Becoming MIT

How did MIT become MIT? The Massachusetts Institute of Technology marks the 150thanniversary of its founding in 2011. Over the years, MIT has lived by its motto, "Mens etManus" ("Mind and Hand"), dedicating itself to the pursuit of knowledge and itsapplication to real-world problems. MIT has produced leading scholars in fields ranging fromaeronautics to economics, invented entire academic disciplines, and transformed ideas intomarket-ready devices. This book examines a series of turning points, crucial decisions that helpeddefine MIT. Many of these issues have relevance today: the moral implications of defense contracts,the optimal balance between government funding and private investment, and the right combination ofbasic science, engineering, and humanistic scholarship in the curriculum.

Chapters describe the educational vison and fund-raising acumen of founderWilliam Barton Rogers (MIT was among the earliest recipients of land grant funding); MIT'srelationship with Harvard--its rival, doppelganger, and, for a brief moment, degree-conferringpartner; the battle between pure science and industrial sponsorship in the early twentieth century;MIT's rapid expansion during World War II because of defense work and military training courses; theconflict between Cold War gadgetry and the humanities; protests over defense contracts at the heightof the Vietnam War; the uproar in the local community over the perceived riskiness of recombinantDNA research; and the measures taken to reverse years of institutionalized discrimination againstwomen scientists.

David Kaiser is Associate Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and a 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 Practices of Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.