational, cultural, and human streams that flowed both naturally and by design to create the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the industrial age came to flower. Its establishment derived not only from the driving visions of men like William Barton Rogers and John D. Runkle, but also from antecedents in European technical education, externalities like the Land Grant Act of 1862, and the conceptual and institutional interplay with Harvard, Rensselaer, and Yale. This book is a treasure for those interested in the history of higher education, those interested in the development of engineering during the industrial age, and those who may wish to contemplate its lessons as our universities navigate the revolutions in biological science and information technology at the start of the 21st century. -- Charles Vest, President, MIT Becoming MIT casts new light on how, through technology, industry, and fundamental science, this institution became the powerhouse it is today. But the book does far more -- it unflinchingly looks at direct confrontation with issues of science and war, science and public policy, and gender inequity in the halls of the Institute itself. A remarkable study of an astonishing university. -- Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in History of Science and Physics, Harvard University Becoming MIT is a gem for anyone interested in American science, technology, history, or higher education. By exploring eight critical moments of institutional decision, this brief but eloquent book chronicles the evolution of MIT and its dynamic, out-of-proportion impact on industry, defense, and higher education. From the machine age to the biotechnology era, the people of MIT have both driven and reflected the challenges and changing nature of American society. -- Charles Vest, MIT President Emeritus

About the Author

David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science, Department Head of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at MIT. He is the author of Drawing Theories Apart- The Dispersion of the Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics, and editor of Pedagogy and the Practice of Science- Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (MIT Press).

Merritt Roe Smith is Cutten Professor of the History of Technology at MIT and the author or editor of six books, most recently Inventing America- A History of the United States.

Bruce Sinclair, formerly Melvin Kranzberg Professor of the History of Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is a Senior Fellow at the Dibner Institute at MIT. He has served as president of the Society for the History of Technology and received its Da Vinci Medal.

Christophe Lecuyer is Professor of the History of Science and Technology at Universite Pierre et Marie Curie and the author of Making Silicon Valley- Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970 (MIT Press, 2005).

Deborah G. Douglas is Curator of Science and Technology at the MIT Museum. She was the curator and project director for the MIT 150 Exhibition.

David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science, Department Head of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at MIT. He is the author of Drawing Theories Apart- The Dispersion of the Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics, and editor of Pedagogy and the Practice of Science- Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (MIT Press).

Reviews

Becoming MIT successfully charts the expansion of voices in MIT's perpetual self-reckoning.
*Technology and Culture*